Tiffany Alvarez Field of study: Evolutionary Anthropology Advisor: Dr. Edward Hagen Email:Tiffany.Alvarez@wsu.edu I am a bio-cultural anthropologist interested in female reproduction, evolutionary models of human drug use, and cultural and evolutionary perspectives of health. I focus on human female life-history allocation challenges to reproduction in the face of acculturation pressures, toxin exposure (specifically tobacco), and/or illness. My PhD research integrates evolutionary biological theory with cultural methods to examine how biological, reproductive, and socio-cultural factors influence tobacco use patterns among Latin American migrants and Indigenous women living in a tobacco-producing region of NW Argentina. This work highlights the bidirectional relationship between culture and biology and seeks to answer nuanced questions on the effects culture and acculturative processes have on tobacco use patterns, reproductive behaviors, and reproductive decision-making. Areas of concentration: Life History Theory, Evolutionary Medicine, Reproductive Ecology/Toxicology, Ecological Immunity, Maternal Health, Indigenous Health, Latin America.
	Tyler Baley Field of study: MA, Archaeology Advisor: Dr. Colin Grier Email: tyler.baley@wsu.edu I am a digital archaeologist helping others to integrate remote sensing techniques and newer technologies into their workflows in order to encourage the use of less invasive & destructive archaeological practices. I earned my BA in Anthropology from Washington State University and have certifications in GIS and Drone survey. I am currently pursuing an MA in Archaeology w/ Thesis under the guidance of Dr. Colin Grier. I currently work with Dr. Colin Grier on projects that involve indigenous peoples from the pacific northwest out of his lab on the Washington State University Vancouver campus. Much of my work involves sensitive issues that pertain to personal and cultural autonomy, land and material proprietorship, and assisting in the collection of evidence to support the legal remedies necessary to resolve these issues. I study Power and Inequality; I look at how power structures are formed and then institutionalized at the small and complex societal level. I am keenly interested in how power is both used and misused, and how those factors contribute to material decay and cultural death. I have a background in evolutionary psychology and classical history, which I have integrated into my theoretical approach.
	Hawi Aberra Bekele Field of study: MA Cultural Anthropology Advisor: Dr. Marsha Quinlan Email:hawi.bekele@wsu.edu I am a Masters student in the cultural anthropology stream, working with Dr. Marsha Quinlan. My research interest focuses mainly on Indigenous culture, gender, and peace. For my Masters thesis, I will look into the indigenous notion of peace, gender roles, and conflict resolution among the Oromo people in Ethiopia. This research aims to unravel the complex web of cultural, social, and historical factors that shape the Oromo people's perspectives on these vital subjects.
	Temechegn G. Bira Field of Study: Ph.D. Cultural Anthropology Advisor: Dr. Barry S. Hewlett Email:temechegn.bira@wsu.edu I am a doctoral student in Cultural Anthropology working with Dr. Barry Hewlett. I obtained MSc in Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies from KU Leuven, Belgium in 2019. My thesis focused on dispossession and human insecurity caused by development intervention in Nyangatom, Southwestern Ethiopia. I also obtained MA in Social Anthropology from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia and Bachelor Degree in History from Jimma University in 2010 and 2007 respectively. For my dissertation, I propose to study the social learning of Pastoralist and Hunter-Gatherer children in Southwestern Ethiopia, by focusing om Mursi and Kwegu ethnic groups respectively.
	Cameron Blumhardt Field of study: Archaeology Advisor: Dr. Colin Grier Email: cameron.blumhardt@wsu.edu I am an MA student working for Dr. Grier. My focus is in photogrammetry, GIS, and other software applications relevant to archaeology. I specifically plan to center my research on ethical approaches in conducting fieldwork and on utilizing technology to further our ability to collectively learn about the past in ways that satisfy and respect all stakeholders. I received my BS in Archaeology with a minor in Geology from Appalachian State University in 2021. I completed an undergraduate thesis while at the university, focusing on ethical approaches to curating virtual museums that are centered on small-scale archaeology sites. My research provided me with experience in curation ethics and in technology used to create platforms for public accessibility to archaeology.
	Laura Brumbaugh Field of study: PhD Archaeology Advisor: Dr. Andrew Duff Email: laura.brumbaugh@wsu.edu I am a PhD student, and my research interests are in the archaeology of the United States Southwest. Specifically, I am interested in studying the factors influencing Ancestral Puebloan community formation during the transition between the Pueblo I and Pueblo II time periods in southwestern Colorado. I have previously engaged in some preliminary research into the impact of Pueblo I trading patterns on Pueblo II great house community formation in the Mesa Verde region. I earned my BS in Biology at Gettysburg College in 2017, and have participated in archaeological projects in northeastern Arizona, Pennsylvania, France, southwestern Colorado, and southeastern Utah.
	Beatrice Caffe Field of study: PhD Evolutionary Anthropology Advisor: Dr. Courtney Meehan Email:beatrice.caffe@wsu.edu I am a Ph.D. candidate whose interests broadly encompass public health, reproductive ecology, immunity, and human milk. My dissertation focuses on parental and allomaternal investment, caregiving environments, human milk composition, and cannabis use during lactation.
	Kanupriya Dhawan Field of study: Ph.D. Cultural Anthropology Advisor: Dr. Clare Wilkinson Email: kanupriya.dhawan@wsu.edu I am a PhD student in Cultural Anthropology and my research interests lie at the intersections of sartorial practices, gender, nationalism and modernity. Through my research I aim to create a hermeneutic of Indian woman’s social life and identity through sartorial practices. My M.Phil. thesis surveyed the importance of ocular experiences in the identity-formation process. Building on my experience, I aim to explore sartorial practices in India that generate a society’s code and habits of ‘seeing and being seen’. Sartorial practices can be seen as ‘bodylores’ through which the body is culturally managed and supervised. In my research I aim to understand how narratives of law, religion and media have played a significant role in imposing ‘ideas of decorum’ on women’s clothing in India. Areas of concentration: Anthropology of dress, South Asian Studies, Visual Cultures, Gender studies, Postcolonial theory. Teaching Experience: In addition to my research pursuits, I worked as an Instructor of English literature and Art History in India and worked as a Teaching Assistant at University of Pennsylvania for Hindi language and Culture.
	Evelien Deelen Field of study: Ph.D. Cultural Anthropology Advisor: Dr. Marsha Quinlan Email: evelien.deelen@wsu.edu I am a cultural anthropology PhD student working with Dr. Marsha Quinlan and Dr. Robert Quinlan. I received my BA and MA (Res) in archaeology from Leiden University in the Netherlands. For my MA thesis I studied the construction of indigeneity in relation to traditional dress in contemporary Mexican society, which relates to my interest in Latin America, identity, and cultural survival. My PhD research incorporates my interests from a different perspective: human-animal relation studies, ethnobiology, and multispecies ethnography. I am particularly interested in human-horse entanglements, traditional equestrian knowledge, and concepts and constructs of wild and tame. My dissertation research centers on the traditional horse culture of the Colombian Llanos region in relation to modernization and the oil industry. I am also very interested in Mustang adoption and Bronc riding in the United States and aim to incorporate a cross-cultural perspective in my research.
	Michael Gaffney Field of study: PhD Evolutionary Anthropology Advisor: Dr. Ed Hagen Email:michael.gaffney2@wsu.edu I am a PhD candidate primarily interested in how humans signal for increased support. This has involved work testing the idea that depression and suicidality are often credible signals of need useful in times of substantial conflicts of interest. My current work involves the strategies that children in Utila, Honduras use to increase investment from parents, how parents respond to such signals, and how both signals and responses relate to sibling competition and cooperation.
	Braidynn Harchis Field of study: Ph.D. Cultural Anthropology Advisor: Dr. Julia Cassaniti Email:braidynn.harchis@wsu.edu I am a second year masters student working with Julia Cassaniti in the cultural anthropology stream, studying Theravada Buddhism and Gender in Thailand. My research interests include, gender and sexuality, Buddhism, religion, Thailand, Thai language, mindfulness, meditation, the Self, identity, and queer and feminist theory.
	Madison Honig Field of Study: PhD Evolutionary Anthropology Advisor: Dr. Ed Hagen Email: madison.honig@wsu.edu I am a PhD student broadly interested in evolutionary medicine, reproductive ecology, ecotoxicology, and life history theory. I received my BSc in biology and evolutionary anthropology from the University of Toronto in 2020 and M.A in evolutionary anthropology at Washington State University in 2022. My dissertation research is focused on how exposure to environmental endocrine disruptors such as perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), through household water consumption, shapes the timing of life history events such as puberty. I work with the Utila Child Health Project (UCHP), a long-term collaborative research project between Boston University and Washington State University looking the relationship between cultural, environmental, and biological factors impacting the growth, development and health among children living in Utila, Honduras. Areas of concentration: Reproductive Ecology, Life History Theory, Child Health, Ecotoxicology, Water Quality, Caribbean/Latin America
	Madeline Jennings Field of study: MA Archeology Advisor: Dr. Emily Van Alst Email:madeline.jennings@wsu.edu I am an MA student in the archaeology track, working with Dr. Emily Van Alst. My research lies within Indigenous archaeology, while incorporating feminist and queer theory. I will be looking into reconstructing gender and sexuality systems of Native peoples that have been previously unwritten. My work will extrapolate out from oral and archival records to presentation in the archaeological record. My methods are collaborative, and focus on preservation and non-invasive technology, unless specifically requested by the community. I earned my BS in Anthropology, as well as a BA in Women's and Gender Studies from the University of Tulsa in 2024. My previous experience working in Indigenous spaces includes with the National Park Service and American Conservation Experience in Katmai National Park, Alaska, with SWCA Environmental Consultants in the Rocky Mountain Region, and with Dr. Gabriela Oré Menéndez in Huarochirí, Peru.
	Tiffany Kite Field of Study: MA Archaeology Advisor: Dr.John Blong Email: tiffany.kite@wsu.edu I am a master's student in archaeology studying with Dr. Shannon Tushingham. I earned my bachelor's degree at Washington State University in Anthropology with minors in History, Native American Studies, Environmental Science, and Geospatial Analysis. I participated in SURCA during my undergrad earning a Novice Award for our work with identifying human skeletal remains. My research now is focused on starch grain analysis.
	Haden Kingrey Field of study: Ph.D. Archaeology Advisor: Dr. John Blong Email:haden.kingrey@wsu.edu I am a PhD student working with Dr. John Blong in the Environmental Archaeology Research Lab. Before attending WSU, I received my bachelor's degree in anthropology and history from the University of Oregon in 2019, and I received my master's degree in anthropology from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2022. For my dissertation, I am utilizing various residue analyses of stone tools and coprolites to identify the ancient diets and foraging behaviors of early Holocene people from the Great Basin and the Southern Columbia Plateau. My CRM experience has included working for the Museum of Natural and Cultural History in Oregon and for SWCA Environmental Consultants and the Desert Research Institute in Nevada.
	Sreenidhi Krishnan Field of study: Ph.D. Cultural Anthropology Advisor: Dr. Clare M. Wilkinson Email: sreenidhi.krishnan@wsu.edu I am currently a PhD student in Cultural Anthropology and my research interests include looking at the production and significance of material culture in everyday life, understanding the capacity of religious practices in deciding the gender dynamics within media and industry, the content produced and its subsequent role in shaping production processes and workplace culture. Areas that specifically interest me are creative direction, art, costuming and design within the Hindi television industry. Areas of concentration: Anthropology of media, Visual culture, Indian Television, Production Cultures, Postcolonial Theory.
	Hannah MacIntyre Field of Study: Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology Advisor: Dr. Clare Wilkinson Email: Hannah.macintyre@wsu.edu I am a doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology working with Dr. Clare Wilkinson. My research interests lie primarily in the examination of performativity, media consumption, and the material impacts of public institutions and displays in shaping contemporary human experience. My dissertation research focuses on the disentanglement of the relationship between the diasporic Indian community, media and material consumption, and the public cultural displays that contextualize the greater Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
	Brandon McIntosh Field of Study: Ph.D. Archaeology Advisor: Dr. Erin Thornton Email: brandon.m.mcintosh@wsu.edu My research interests include the prehistoric cultures of the Great Basin, U.S. Southwest, and Mesoamerica, stable isotope ecology, zooarchaeology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction and conservation biology. My research includes stable isotope analysis in connection to the faunal component of the archaeological record for the purpose of understanding prehistoric relationships between humans and their animal neighbors, and the archaeology of environmental change. I seek to understand cultural and biological change through evolutionary and niche construction theory. My Master’s thesis research was directed toward understanding turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) domestication, and the exploitation of freshwater fish species as strategies for resilience in subsistence and market trade at the Postclassic site of Isla Cilvituk (Campeche, Mexico). My dissertation research combines zooarchaeological, isotopic and ancient DNA analyses to explore turkey use and domestication in the Jornada, Mimbres and Casas Grandes regions of the U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico.
	Sam Neunzig Field of study: MA Archeology Advisor: Dr. Blong Email: sam.neunzig@wsu.edu I am currently a Masters student in Archeology working with Dr. Blong as my advisor. I was previously an undergraduate at WSU where I worked with Dr. Blong and other WSU anthropology faculty on a variety of projects including 3D modelling of coprolites and the Kelly Forks excavations. My interests are primarily in projectile technology studied through the combined use of experimental archeology, botanical, lithic, and osteological analyses. This research is primarily concentrated in Alaska, in the areas surrounding ice patches due to their excellent preservation of organic materials which, along with previous collections, I intend to use to potentially create a timeline of adoption of the bow and arrow instead of the atlatl using preserved materials.
	Lori Phillips Field of study: Archaeology Advisor: Dr. Erin Thornton Email: lori.phillips@wsu.edu I am currently an archaeology Ph.D. student working with Dr. Erin Thornton. My research interests include stable isotope analysis, zooarchaeology, and the ancient Maya. Before coming to WSU, I worked on archaeological projects in both South Africa and Central America, but my current research is based in the Maya region. My M.A. thesis focused on turkey husbandry at the Postclassic site of Mayapán (Yucatan, Mexico) through integrated zooarchaeological and isotopic analyses. My dissertation research uses stable isotope (carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur) and zooarchaeological analyses of faunal assemblages from the Belize River watershed to explore ancient Maya aquatic resource use, specifically how use may have changed during periods of environmental and population stress.
	Jenna Schmidt Field of study: Ph.D. Cultural Anthropology Advisor: Dr. Courtney Meehan Email:jenna.schmidt@wsu.edu I am a cultural anthropology student working with Dr. Courtney Meehan in the Biocultural anthropology lab. I am interested in the microbiome of human breast milk, with a specific interest in how the body metabolizes cannabis through breast milk. I obtained my bachelor's degree from Washington State University in Human Biology. As an undergraduate student I conducted research describing women’s decision-making process and the factors they considered for using cannabis while breastfeeding and assessed whether more breastfeeding women used cannabis for medical or recreational purposes. I was a research assistant to 4 different research projects at the university. For my thesis I plan to continue investigating how the body metabolizes cannabis.
	Kate Shantry Field of Study: PhD Archaeology Advisor: Dr. Colin Grier Email: kate.shantry@wsu.edu I am currently an archaeology PhD student with a BA from the University of Washington and an MA from Western Washington University. My dissertation topic relates to the movement of people and places on the dynamic shoreline landscape of southern Puget Sound, in the traditional territory of the Puyallup, Muckleshoot, and Snoqualmie people. I am building a contextual model that uses archaeology, language, oral history, landscape and settlement pattern theory to understand how people responded to a cataclysmic mudflow (lahar) event from Mount Rainier [Tahoma] ca. 5,500 years ago. My other interests include traditional food studies, experimental archaeology, geoarchaeology, protection of cultural resources, tribal sovereignty, history, and mentoring archaeology students, among other subjects.
	Kimberly Sheets Field of study: PhD Archaeology Advisor: Andrew Duff Email: kimberly.sheets@wsu.edu I am a PhD student in archaeology with a BA from the University of Arizona. My thesis research focuses on using stable isotopes (strontium) to source bighorn sheep, a nonlocal species present in the Homol’ovi Settlement Cluster, Northeast Arizona (c. 1260-1400). I hope to use what I learn to source other nonlocal fauna within the Cluster’s assemblages to better understand landscape use and resource procurement by Ancestral Hopi peoples.
	Arpita Sinha Field of study: Ph.D. Cultural Anthropology Advisor: Dr. Clare Wilkinson Email:arpita.sinha@wsu.edu I am a PhD student in Cultural Anthropology and my research interests lie at the intersections of issues of gender and labour relations, health and work, and women's self-image. To understand and analyse these issues within a particular industrial context, in my thesis I look at the contemporary fashion industry in India, with primary focus on the female fashion models who work there. Even though fashion models are the most visible labourers in the industry, they have rarely been accounted for in the discourse of fashion in India, therefore pushing them to the margins of the industry. The current work is aimed at intervening and redressing this issue. Some of the areas that I wish to explore in my work are how the Indian fashion industry and the profession of modelling have changed in the last two decades, how models become an ideological and political conduit in the negotiations between tradition and modernity in India’s postcolonial, globalized cultural context to create the image of the modern Indian woman, and how the profession of modelling is changing with the advent of the digital, arguably giving a section of the working models some agency. Being a former fashion model myself, my methodology includes a combination of autoethnography, case studies, and interviews.
	Rachel Smith Field of study: Ph.D. Archaeology Advisor: Dr. Erin Thornton Email: rachel.smith6@wsu.edu I am a PhD student in archaeology working with Dr. Erin Thorton. My research interests include stable isotope analysis, bioarchaeology, and the ancient Maya. Before coming to WSU, I worked for two years for a cultural resource management firm on projects throughout the southeast. My master’s thesis used strontium, carbon, and oxygen isotopes to determine if individuals found at the Maya sites of San Juan and Chac Balam on Ambergris Caye were potential migrants to the region. My project provided baseline data in a part of the Maya region where limited data existed that could be used for future isotopic research. My dissertation uses stable isotopes of human and faunal remains from Oaxaca. This work will contribute by generating a baseline that can be used for future research and to help distinguish dietary differences between highland and lowland diets.
	Sonya Sobel Field of study: MA Archaeology Advisor: Dr. John Blong Email: Sonya.sobel@wsu.edu I am a Master’s student in archaeology working with Dr. John Blong. I am interested in using microbotanical methods to study diet, communal food preparation activities, social structure, social transmission of food preference, and how changing environments impact diet, meal specification, and belief systems, specifically looking at the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene in the Northwest and Northern Great Basin. I am also more broadly interested in the intersection between microbotanical methods and geoarchaeology to look at site formation processes.
	Jordan Thompson Field of study: Ph.D. Archeology Advisor: Dr. Rachel Horowitz Email:jordan.j.thompson@wsu.edu I am a PhD student working with Dr. Horowitz and Dr. Blong. My primary research interests include lithic technology, geochemical analysis, geoarchaeology, zooarchaeology, and human-environment ecodynamics, with a regional focus in the Pacific Northwest and Columbia Plateau. I received my bachelor’s degree in anthropology with a minor in geology at Portland State University in 2016 and my master’s degree in anthropology at the University of Idaho in 2022. My master’s thesis utilized a combination of pXRF analysis, lithic analysis, and experimentation to provide an overview of vitrophyre, a form of volcanic glass, stone tools and their uses in the Clearwater River region of north central Idaho through an ecological foraging model. My dissertation research will use geoarchaeological approaches, among others, to investigate the traditional land use of the North Fork of the Clearwater River with an emphasis on fishing and hunting practices.