Recent Alumni

Amanda Suarez Calderon

Amanda is interested in the emergence of social complexity in pre-Columbian Southern Costa Rica, and particularly in the role of warfare in that process. In a region where lines of evidence typically used in the archaeological study of warfare (skeletal remains and fortifications) are not feasible to investigate due to preservation issues, but the ethnohistoric record, with detailed descriptions of intense warfare during the Contact period (Sixteenth century), and the artistic representations of trophy heads, warriors and captives in stone sculptures and ceramics, indicate that warfare was a relevant issue in the past, Amanda’s research proposes innovative ways of evaluating the intensity of warfare through the analysis of settlement patterns.

Degrees and Education

BA – Anthropology - University of Costa Rica (2014)

Awards

2009 Best Admission Score, University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
2015-2018 Heinz Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
2017 Tinker Grant for field research, Centre for Latin American Studies, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
2016 Summer Travel Grant, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Research

 

 

 

Alicia Grosso

Alicia Grosso studies the effects of age on the formation and propagation of skeletal fractures under slow and fast-load injury mechanisms. Her research is a fusion of museum-based data collection and lab-based experimental design using animal models. Her previous research examined the accuracy of saw mark analysis in bone by examining how measured features (such as the tooth hop, reflecting teeth-per-inch of a saw) may vary based on the tooth type (rip or crosscut). This research emphasized the need for error rates when presenting quantifiable traits (like estimated teeth-per-inch) in the courtroom to increase our confidence in tool class (and potentially individual) identification. While at Mercyhurst, Alicia had the opportunity to work on approximately 50 forensic anthropology cases and continues to pursue forensic research.

Degrees and Education

MS—Forensic and Biological Anthropology—Mercyhurst University (2013)
BS — Applied Forensic Sciences — Forensic Anthropology and Criminalistics/Forensic Biology — Mercyhurst College (2011)

Alejandra Sejas Portillo

Alejandra’s research focuses on local leadership strategies, inequality and centralization degrees among pre-Columbian societies located on the basin of the Uyuni Salt Lake in the Bolivian South Central Andes. Her previous work includes a research on the changes in local interaction networks during Inka times in this region, and production changes in local ceramic traditions also during the Inka time. She has also participated in several archaeological projects in Tiawanaku, the circumtiticaca region, and Oruro in Bolivia and in the Northern region of Chile, focusing mainly on the expansive strategies of the Inka Empire and its impact in local population.

Degrees and Education

2009 Titulo profesional en Arqueologia, Universidad de Chile
2004 Licenciatura en Antropologia, mencion Arqueologia, Universidad de Chile

Darius Bittle-Dockery

Darius has recently successfully earned the degrees of Ph.D. and M.P.H. in Medical Anthropology and Behavioral & Community Health Sciences, respectively. Incorporating interdisciplinary methods, including social network analysis and ethnographic observation, his research investigates the intersection between infrastructural communication technologies, information networks, and the experience of chronic disease within the lives of Syrian refugees in Jordan. His other academic interests reside within the subjects of human ecology, economies of surveillance, and science and technology studies.

Outside of academia, Darius has pursued collaborative opportunities with multiple local and international health organizations. Throughout his time as a graduate student, Darius has worked on a variety of projects ranging from improving community-health programs with UPMC in Pittsburgh to standardizing coordination practices with the International Medical Corps in the Azraq Syrian Refugee Camp.

Through his dissertation research and continued collaboration with health organizations, Darius aims to identify areas of intervention that can help address and ameliorate social determinants of health in the lives of refugees and other groups marginalized by social, political, or health inequities.

 

Degrees and Education

Tufts University - Medford, MA | Sep. 2006 – May 2010
BA in Anthropology with a minor in Philosophy

Awards

Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Research Fellowship (2019-2020)
David L. Boren Fellowship (2018-2019)
Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellow (2016-2017)
Awarded Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellow (2016-17) (Declined)
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Diversity Fellow (Summer 2016)
Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellow (2015-16)
Fred C. Bruhns Memorial Award Winner (Summer 2015)
K. Leroy Irvis Fellow (2014-15)
University of Pittsburgh Graduate Expo Outstanding Presenter Award (2015)

Deborah Neidich

Deborah Neidich studies the bioarchaeology of Bavaria, Germany.  Her current research uses a combination of biochemical, archaeological, and paleopathological methods to study the relationship between migration and identity building during the Migration Period (ca. 375/376-700 CE).

Degrees and Education

BA - Anthropology - Illinois State University (2012)
MS - Archaeology - Illinois State University (2014)

Allison Gremba

Allison Gremba is a doctoral student in Biological Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh. She started the program in 2012, after taking a break after receiving her Master of Science in Forensic Science and Law in 2008. During those four years, Allison was a research technician at an Ear, Nose and Throat research lab. This research provided a well-rounded clinical background in middle ear anatomy, and disease etiology and pathogenesis, which laid the foundation for her dissertation research. Allison’s dissertation research hypothesizes that there is a direct relationship between middle ear disease prevalence, defined by mastoid process hypopneumatization, and an increase in environmental stress over time, to establish mastoid process hypopneumatization as an osseous developmental stress marker. Her research question developed out of a drive to understand how the environment can affect disease processes, how it is reflected within the body, and what it can tell us about past populations.

Degrees and Education

MS - Forensic Science and Law - Duquesne University, Pittsburgh (2008)
BS – Biology - Duquesne University, Pittsburgh (2007)

Lauren Krishnamurti

I am a social and cultural anthropologist with interests in medical and psychological anthropology. I am specifically interested in the phenomenology of self-death, the biopolitics of suicide prevention, and the entanglement of both these things within the U.S. mental health care system. My dissertation research focuses on suicide and prevention efforts in Oahu, Hawaii. Among other things, my project examines how public health institutions shape knowledge on suicide and how that knowledge is (re)produced and lived within communities considered to be “at risk.” Prior to beginning my PhD, I worked for five years as a data analyst for mental health researchers at UPMC.

 

Degrees and Education

MA, Carnegie Mellon University
BA, Chatham College