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Anthropology | Archaeology Program

The program in archaeology emphasizes research and training in the prehistory of the Americas including Alaska, the Pacific Northwest from British Columbia to northern California, the Columbia Plateau, the Great Basin, the Pueblo societies of the Southwest, Mesoamerica, and the Andes. Faculty research employs ceramic analysis, lithic analysis, paleoeconomic and paleoenvironmental approaches including geoarchaeology, zooarchaeology, microbotanical and macrobotanical analysis, as well as well as stable isotope analysis, archaeometry via gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and modeling and simulation. Students gain practical experience in methods through a group of laboratory training courses unique to WSU, and are exposed to explanatory perspectives derived from evolutionary theory, agency and practice theory, and the study of complex adaptive systems.

Please contact the Archaeology Graduate Coordinator or Student Representative for more information:

Archaeology Coordinator: Erin Thornton (erin.thornton@wsu.edu)
Student Representative: Jordan Thompson

 

Archaeology Faculty
DR. JOHN BLONG

Interests: Hunter-gatherer adaptations and landscape use, peopling of the Americas, prehistory of Alaska and the Great Basin, environmental archaeology, geoarchaeology, paleoethnobotany, lithic analysis
Email: john.blong@wsu.edu

Dr. MACKENZIE CORY

Interests: Northwest Plains, stone circles (tipi rings), childhood, play, Indigenous landscapes, U.S. boarding schools, GIS modeling, lithic transport, peopling of the Americas, public archaeology (education)
Email: mackenzie.cory@wsu.edu

DR. ANDREW DUFF

Interests: American Southwest; community formation; organizational transitions associated with increasing population consolidation; social and ethnic identity and migration
Email:
duff@wsu.edu

DR. SAM FLADD

Interests:American Southwest; social identity; gender; architecture; deposition; museum anthropology; NAGPRA; decolonial museum practices; community-engaged research
Email: samantha.fladd@wsu.edu

DR. COLIN GRIER

Interests: Pacific Northwest Coast, complex hunter-gatherers, faunal analysis
Email:
cgrier@wsu.edu

DR. RACHEL A. HOROWITZ

Interests: Organization of technology, lithic technology, Mesoamerica, Maya, economic organization, political economy, lithic sourcing, experimental archaeology
Email: rachel.horowitz@wsu.edu

DR. ERIN THORNTON

Interests: New world societies; zooarchaeology, human osteology and stable isotope analysis
Email:
erin.thornton@wsu.edu

DR. EMILY VAN ALST

Interests: Indigenous archeology, rock art, gender, ethics, ontology, community-based research, landscape, traditional ecological knowledge, ethnobotany, Native American art, Northern Plains of the United States
Email: emily.vanalst@wsu.edu

 

CONTACT INFORMATION
Graduate Coordinator
Dr. Erin Thornton
Erin Thornton (erin.thornton@wsu.edu)
(509) 335-3441

Student Representative

Jordan Thompson

 

Additional Information

Archaeology MA graduate job placement

Archaeology PhD graduate job placement