People
Labs
The research focus in this laboratory is on the reconstruction and study of ancient economy in pre-industrial societies using archaeological, historic, and ethno-archaeological techniques and approaches. The economy can be characterized in terms of the production, distribution and consumption of material goods.
Our research focuses on the evolution and development of human sexuality and sex differences. We are especially interested in how sex hormones influence our sexual psychology, behavior, and anatomy—and how these traits were shaped by sexual selection.
Refining skeletal age-estimation methods with global modern collections to improve knowledge of ancient demography and disease; estimating late prehistoric eastern North American populations; analyzing warfare patterns (AD 1000–1600) to reveal demographic, social, and environmental causes; and identifying chemical life histories of medieval and early modern people in Denmark through bone microstructure analysis.
Understanding the dynamics of socio-ecological systems is essential for explaining evolutionary, ecological, and historical processes. Our scientific team engages in the study of human behavior, adaptation, and transformation of its environment over time by relying on the material remains left by people and recovered by archaeologists and other paleoscientists. Our Environmental Archaeology Lab aims to test hypotheses, construct explanatory models, and provide case-studies about the changing nature of human-environment interactions over many spatiotemporal scales. Most of our research focuses on Precolumbian South America, but we are interested in general and comparative case-studies. Our work is an interdisciplinary and international effort involving a wide group of collaborators.
The RISK Lab studies the anthropology of human health risks. We are interested in the role of human behavior and ecology in altering risk of zoonotic spillover, including how humans balance health-related trade-offs at the human-wildlife interface. A fundamental goal of our research is to identify and test evidence and community-based solutions that meet the needs of people locally, and identify "win-wins" for environmental, food and global health security.
The FEMR Lab uses advanced computational techniques such as high-resolution computed tomography imaging (microCT), 3D morphometrics, deep learning image segmentation, high-performance computing for morphological analysis, and interactive visualization to understand the relationships between bone structure and activity patterns in living and extinct humans and nonhuman primates.
Our lab studies the interactive and changing relationships between people and their social and ecological environments.
The research activities of the Human Evolution and Diversity Lab are focused on questions of primate and human evolution, including those surrounding the evolution of morphological diversity. Members of the lab are involved in basic scientific research and in science education research aimed at improving public understanding and engagement in science. At present, researchers in the Lab are affiliated with one or more of the four projects listed below.
Our research focuses on microbiome adaptation and evolution in different ecologies. We use a mixture of ancient DNA, anthropological microbial genomics, and experimental models to explore and identify mechanisms of microbial community change and adaptation and translate these mechanisms to improve the world around us today.
Academia must bridge its divide with the public. Yet institutional norms—like promotion and tenure criteria—often discourage research that prioritizes real-world impact over publications. We are developing expanded evaluation standards, new collaboration structures, and updated teaching approaches to support more ambitious, impact-driven research.
Our research uses theory from evolution and ecology to study human behavior, demography, and social systems. We seek to understand how the environment and economic systems impact marriage, reproduction, and social inequality.
We focus on applied human population genomics, admixture mapping, and selection scans to understand normal trait variation, including pigmentation, facial, and vocal characteristics. We develop ancestry-informative markers for disease mapping (e.g., prematurity, T2D), leveraging admixture across populations. Our global collaborations refine insights into human variation, complex diseases, and evolution.
Our research focuses on the quantitative assessment of morphological change in biological organisms, especially the craniofacial complex, through ontogenetic and evolutionary time; determination of the developmental basis of differences in morphology; determination of the evolutionary (genetic) basis of these developmental patterns.
Research Specialties: geospatial analysis, social networks, radiocarbon dating, political systems, inequality