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Anthropology Graduate Student Association


The Anthropology Graduate Student Association meets monthly to discuss ongoing developments in the Department, to plan events, and to share questions, concerns, and current work. We also get together for social events, to attend talks and exhibits, to discuss our research and other work, and to organize visitors to the department. We are open to suggestions and ideas, so if you are a graduate student in the Department, please stop by our next meeting! Meeting information is disseminated through the Department's graduate student listserv. The association was established "to assist its members in all endeavors related to their success in the graduate division of Temple University's Anthropology Department; this includes educational, peer, and faculty support." For further information, contact our president, Matt Kalos, matthew.kalos@temple.edu, or our communications director and social chair, Sam Spies, szspies@temple.edu.

Brief profiles of some of our current graduate students


Kristen Allen

I graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in biology and took some time off before entering graduate school. During the period between my undergraduate and graduate education, I worked for a biotechnology company as a quality control technician and then as a research associate in the research and development department. My duties included blood processing and electrochemistry. I entered graduate school in the fall of 2007 and am currently working on a project that focuses on medical anthropology, public policy, and Latin American studies. I am researching the effects of the medical tourism industry on (inter)national borders, visa laws, and other forms of public policy. My areas of focus include Costa Rica, Colombia, and (possibly) Brazil.


Susan Bachor

I received my B.A. in anthropology from West Chester University with a focus on archaeology and a minor in geology. My research involves the chemical "fingerprinting" of soapstone vessels and quarries in southeastern Pennsylvania. My interests are geoarchaeology, lithic technologies, and prehistoric peoples of North America—specifically, the Middle Atlantic. My full-time job is working as a laboratory coordinator for Delaware County Community College.


Christopher P. Barton

I graduated from Rowan University with a B.A. in history and then earned my M.A. in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. I am interested in the historical archaeology of African Americans, archaeological theory (post-processualism, Marxism, cognitive studies), class and race, political consumerism, public archaeology, and using archaeology as a medium for political activism. My dissertation focuses on Timbuctoo, an antebellum African-American community in Westampton, New Jersey.


Carin Boone

I received an H.B.A. from the University of Delaware in anthropology (concentration in archaeology and minor in history) in 2003, and an M.A. in anthropology (concentration in historical archaeology) from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. I am a doctoral student here at Temple in historical archaeology with a focus in battlefield archaeology. My dissertation research centers on the Valley Forge encampment of the Continental Army during the winter of 1777-1778. A major component of my project is the public archaeology aspect. Valley Forge National Historical Park and its surrounds are highly visible sites, visited year-round by thousands of people; we therefore have an obligation to share the history there with the visitors. Public archaeology is very important to me, and permeates every facet of my dissertation.


Karen L. Davis

I came to the field of anthropology after retiring early from the nonprofit world, and transferred to Temple after having begun work on my Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins. My research interests are North America/urban anthropology, medical anthropology (disability), and policy. The issue that brought me to this field (my long-ongoing fieldwork) is the gap between the reality of the everyday lives of adults supported by the developmental disabilities services "system" in Washington, D.C., where I live, and the shifting paradigms of quality of life and empowerment that have characterized the DD field's professional discourses since deinstitutionalization. A portion of my dissertation research is supported through a grant to a DC nonprofit from the US Department of Justice. I have a B.A. with highest honors from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Phi Beta Kappa) and an M.S. from the University of Southern California, European Degree Programs, and a graduate certificate in Disability Studies from Temple. My dissertation advisor is Dr. Judith Goode; I am grateful for her guidance and patience.


Kevin M. Donaghy

My research takes a multidisciplinary approach to eighteenth-century conflict archaeology, emphasizing the relationships among the historical and material culture records, historical ethnography, preservation, the archaeological record, and public outreach service programs. It also involves developing my technical skills in archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork, GIS applications, remote sensing, and photogrammetric analysis in order to better understand site formation processes and community development. I received my B.A. in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005.


Blair Fink

I graduated from Monmouth University in 2010 with a B.A. in anthropology and minors in forensics, sociology, and public policy. My areas of interest include pre-contact and contact period archaeology of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, mortuary practices, and lithic technologies. I am also interested in archaeological research as a political resource for politically underrepresented groups, particularly Native American populations.


Diane Garbow

I received my B.A. in cultural anthropology and a certificate in Marxism and Society from Duke University in 2005. My research interests include urban anthropology of North America, Latinos in the United States, migration, migration policy, racialization, citizenship, nationalism and community organizations. In particular, my interests focus on the cultural politics of citizenship and community of Latinos in Philadelphia in order to understand how people navigate various social and political institutions to construct a sense of community and empowerment in the city. This then offers a lens through which to engage the intersections of U.S. nationalism, racialized citizenship, and migration law.


Nikky Greer

I earned my B.A. in anthropology at the University of Texas, San Antonio, summa cum laude, Tier II Honors with thesis. My research interests focus on the political, economic, and social dimensions of American kinship and urban anthropology through the lens of the U.S. foster care system. I am particularly interested in exploring (and deconstructing) the hegemony of American kinship and its (re)production in the context of the foster care and orphanage systems. What is the process of meaning-making used by orphaned and/or foster children within the structural inequalities that they face, especially as it relates to race and ethnicity, issues of agency, and the stigma that they endure as orphaned children? Material forces at the local, national, and global levels shape the environments that these children confront. Yet each child makes meaning in her or his own way. I want to give voice to the shared and individual experiences of the children in order to critique and improve the system.


Nathan Jessee

I graduated from the University of New Orleans, where I earned my M.S. in urban studies with a focus in applied urban anthropology. My thesis was an ethnographic exploration of zine publication in New Orleans in which I focused on zine-makers' use of zines as a tool for socializing others into their ideology of urban space. In addition to my zine research,
I worked at the Center for Hazards Assessment, Response, and Technology (CHART). At CHART, I investigated best hazard-mitigation practices and helped organize workshops where participants from local businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies were able to share their experiences of the recent hurricanes and their aftermath. My current research interests include urban anthropology, media, and disasters.


Matthew A. Kalos

I graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 2008 with honors in anthropology. I am now working with Dr. Orr in historical archaeology. My interests include the Middle Atlantic region, warfare, and battlefield archaeology. My research will focus on the American Revolutionary War site of the Battle of Paoli, Pennsylvania.


Deirdre Kelleher

My research interests include urban archaeology, public archaeology, material culture studies, and vernacular architecture. My current research focuses on historical archaeology pertaining to immigration and class in 18th- and 19th-century Philadelphia. Prior to coming to Temple, I received my undergraduate degree from Boston College in 2006.


Margaux Keller

I study facets of biological anthropology with Dr. Chuck Weitz. My current research focuses on statistical methods useful in describing human genetic variation associated with disease susceptibility, and the genetic heritability of disease phenotypes across ethnicities. I am currently a fellow at the National Institute of Health, National Institute on Aging, in Bethesda, Maryland, where I am training with alumnus Dr. Mike Nalls in the Lab of Neurogenetics. I am working on a number of projects that aim to identify the genetic and cellular mechanisms responsible for the variability associated with modern disease processes. I utilize whole genome and candidate gene association, exome sequencing and analysis, and admixture mapping methodologies. More broadly, my research interests center around the influence of the environment and ancestry as factors influencing the genetic manifestation of phenotypes. I received my B.A. from Rider University in 2007.


Scott Kirkland

I am a biological anthropologist with Dr. Kimberly Williams as my advisor. I earned my B.A. in anthropology at Hamline University in Minnesota and my M.A. in bioarchaeology at North Carolina State University. Before coming to Temple, I was a full-time high school forensics instructor. I am interested in all aspects of the human skeleton. Currently, my interests focus on metric analysis of the skeleton in relation to geographic origin.


Jeremy Koch

I graduated from Ursinus College with a B.A. in anthropology and sociology in 2006. My research interests include prehistoric archaeology, experimental archaeology, geoarchaeology, lithic technology, and human origins. My dissertation research focuses on how ancient peoples adapted to shifting climates and environments in the Middle Atlantic region at the waning of the last ice age.


Kurt Kohut

I received my B.A. in anthropology from Kutztown University, with a focus on archaeology and a minor in philosophy. My interests include anthropological theory, the prehistory of Mesoamerica and South America, the peopling of the New World, and the rise of its complex societies. Having some background in the field of electronics, I am also drawn to the application of technology to the processes of archaeology through remote sensing, digital scanning and other means.


Melissa Krug

I studied anthropology and Spanish at Kutztown University (B.A. 2009) and later earned my master's degree in teaching at the University of Pittsburgh (2010). I began my graduate studies after spending time as a middle school Spanish teacher and a customer service representative at a large Fair Trade retailer. My interests include language and identity, language contact, and language endangerment. I have also recently become interested in the Fair Trade, Green, and corporate social responsibility movements, particularly their relationship to globalization and "traditional" ways of life.


Gregory Denis Lattanzi

I am a doctoral candidate in archaeology. While I am in school part-time, my full-time job is serving as Registrar for the Bureau of Archaeology & Ethnology at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, New Jersey. I obtained a B.A. in anthropology from the State University of New York at Binghamton, and an M.A. in anthropology from the City University of New York, Hunter College. I am also a member of the Register of Professional Archaeologists. Before working at the New Jersey State Museum, I was employed at a number of contract archaeological firms in the Northeast, participating in excavations in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. I have published a number of articles and book reviews and have given public presentations on a wide variety of archaeological topics. My research interests include design analysis or "grammar" analysis of Late Woodland pottery of the Middle Atlantic region and changes in prehistoric Middle Atlantic social organization. My doctoral research focuses on the chemical characterization of pre-contact copper artifacts and their implications for exchange and social organization in the Middle Atlantic region.


Nicolás Loaiza-Díaz

I received a B.A. in anthropology at the Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia, near my home. I've been in the Ph.D. program at Temple since the fall of 2006, studying with Dr. Ranere. My interests include the archaeology of Tropical America, the origins of agriculture, human ecology, microbotanical analysis, and evolutionary theory, among others. My current research is focused on phytolith analysis at sites from an inter-Andean valley in the coffee region of Colombia that date from the late Pleistocene through the middle Holocene. Because of its geographical position, we can track down the movement of important domesticates through the tropics such as maize and manioc, and also identify some plants that may have been brought under domestication including two kinds of squashes and leren, among others.


Megan Luthern

I earned my B.S. in anthropological sciences with honors research distinction at Ohio State University in 2012. I am interested in studying issues relating to biomechanics, skeletal adaptation, skeletal morphology, and paleopathology. I would like to use bioarchaeological data to theorize how ancient cultures adapted to their environments. From there, I intend to investigate how both subsistence strategies and the environment influenced social organization.


Qingyan Ma

My research interests include medical anthropology, social policy, and development. My dissertation is about reproductive health of ethnic minority women in southwest China. It investigates the multi-layered discourse and policy-making processes of population control in post-Mao China.


Laura MacBride

I graduated from Drew University with a B.A. in anthropology and minors in archaeology and women's studies. At Temple, I bridged my interest in archaeology with women's studies and chose to focus on gender archaeology within historical archaeology. Using a gendered lens, I explore how notions of both gender and sexuality were constructed and negotiated in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I am also interested in gendered spaces and landscapes: how were the private and public spheres physically gendered and what does that say about the people who embodied these divisions? Can we identify female spaces versus male spaces? Is there a difference in the material culture of such spaces? My dissertation research attempts to answer these questions. By excavating Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson's 18th-century formal garden (located at Graeme Park, Horsham, Pennsylvania), I hope to better understand how a formal garden, a feature typically associated with men, can be understood through the experiences of a notable Philadelphia woman. My project also draws heavily on garden and landscape archaeology.


Jess Marion

I am a doctoral student in cultural anthropology. I graduated from the University of South Florida with a B.A. in religious studies and completed my M.A. in religion at Temple University. My current research focuses on how belief and ritual impact the environment and health of river-centered communities in South Asia.


Elizabeth McGinsky

I am a biological anthropologist, and my current advisor is Dr. Christie Rockwell. Dr. Charles Weitz and Dr. Christie Rockwell have both been instrumental in helping me to develop a master’s thesis project focused on reproductive measures in a population of Sherpas in Nepal. My intellectual interests include behavioral ecology, reproductive ecology, life-history theory, evolutionary theory, and the bio-cultural interactions that emerge in populations subjected to neoliberal forms of governance. Currently, I am particularly interested in the effects that an economic transition has had on both the fertility and the parental investment habits of Chilean women. I was inspired to study to be an anthropologist as an undergraduate when I attended an Evolution vs. Creationism debate to watch one of my professors (and mentors), Dr. Robert Trivers, attempt to part the rising sea of Creationism. I graduated from Rutgers University in 2007 with a B.A. in anthropology.


Nicole Nathan

I earned my B.A. at Hanover College in cultural anthropology and Spanish, with a
minor in philosophy. Primarily a cultural/visual anthropologist, I also examine the power of language socialization and the historical role of institutions, as well as epistemology within anthropology itself. After doing research for my Spanish senior thesis at a bilingual school for immigrant and first-generation Hispanic students, I began to study the role of language in the education of immigrants and its effects on perception of cultural identity. This led me to study the role of gender in the Chinese education system as affected by the one-child policy. I am also interested in studying religion in the context of globalization and transnationalism, particularly the so-called "Islamization" of the West. Other interests include political anthropology, new media, and marginalized minority groups. As a (very) amateur pursuer of the arts, I also have a personal fascination with the study of indigenous literature, aesthetics, ethnomusicology, and performance rituals.


David Paulson

I am an anthropologist who believes that understanding the complexity of the world's languages is as important as knowing how the ecosystem works. My primary interests are the Austronesian-speaking people of Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam, who reflect an incredible intersection of mainland and maritime cultures. As modernity and globalization continue at an extraordinary pace, I explore their relationships to language socialization, attrition, and endangerment within this region of the world. I hold a master's degree in Bilingual Multicultural Education/TESOL from Southern Connecticut State University, where I also earned my bachelor's degree (summa cum laude) in anthropology with minors in Asian studies and psychology. My previous experiences include fieldwork in the Dominican Republic, research on Drifters in San Francisco, and teaching English in both Shaoxing, China and the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education in Vietnam.


Jen Rankin

I graduated from Mercyhurst College with a B.A. in anthropology/archaeology and world languages/cultures (Spanish). Attending school part-time, I work full-time as an archaeologist in CRM (cultural resource management) for the URS Corporation in Burlington, New Jersey. My research interests lie primarily in prehistoric archaeology. Particular interests include early hunter-gathers and the peopling of the Americas, lithic and perishable technology, geoarchaeology, and cultural resource management. My prior field and laboratory experience includes the Mid-Atlantic, the Great Lakes/Midwest, the Northeast, Texas, and Peru.


Aisha Rios

I am a doctoral candidate in sociocultural anthropology. I received my B.A. in anthropology from Georgia State University in 2005. My research interests include social policy, grassroots organizing, gender and sexuality, and violence. I am currently conducting fieldwork in a south Atlantic state in the United States. For my dissertation research, I am examining the contestation over ways to define and help perpetrators and victims of intimate partner violence and how varying understandings of intimate partner violence at the local and state level affect advocacy work and collaboration between activists.


Evelyn Christian Ronning

I am a cultural/visual anthropologist with a vital interest in American Samoan young people's perceptions of, and attitudes about, the implications of climate change. At the intersection of formal and informal educative settings, where discourses around the environment and culture propose both that humanity is organized into a kind of "global citizenship" and that young American Samoans are bound by their island geography, I question whether and how these American Samoan young people are socially reproduced citizens and/or assertive agents in relationship to their science education, cultural practices, and global media engagement. Prior to this work, I earned a B.A. at the University of California, Irvine and an M.A. in anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.


Eryn Snyder

I graduated from Southwestern University in 2009 with a B.A. in anthropology and a minor in communication studies. I conducted research for my undergraduate thesis in southeastern Senegal among the Bedik, an indigenous minority ethnic group. My research investigated the complexity of marketing "authentic" culture in a modern tourism market. Between undergraduate and graduate studies, I wrote and photographed for a wine and travel magazine in Mendoza, Argentina and then worked for Habitat for Humanity in Fort Worth, Texas. My current research interests include anthropology of visual communication, indigenous media, tourism, museums, authenticity, identity, and digital anthropology. I am particularly interested in research methods that allow for collaborative authorship between anthropologists and the people whose lives they study.


Sam Spies

I joined the department after about six years in print and multimedia journalism.
I've worked for several media outlets, but my most interesting assignment was as the night police reporter at The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina. There I started to appreciate how the introduction of a camera to a crime scene or crowd affected the behavior of the victim's family, police officers and bystanders. My general research interest is in the transition from film to digital technology and the mass availability of digital cameras. More specifically, I'm interested in soldiers' own images from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, compared to Army public affairs photography and traditional photojournalism. While a Cornell undergraduate I studied Arabic in Jordan and Morocco, and I'm also interested in the visual representation of U.S. cultures in Arab pop media.


Gina Tibbott

I completed my B.A. in archaeology and fine art at the George Washington University. During that time, I started working on excavations in Pompeii, first as a student and later as an excavation supervisor. After completing my undergraduate degree, I started running the ceramics studios at the university, so I spent a lot of time firing kilns of all varieties and running clay and glaze tests. I completed my M.F.A. in ceramics in 2008 and now have more pottery than I know what to do with. In addition to being a doctoral student at Temple, I work for the Pompeii Archaeological Research Project: Porta Stabia, as well as Philly's own Clay Studio. My research focuses on all aspects of ceramics, from fabrication and technological development (particularly in firing technique) to archaeological analysis. I look forward to continuing to set things on fire and getting embarrassingly dirty.


Andrew Van Horn

As a junior studying philosophy at UMass-Amherst, I had the great fortune of taking ANTH 103, "Introduction to Human Biology." By mid-semester I had an epiphany about my major and the works of pre-Darwinian metaphysics and epistemology attendant thereto: they were merely attempts at scientific inquiry into the human condition made by intelligent men in the absence of legitimate naturalistic theory and/or sufficient technology. I graduated with a minor in biological anthropology and then spent the next few years working in labs (and playing in a few mildly successful rock-n-roll bands). Notably, I worked in a mass spectrometry and proteomics laboratory developing bio-threat detection assays for the U.S. Navy. My PI there was Temple alumna Dr. Jill Czarnecki (Ph.D. '03). I am now pursuing my Ph.D. with Dr. Christie Rockwell as my advisor. Currently, my primary interests are human/primate reproductive ecology, neurological development, and primate behavior/life trajectories and the effects of fetal development thereupon.


Chelsea Voytek

My research interests include medical anthropology, urban anthropology, the anthropology of social policy, the anthropology of development and globalization, and the anthropology of public health. My dissertation research examines multi-site clinical HIV vaccine trials, primarily in North America and the Caribbean. I received my bachelor's degree in applied anthropology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1995 and my Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in 2002.


K. Eva Weiss

My research explores modes of expression and censorship in the Cuban artist communities of Miami and Spain in order to address the extent to which an artist's voice can be liberated in exile. I earned a B.A. in English, with a focus in screenwriting, from the University of Michigan, where I served as research and post-production assistant to anthropologist Ruth Behar on her documentary Adio Kerida. This ethnographic film experience, coupled with my own grassroots documentary production about a Sri Lankan girl's battle with Wilson's disease and immigration restrictions, informed my interest in visual anthropology and advocacy-driven media. Before entering graduate school, I worked as a director in cable television, as an executive producer and correspondent in news radio, and as a screenwriter in corporate video production. I currently serve on the board of directors of Atrévete a Soñar ¡Edúcate!, a nonprofit organization that provides Latina students with resources to understand and pursue higher education.


Jesse West-Rosenthal

I received my B.A. in anthropology and journalism (with a photography emphasis) from Temple University in 2008. I returned to Temple by way of Williamsburg, Virginia, where I worked for two years for the William and Mary Center for Archaeological Research, a cultural resources management firm. My research interests focus on battlefield archaeology and how we can make these sites more accessible to the public. Before returning to Temple, I spent four years working on various projects throughout Valley Forge National Historic Park. I plan to continue working there to help further our understanding, through the use of modern research techniques and public archaeology, of the 1777-1778 Continental Army winter encampment. When not digging, I enjoy cycling, photography, and psychoanalyzing my dog to determine why he no longer enjoys my company.


Tatiana Zelenetskaya Young

Native of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, my general interests lie in exploring ancient societies in Latin America. One aim is to investigate the spatial and temporal relationships of pre-Hispanic settlements, particularly in Quintana Roo, Mexico, in comparison with other parts of ancient Mesoamerica. Another is to delimit and establish boundaries between the sites of the ancient Maya with the goal of answering the questions of how archaeologists can define site boundaries and evaluate the reality of potential boundaries in archaeological records. My studies on settlement patterns of the ancient Maya begin at the remote Cochuah region of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Studying significant characteristics of the landscape such as cenotes (subterranean water holes) plays an essential role in assessing political superiority and ranking of the sites. Manipulation of landscape was connected to the availability of resources and manifested itself through settlement pattern. Dense forestation, poisonous snakes, scorpions and harsh conditions are some of the daily challenges when mapping, excavating and assessing potential sites. Drawing upon my own fieldwork and research, I received my M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. I have numerous publications and conference presentations recognized nationally and internationally. Because the pre-Hispanic sites are rapidly being consumed by modern developments the investigation of this region is imperative, additionally it will add to the body of knowledge and broaden our understanding of the ancient Maya. I believe that analysis of the ancient societies is paramount to a deeper understanding of contemporary world issues.


Autumn Zellers

My anthropological interests are rooted in never having abandoned the habit of asking "why" when it comes to human perceptions of self/other and courses of action—that is, why we think we are who we think we are, and why we do what we do. My formal investigations of these questions—and more particularly, the negotiation of cultural identities in multinational settings—began with an undergraduate field study in the tourist marketplaces of Morocco in 2008. After graduating from Penn State Abington with my B.S. in biology and a minor in anthropology in 2009, I went on to teach ESL literacy to immigrants in Philadelphia for a year. This experience provided me with further insight into the role of language in perceptions of ethnicity and class. I aim to build on my observations in Morocco and in Colombia, the home of my maternal family, to continue studying the relationship between identity and processes of integration with, and resistance to, economic globalization. I am also interested in the impact of new media on the perceptions and expressions of identity in cross-cultural encounters. As 21st-century globalization and new media facilitate faster and more frequent intercultural exchanges, I believe that anthropological insight is critical to mitigating the contentious consequences of under- and misrepresentation in the course of these transnational processes.