Area of Interest:

Bioarchaeology, classical archaeology, palaeopathology, stable isotope analysis, diet and nutrition, migration and transnationalism

Education:

BA in Latin and Classical Archaeology, UVa 1999
MA in Anthropology, ECU 2002
MA in Classical Archaeology, UNC-CH 2005

Professional Background:

Courses Taught:  ANTH 414 – Human Osteology (UNC); ANTH 416 – Bioarchaeology (UNC); ANT 229 – Intro to Forensic Anthropology (SUNY Cortland); ANT 220 – Cultural Anthropology (DTCC); ANT 210 – General Anthropology (DTCC)

Research & Activities:

Although my master’s research covered biodistance analysis using nonmetric cranial traits from Native Americans on the North Carolina Coastal Plain, my dissertation deals with issues of urbanism and urban development in Imperial Rome.  Primarily using stable isotope analysis (C, N, and Sr) of dental enamel and femoral bone, I am investigating the role of lower-class migrants who settled in the imperial capital and how their lives differed from individuals born and raised in Rome.  This research is supported externally by grants from NSF and Wenner-Gren.  An abstract follows. 

Scholarship on ancient cities lacks a comprehensive approach to understanding the experience of non-elite groups living in an urban environment. Skeletal remains from cemeteries dating to the Roman Imperial period (31BC - 324AD) hold the potential to change our perception of life in the city of Rome and contribute to anthropological discussions of worldwide urban development. By correlating demographic variability with environmental, economic, and social stressors, this project will challenge current thinking about how the urban environment affected lower-class inhabitants of Rome. Environmental stress is directly examined through palaeopathological analysis, economic stress is investigated through dietary choice as revealed by stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses, and social stress is investigated through heterogeneity of the Roman population as revealed by strontium isotope analysis. Through a combination of human skeletal remains, ancient texts, and material culture, this project will investigate biological and cultural factors of urban development that affect four subaltern groups: the lower class, women, children, and immigrants.

Selected Publications:

For a CV, including publications and conference presentations, see below links: