Recent Graduates

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2023

MA – Jim Elghammer

Thesis title – TBA

Advisors – Dr. Rob Walker and Dr. Greg Blomquist

 

MA - Christina Holzhauser

Thesis title - "Righting Tibial Retroversion: A Functional and Ontogenetic Analysis"

Advisor - Dr. Libby Cowgill

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2022

PhD – Elizabeth Cho

Thesis title – “The Influence of Climate and Population Structure of East Asian Skeletal Morphological Variation

Advisor – Dr. Libby Cowgill

 

MA - Blane Burgess

Thesis title - TBA

Advisor - Dr. Jeff Ferguson

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2021

PhD – Kyle Clark

Thesis title – “The Influence of Ancestors: Kinship and Cooperation in Iban Ancestor Worship

Advisors – Dr. Todd VanPool and Dr. Rob Walker

 

PhD – Colleen Young

Thesis title – “Body size and shape in insular environments and applications of the island rule in biological anthropology

Advisor – Dr. Libby Cowgill

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2020

PhD – Jessica Fields

Thesis title – “Birth order and gender: differential parental investment in medieval England and France in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries”

Advisors – Dr. Lisa Sattenspiel and Dr. Mary Shenk

 

PhD – Monica Keith

Thesis title – “Genetic variation and health in a rural Caribbean village”

Advisor – Dr. Greg Blomquist

 

MA – C. Hunter McConnell

Thesis title – “Archaeoastronomy of the Moundville Rattlesnake Disk”

Advisor – Dr. Todd VanPool

 

MA – Jonathan Schaefer

Thesis title – “Obsidian procurement in the Gallinas Mountains of West Central New Mexico”

Advisor – Dr. Jeffrey Ferguson

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2019

PhD – James Bain

Thesis title - “Computational Linguistic using Social Media to understand Immigrant Sentiment in the United States”

Advisor – Dr. Robert Walker and Dr. Mark Flinn.

 

PhD – Jeffery Alvey

Thesis title - “Paleo Demographic Modeling in the Lower Mississippi River Valley.

Advisor – Dr. Michael Obrien and Karthik Panchanathan

 

PhD – Sangkwon Woo         

Thesis title - “Traditional Postpartum Care: Alloparenting from an Evolutionary Perspective”

Advisor – Dr. Mark Finn and Robert Walker

 

MA – Megan Murray

Journal Article title - “Modeling social connectivity and the spread of the 1918-19 flu through Inupiat and Yup’ik communities of Western Alaska.

Advisor – Dr. Lisa Sattenspiel

 

 

MA – Gwendolyn Martin-Apostolatos

Thesis title – “The high cost of living: death and social identity of Missouri’s historic Columbia Cemetery”

Advisor – Dr. Todd VanPool

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2018

PhD – Mark Beary

Thesis title - “Fluctuating Asymmetry as a Measure of Developmental Instability in Arikara Bioarchaeological Assemblages”

Advisor – Dr. R Lee Lyman and Dr. Todd Vanpool.

 

PhD – Heather Gibb

Thesis title - “Applied Paleozoology and Biogeography: Four Case Studies from Missouri”

Advisor – Dr. R Lee Lyman and Dr. Todd Vanpool

 

PhD – Erin Miller

Thesis title - “Childhood Epidemics and the Demographic Landscape of the Aland Archipelago”

Advisor – Dr. Lisa Sattenspiel

 

PhD – Rachel Munds

Thesis title – “Detecting subtle variation in two cryptic primate families (Tarsiidae and Lorisidae) through morphology and genetics”

Advisor – Dr. Greg Blomquist

 

PhD – Candance Sall

Thesis title - “Chemical Compositional Analysis of Polychrome Pottery in the Northern casas Grandes Area (A.D.1200-1450)”

Advisor – Dr. Todd Vanpool

 

PhD – Amy Warren

Thesis title - “Simulating Prehistoric Population Dynamics and Adaptive Behavioral Responses to the Environment in Long House Valley and Black Mesa, Arizona”

Advisor – Dr. Lisa Sattenspiel

 

MA – Andrew Krug

Journal Article title - “Pilgrimages Through the Desert: Isotopic Provenance of 76 Draw (LA 156980) Marine Shell Artifacts”.

Advisor – Dr. Todd Vanpool.

 

MA – Colleen Young

Project Title – “NSF GROW Grant: Investigation of human skeletal remains of prehistoric Baja California Peninsula and inferences for modeling island evolution on mainland”

Advisor – Dr. Libby Cowgill

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2017

PhD - Stephanie Child.

Thesis title - “Femoral Angles and their Correlates”

Advisor – Dr. Libby Cowgill

 

PhD – Daniel Pierce

Thesis title - “Obsidian Source Distribution and Mercantile Hierarchies in the Post Classic Aztatlan, West Mexico”

Advisor – Dr. Todd VanPool

 

PhD – A. Kate Trusler

Thesis title - “Evaluating Socio-economic status using Food Utility Indices in the Historical faunal Assemblages”

Advisor – Dr. R. Lee Lyman & Dr. Todd VanPool

PhD – Kyle Waller

Thesis title - “Bioarcheological Analyses of Paleodemograghy and Violence at Paquimé, Chihuahua, Mexico”

Advisor – Dr. Todd VanPool

 

MA – Aaron Z. Johnson

Thesis title - “The Prevalence of Extra Lethal Violence across Cultures in Warfare”

Advisor – Dr. Robert Walker

 

MA – Kenneth Kircher

Thesis title - “Queen Anne’s Revenge: A Systems Analysis of Blackbeard’s Flagship”

Advisor – Dr. Todd VanPool.

 

MA – Heidi Noneman

Thesis title - “A Geochemical Look at the Obsidian Procurement and Exchange in the Medio period World: A case Study 76 Draw (LA 156980)”

Advisor – Dr. Christine VanPool

 

MA – Heather A. Saxon

Thesis title - “Mindfulness for Homeless Adolescents: A Comparative Intervention to Evaluate Stress, Trauma and Health Outcomes across Sociocultural Psychosocial and Neurobiological Axes.”

Advisor -

 

MA – Taylor Paskoff

Journal Article title - “Sex- and age-based differences in mortality during the 1918 influenza pandemic on the island of Newfoundland”.

Advisor – Dr. Lisa Sattenspiel

 

MA – Thomas Jaskowicz

Journal Article title - “No stone unturned: The Presence of Kidney Stones in a skeleton from 19th Century Peoria, Illinois”.

Advisor – Dr. Mark Flinn

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2016

PhD - Katherine Starkweather

Thesis title - “Merchant Mothers and Fishermen Fathers: Parental Investment and Subsistence Work Among the Boat-dwelling Shodagor of Rural Bangladesh”

Advisor – Dr. Mary Shenk.

 

PhD—Gretchen Perry

Thesis Title- “Alloparental Care in Two Societies: Who Helps and in What Circumstances?”

Advisor - Karthik Panchanathan.

 

MA—Vincent Warner

Thesis Title - “Using Relative Dating and Seriation to Identify Trends in North- eastern Missouri Late Woodland Period Pottery”

Advisor – Dr. Michael O’Brien.

 

MA—Marilyne Tamayo

Thesis Title - “Labor strategies and Reproductive Decision-making in Rural Yucatecan Families”

Advisor – Dr. Mary Shenk

 

MA—John Robert Topi

Thesis Title - “A Geometric Morphometric Approach to Casas Grandes Ceramic Specialization”

Advisor- Dr. Todd VanPool

 

MA—Dana Schmidt

Thesis Title - “The Epidemiologic Transition in a Developing Nation: Lessons from Early 20th Century Newfoundland”

Advisor – Dr. Lisa Sattenspiel

 

MA—Jeremy Rowles

“Thesis Title - Property and Knowledge Inheritance in 19th Century Scania, Sweden”

Advisor – Dr. Craig Palmer

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2015

MA—Heather Craig

Thesis Title- “Cut Mark Pattern Differentiation Between the Lower Paleo- lithic and the Holocene and its Implications”

Advisor – Dr. R. Lee Lyman

 

MA—Joseph DeAngelis

Thesis Title- “An Analysis of Mammalian Taxonomic Diversity and Composition of Early Paleoindian Zooarchaeological Assemblages in the United States”

Advisor – Dr. R. Lee Lyman

 

MA—Abby Swaim

Thesis Title “Documentation of Missouri White-tailed Deer Chronoclines: Implications for Archaeology, Paleoecology, and Conservation Biology”

Advisor – Dr. R. Lee Lyman

 

PhD—Ryan Begley

Thesis Title- “The Birth and Adoption of Kinship: Folklore and Fakelore in the Context of Nation-States and World Religions”

Advisor- Mary Shenk

 

PhD—April Bass

Thesis Title - “Russian Old Believers in Alaska: Linguistic and Cultural Continuity of Traditionalist Refugees”

Advisor – Dr. Todd VanPool

 

PhD—Kerry Nichols, Todd VanPool, Advisor

Thesis Title- “Late Woodland Cultural Adaptations in the Lower Missouri River Valley: Archery, Warfare, and the Rise of Complexity”

Advisor – Dr. Todd VanPool

 

MA—Mustafa Aydar

Thesis Title- “Understanding and Defining Ethnic Identity: Ahiska/Meskhetian Turks in a Midwestern American City”

Advisor – Dr. Craig Palmer

 

MA—Jason Christy

Thesis Title - “Mid-Holocene Climate Change in Three Cave Sites from Central Missouri from Mammalian Body Mass Distributions”

Advisor – Dr. R. Lee Lyman

 

PhD—Jessica Dimka

Thesis Title- “Modeling the Spread of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in a New- foundland Community”

Advisor - Lisa Sattenspiel

 

PhD—Matthew Boulanger

Thesis Title- “Analyses of Eastern Fluted-Point Forms”

Advisor – Dr. Michael O’Brien

 

MA—Lauren Trimble-Downs

Thesis Title- “Habitual Postures of the Medio Period Casas Grandes People: A Comparison of Visual Representations and Skeletal Markers”

Advisor - Dr. Christine VanPool

 

PhD—Rebecca Shattuck Lander

Thesis Title- “To Die So Far from Dixie: Modeling Epidemic Dysentery in a Civil War Prison Camp”

Advisor – Dr. Lisa Sattenspiel

 

PhD—Jayme Cisco

Thesis Title- “Support for Breastfeeding Mothers and Determinants of Long- term Breastfeeding in the United States”

Advisor - Dr. Mary Shenk

 

MA—Ann Marbourg

Thesis Title- “Land Inheritance and Gender: Social Factors Affecting Land inherited in Rural Bangladesh”

Advisor - Dr. Mary Shenk

 

PhD—Stephanie Dupont Golda

Thesis Title - “Intrinsic Properties of Bone as Predictors of Differential Survivorship”

Advisor – Dr. R. Lee Lyman

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2014

MA—Brenton Willhite.

Thesis title - “Stone Tool Production in the Medio Period Periphery”

Advisor - Todd VanPool,

 

PhD—Chet Savage

Thesis title - “Kin and Community: Tradition Maintenance and the Economic Self-Sufficiency of Refugees in a Midwestern Town”

Advisor - Dr. Craig Palmer

 

PhD—Ryan Ellsworth

Thesis title - “Partible Paternity and Human Reproductive Behavior”

Advisor – Dr. Robert Walker

 

PhD—Ann Marie Kuchinski

Thesis title - “Porous Spheres: Direct Observation of Public Social Encounters in a Small Midwestern Town”

Advisor - Dr. Craig Palmer

 

PhD—Carolyn Orbann

Thesis title - “The California Measles Epidemic of 1806: Using Multiple Methods to Identify Epidemic Disease in the Kumeyaay at Mission San Diego de Alcala”

Advisor - Lisa Sattenspiel

 

MA—Monica Ahsan

Thesis title - “Heritability and Maternal Effects of Neonatal Survival in the Western Lowland Gorilla”

Advisor - Greg Blomquist

 

MA—Amber Cox

Thesis title - “Pluralism, Paradox and Practitioners: Examining the Effects of Medical Pluralism on Bangladeshi Health Perceptions, Healthcare Seeking Behavior and Doctor-Patient

Communication”

Advisor - Mary Shenk

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2013

MA - Mark Trickey

Thesis title - “Learning in Pre-School Age Childhood and Possibly Chimpanzees”

 Advisor – Dr. Mark Flinn

 

MA -Elizabeth McCarthy

Thesis title “Zooarchaeological Analysis of Material Excavated in 2009 from the 76 Draw Site (LA 156980), Luna County, New Mexico”

Advisor – Dr. R. Lee Lyman.

     

MA—Whitney Coffey

Thesis title - “Spanish Flu in St. Louis, Missouri: A Demographic Analysis”

Advisor - Dr. Mark Flinn

 

MA—Rachel Albert-Yim

Thesis title - “The Evolution of Sex Differences in Tool Use”

Advisor – Dr. Mark Flinn

 

MA—Carolyn Giroux

Thesis title - “The Influence of Body Mass on Humeral Strength: An Ontogenetic Perspective”

Advisor- Libby Cowgill

 

MA—SangKwon Woo

Thesis title - “Socioecology of Polygyny in Hunter–Gatherer Societies”

Advisor - Dr. Mark Flinn

 

MA—Ryan Begley

Thesis title - “Traditional Storytelling as Descendant Strategy: Ancestral Prescriptions for Proper Kinship and Revenge in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet”

Advisor – Dr. Craig Palmer

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2012

MA - Daniel Pierce

Thesis title - “Obsidian Source Frequencies as a Social Attribute at San Felipe Aztatán, Mexico”

Advisor – Dr. Todd VanPool

 

PhD—Christina Pomianek-Dames.

Gender, Ethnicity, Infrastructure and the Use of Financial Institutions in Kalimantan Barat, Indonesia”

Advisor – Dr. Mary Shenk