Graduate Students

Rodrigo Areche

Rodrigo´s research interests focus on the political economies of prehispanic coastal groups that were under the control of imperialist regimes in the Andes.  He is interested in studying storage systems and accounting practices at multiple scales. Rodrigo has directed and collaborated on archaeological research and public outreach initiatives throughout the Central and South Coast of Peru. 

Degree and Education  

Bachelor - Archaeology - Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (2012) 

Licentiate - Archaeology - Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (2017) 

Lennon Zhang

Dreamed to be a marine biologist but discovered the closest thing is anthropology, Lennon Zhang traverses different research areas and topics. In the present moment, he is interested in multispecies anthropology, infrastructure studies, and the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) in Latin America. Question on how different infrastructures build by different life forms (including humans) come to be conflictual or constitutive with each other’s, he is interested in synchronizing politics and ecologies in the Anthropocene. A classical vitalist by heart and a generalist in spirit, he enjoys projects like situating science fiction as extension of human life and politics, investigating sexual and cannibalistic interactions of sea slugs Hermissenda crassicornis and Hermissenda opalescens, or figuring out transcendental imagery of animals and nature (project TINA) in Lincoln Park Zoo.

Publications

2022, The Politics of Truth in China: Ontological-Ethical Dimensions of Science and Science Fiction, Issues in Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy. Online access: https://jsfphil.org/volume-5-2022/zhang-the-politics-of-truth-in-china/

Degrees and Education

MA, Sociocultural Anthropology, Master of Art in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (MAPSS), The University of Chicago (2019)
BS, Biological Sciences, College of Biological Sciences, University of California at Davis (2018)
 

Awards

Chancellor's Graduate Fellowship in China and Chinese Studies, University of Pittsburgh (2022-2023)
University Scholarship, University of Chicago (2018-2019)

Anthropology Departmental Citation, University of California at Davis (2018)

Research Presenter at Undergraduate Research Conference, University of California, Davis (2018)

Research Description

Science and Technology Studies, Infrastructure Studies, Vitality, Multispecies, Charisma and Power, the Anthropocene, Anthropology and Philosophy, China & Latin America.

Emily Eklund

Emily Eklund’s research is focused on the Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Asia. She is interested in studying the networks created by mobile peoples, within their communities and between their communities and the landscape surrounding them through the use of social network analysis, monumentality, and landscape archaeology. Emily has had the opportunity to not only work on several projects in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia, but she has also been working professionally as an archaeologist in cultural resource management for five years throughout the Midwest and Northeast United States.    

Degrees and Education

MA - Anthropology - University of Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo (2019)
BA - Archaeology & German - University of Wisconsin La Crosse, La Crosse (2015)

Mesfer Alqahtani

Mesfer Alqahtani is PhD student in Archaeology, and his research interests focus on the archaeology of Prehistoric Arabia.

His main research interest is to investigate the early complex societies of the Arabian Peninsula: the cultural developments, which happened through the end of the Neolithic causing the emergence of settlements (small villages around big wades and basins) during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze periods.

Publications

Luciani, Marta., Alqahtani, Mesfer., Alsulaimi, Milk., and Abualhassan, Abdurahaman. The long history of Qurayyah's Plateau: Epigraphy, Rock Art and Archaeology. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. (In review)

Stewart, Mathew., Andrieux, Eric., Clark-Wilson, Richard., Vanwezer, Nils., Blinkhorn, James., Armitage, Simon J., Al Omari, Abdulaziz., Zahrani, Badr., Alqahtani, Mesfer., Al-Shanti, Mahmoud., Zalmout, Iyad,. Al-Mufarreh, Yahya., Alsharekh, Abdullah., Boivin, Nicole., Petraglia, Michael., 2021. Taphonomy of an excavated striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) den in Arabia: implications for paleoecology and prehistory Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 13:139.

Alqahtani, Mesfer and Alsulaimi, Milk. "نتائج مسح النقوش والرسوم الصخرية بهضبة قرية" [Epigraphic and Petroglyphs Survey of Qurayyah's Plateau Report]. the Journal of Saudi Arabian Archaeology (under print).

Degrees and Education

2021 Starting PhD in Archaeology (Department of Anthropology) – University of Pittsburgh.
2018 MA, Applied Archaeology (Department of Anthropology) – Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Thesis Title: Geospatial Probability Modeling of Stone Structures in Northern Saudi Arabia.
2015 Program of Intensive Instruction in English as a Second Language, University of Oregon.
2012 BA, Archaeology (Department of Archaeology) – King Saud University.

Awards

2021 Archaeological Research Grant from Heritage Commission - Saudi Ministry of Culture.
2020-2021 Graduate Fellowship in the Center for Comparative Archaeology at Department of Anthropology - University of Pittsburgh.
2018 Dean’s Award for Excellence in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences – Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Jordan Bowser

Jordan Bowser is a masters student with a background in history, sociology, and Native American studies. Her personal interests are in bioarchaeology, osteoarchaeology, and mortuary practices with an emphasis on how bone chemistry and isotope analysis can assist in explaining human migrations.

Degrees and Education

BA, Minot State University, Minot, ND 2016

Aspen Greaves

Aspen Greaves is an archaeology student interested in the Eurasian steppes. She is still exploring research topics but is interested in studying women and their unique experiences in the past. 

Degrees and Education

BA, Brigham Young University, Provo, 2020

Ana Marrugo

My interests lie at the intersection of anthropology of the state, legal anthropology, transitions and decolonial feminism. Collaboration with human rights advocacy groups led me to my previous research, which focused on the workings of the Truth Commission in Colombia and its implications for the politics of feminism in the country. I expect to build on this project through solidarity and engaged anthropology.

Degrees and Education

M.A Public Anthropology, American University (2019)
B.A Anthropology, Universidad de los Andes (2014)

Awards

Latin American Social and Public Policy Fellowship (2020)

Gretchen Zoeller

Gretchen Zoeller is a biological anthropology student whose research focuses on the Nile River Valley populations in Africa, particularly, ancient Nubia at site of Nuri, North Sudan. Nestled within rich cultural and archaeological contexts, Gretchen’s special interests in bioarchaeology, mortuary practices, and paleopathology are being implemented to explore the site’s archaeological remains and reconstruct its deep history of human occupation. 

Degrees and Education

MA, Indiana University- Purdue University, Indianapolis, 2020
BA, Indiana University, Bloomington, 2014