Professional Summary
I am an anthropological archaeologist whose research focuses on societal adaptations to climate change and the spread of agricultural lifeways, particularly among precontact societies of the North American Midcontinent. I have conducted work in the Midwest since my first field school in 2006, which inspired a lifelong passion for archaeological fieldwork and learning about the rich and complex lives of past peoples. My ongoing field and laboratory research investigates the earliest villages of maize (corn) agriculturalists who lived in the Middle Ohio Valley approximately 1,000 years ago. I am driven by questions like: when, why, and how did people start farming, and what impacts did this have on society? How did this transition change the relationship between people and their environments? What impact did the climatological shifts like the Medieval Climate Anomaly and subsequent Little Ice Age have on these nascent farmers? More recently, collaborations with academic and Tribal colleagues have led to questions like how archaeology can be used as one way in which we can help decolonize anthropology in North America?
I consider myself an archaeological generalist, meaning that I have experience in survey and excavation, and in analyzing a variety of forms of material culture. Saying something supportable about how people lived in the past requires archaeologists to be holistic in our pursuits, and I attempt to bring as many pieces to this puzzle as possible. This includes everything from excavation and spatial analysis, to the analysis of pottery, animal bones, and stone tools, to incorporating ethnohistoric sources as lines of evidence. This type of interdisciplinarity is a key strength of archaeology and continues to make it personally fascinating and enjoyable.