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Anthropology Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2024 2024.

“You are not the Same Person You Were:” On Diagnosis Seeking During a Liminal Period and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus , Kaylee A. Appleton

Good Times, Politics, and Collapse: The Archaeology of Old St. Joseph, Florida , Christopher N. Hunt

Seminoles, Soldiers, and Settlers: Identity and Power on the Florida Frontier , Jean Louise Lammie

Theses/Dissertations from 2023 2023

Entanglements of Teenage Food Security Within High School Pantries in Pinellas County, Florida , Karen T. Díaz Serrano

The Applicability of the Postmortem Submersion Interval Estimation Formula for Human Remains Found in Subtropical Aquatic Environments , Kara L. DiComo

Early Agricultural Lives: Bioarchaeological Inferences from Neolithic and Early Copper Age Tombs in the Central Po Valley, Italy , Christopher J. Eck Jr.

The Process of Government in Clearwater, Florida , Picot deBoisfeuillet Floyd

“I Was Doing the Best with What I Had”: Exploring Student Veterans’ Experiences with Community Reintegration, Food Insecurity, and Health Challenges , Jacquelyn N. Heuer

Transformative Psychedelic Experiences at Music Events: Using Subjective Experience to Explore Chemosocial Assemblages of Culture , Gabrielle R. Lehigh

“We Need to Have a Place to Vent and Get Our Frustrations Out”: Addressing the Needs of Mothering Students in Higher Education using a Positive Deviance Framework , Melissa León

“They’re Still Trying to Wrap Their Head Around Forever”: An Anatomy of Hope for Spinal Cord Injury Patients , William A. Lucas

Foodways of the Florida Frontier: Zooarchaeological Analysis of Gamble Plantation Historic State Park (8MA100) , Mary S. Maisel

The Impacts of Disability Policy and its Implementation on Deaf University Students: An Applied Anthropological Approach , Tailyn Marie Osorio

“I’m Still Suffering”: Mental Health Care Among Central African Refugee Populations in the Tampa Bay Area , C. Danee Ruszczyk

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Immigration-Related Stressors, Pregnancy, Birth, and Post-Partum Experiences of Women Living Along the US-Mexico Border , Isabela Solis

Clinically Applied Anthropology: A Syndemic Intervention. , Jason W. Wilson

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

An Assessment of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals Gender Affirming Health Care Practices in the Greater Tampa Bay , Sara J. Berumen

Mound-Summit Practices at Cockroach Key (8HI2) Through the Lens of Practice Theory , Chandler O. Burchfield

Crafting a Scene: The Nexus of Production and Consumption of Tampa Bay Craft Beer , Russell L. Edwards

Applied Anthropology of Addiction in Clinical Spaces: co-Developing and Assessing a Novel Opioid Treatment Pathway , Heather Diane Henderson

Japan’s COVID 19 Infection Rate: A Focus on Tokyo Neighborhoods , Lauren Koerner

Farmers’ Organizations and Development Actors in a Pandemic: Responses to Covid-19 and the Food-Energy-Water Nexus , Atte Penttilä

An Ideology of Racism: Community Representation, Segregation, and the Historical Cemeteries of Panama City, Florida , Ethan David Mauldin Putman

“Even If You Have Food in Your House, It Will Not Taste Sweet”: Central African Refugees’ Experiences of Cultural Food Insecurity and Other Overlapping Insecurities in Tampa, Florida , Shaye Soifoine

Afro-Latinx and Afro-Latin Americans in the United States: Examining Ethnic and Racial Experiences in Higher Education , Glenda Maria Vaillant Cruz

Black Cemeteries Matter: The Erasure of Historic Black Cemeteries in Polk County, Florida , Juliana C. Waters

An Anthropology with Human Waste Management: Non-Humans, The State, and Matters of Care on the Placencia Peninsula, Belize , William Alex Webb

An Edgefield Ceramic Assemblage from the Lost Town of St. Joseph, Northwest Florida , Crystal R. Wright

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Aspiring to “Make it Work”: Defining Resilience and Agency Amongst Hispanic Youth Living in Low-Income Neighborhoods , Sara Arias-Steele

“I Wish Somebody Called Me, Told Me Not to Worry”: Evaluating a Non-Profit’s Use of Social Support to Address Refugee Women’s Resettlement Challenges , Brandylyn L. Arredondo

Of Body and Mind: Bioarchaeological Analysis of Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Anatomization and Institutionalization in Siena, Italy , Jacqueline M. Berger

Cannabis Capitalism in Colorado: An Ethnography of Il/legal Production and Consumption , Lia Berman

Analyses Of Woodland Check-Stamped Ceramics In Northwest Florida , John D. Blackburn

“Here Come the Crackers!”: An Ethnohistorical Case Study of Local Heritage Discourses and Cultural Reproduction at a Florida Living History Museum , Blair Bordelon

Privies as Portals: A Ceramic and Glass Bottle Analysis of a Late 19th Century Household Privy in Ellenton, FL , Shana Boyer

Making Change in the Nickel City: Food Banking and Food Insecurity in Buffalo, NY During the COVID-19 Pandemic , Sarah E. Bradley

Ware and Tear in Ancient Tampa Bay: Ceramic Elemental Analyses from Pinellas County Sites , McKenna Loren Douglass

Rethinking Settlement Patterns at the Weeden Island Site (8PI1) on Florida’s Central Gulf Coast , Heather E. Draskovich

Listening to Women: Using a Mixed-Methods Approach to Understanding Women’s Desires and Experience During Childbirth , Nicole Loraine Falk Smith

Archaeology and Seasonality of Stock Island (8Mo2), a Glades-Tradition Village on Key West , Ryan M. Harke

How Culture and Storytelling Can Influence Urban Development: An Ethnographic Look at the Community-Driven Revitalization of Newtown in Sarasota, Florida , Michala Head

Educational Experiences of Congolese Refugees in West-Central Florida High Schools , Michaela J. Inks

Constructing 'Child Safety': Policy, Practice, and Marginalized Families in Florida's Child Welfare System , Melissa Hope Johnson

"We're the Lucky Ones": A Social Network Analysis of Recovery After the Iowa Derecho , Kayla C. Jones

How Race is Made in Everyday Life: Food, Eating, and Dietary Acculturation among Black and White Migrants in Florida, U.S. , Laura Kihlstrom

Tourism, Education, and Identity Making: Agency and Representation of Indigenous Communities in Public Sites within Florida. , Timothy R. Lomberk II

Pregnancy and Fertility Amongst Women with the MTHFR C677T Polymorphism: An Anthropological Review , Caroline A. MacLean

A Biocultural Analysis of the Impacts of Interactions Between West Africans and Europeans During the Trans-Atlantic Trade at Elmina, Ghana , Heidi Ellen Miller

The Distribution in Native Populations from Mexico and Central America of the C677T Variant in the MTHFR Gene , Lucio A. Reyes

Politics vs. The Environment: The Spatial Distributions of Mississippian Mound Centers in Tampa Bay , Adam J. Sax

Seasonality, Labor Organization, and Monumental Constructions: An Otolith Study from Florida’s Crystal River Site (8CI1) and Roberts Island Shell Mound Complex (8CI40 and 41) , Elizabeth Anne Southard

Eating and Body Image Disorders in the Time of COVID19: An Anthropological Inquiry into the Pandemic’s Effects on the Bodies , Theresa A. Stoddard

The Early Medieval Transition: Diet Reconstruction, Mobility, and Culture Contact in the Ravenna Countryside, Northern Italy , Anastasia Temkina

The Science of Guessing: Critiquing Ancestral Estimation Through Computer Generated Statistical Analysis Within Forensic Anthropology in a Real-World Setting , Christopher J. Turner

Listening to Queens: Ghana's Women Traditional Leaders as a Model for Gender Parity , Kristen M. Vogel

Site Suitability Modeling in the Sand Pine Scrub of the Ocala National Forest , Jelane M. Wallace

Our Story, Our Homeland, Our Legacy: Settlement Patterns of The Geechee at Sapelo Island Georgia, From 1860 To 1950 , Colette D. Witcher

Identifying Skeletal Puberty Stages in a Modern Sample from the United States , Jordan T. Wright

Pollen-Vegetation Relationships in Upper Tampa Bay , Jaime E. Zolik

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Maternal Social Status, Offspring 2D:4D Ratio and Postnatal Growth, in Macaca mulatta (Rhesus Macaques) , Juan Pablo Arroyo

Social Exclusion of Older Mossi Women Accused of Witchcraft in Burkina Faso, West Africa , Clarisse Barbier

Fields Brook Superfund Site: Race, Class, and Environmental Justice in a Blasted Landscape , Richard C. Bargielski

The Effects of Feudalism on Medieval English Mobility: A Biological Distance Study Using Nonmetric Cranial Traits. , Jonathan H. Barkmeier

Before the Storm: Water and Energy Utilities, Human Vulnerability and Disaster Risk , Cori D. Bender

Recipes for the Living and the Dead: Technological Investigation of Ceramics from prehistoric Sicily. The case studies of Sant’Angelo Muxaro and Polizzello , Gianpiero Caso

Save Water Drink Wine: Challenges of Implementing the Ethnography of the Temecula Valley Wine Industry into Food-Energy-Water Nexus Decision-Making , Zaida E. Darley

İYo luché! : Uncovering and Interrupting Silencing in an Indigenous and Afro-descendant Community , Eileen Cecelia Deluca

Unwritten Records: Crime and Punishment in Early Virginia , Jessica L. Gantzert

‘It’s Been a Huge Stress’: An In-Depth, Exploratory Study of Vaccine Hesitant Parents in Southern California , Mika Kadono

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for Elemental Analysis in Bioarchaeology and Forensic Anthropology , Kelsi N. Kuehn

Middle Woodland Mounds of the Lower Chattahoochee, Lower Flint, and Apalachicola River Basin , Michael H. Lockman

Overturning the Turnbull Settlement: Artifact Analysis of the Old Stone Wharf in New Smyrna Beach, Florida , Tracy R. Lovingood

“They will think we are the Cancer Family”: Studying Patterns of Cancer Disclosure and Communication among Indian Immigrants in the United States , Kanan Mehta

Museum Kura Hulanda: Representations of Transatlantic Slavery and African and Dutch Heritage in Post-Colonial Curaçao , April Min

Nurses and Needlesticks: Perceptions of Stigma and HIV Risk , Bethany Sharon Moore

Circadian Rhythms and the Embodiment of Social Zeitgebers: Linking the Bio and Social , Tiffany R. Moore

Civic Engagement amid Civil Unrest: Haitian Social Scientists Working at Home , Nadège Nau

“Placing our breasts on a hot kerosene lantern”: A Critical Study of Microfinancialization in the Lives of Women Entrepreneurs in the Informal Economic Sector in Ibadan, Nigeria , Olubukola Olayiwola

Domestic Life during the Late Intermediate Period at El Campanario Site, Huarmey Valley, Peru , Jose Luis Peña

Archaeology and the Philosopher's Stance: An Advance in Ethics and Information Accessibility , Dina Rivera

A South Florida Ethnography of Mobile Home Park Residents Organizing Against Neoliberal Crony Capitalist Displacement , Juan Guillermo Ruiz

From Colonial Legacy to Difficult Heritage: Responding to and Remembering An Gorta Mór , Ireland’s Great Hunger , Katherine Elizabeth Shakour

The Role of Financial Insecurity and Expectations on Perspectives of Mental Health Services among Refugees , Jacqueline M. Siven

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Trauma Analysis in Cases of Child Fatality , Jaime D. Sykes

Governmentality, Biopower, and Sexual Citizenship: A Feminist Examination of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare Experiences of 18-24 Year-Olds in the U.S. Southeast , Melina K. Taylor

Characterizing Childhood and Diet in Migration Period Hungary , Kirsten A. Verostick

An Ethnography of WaSH Infrastructures and Governance in Sulphur Springs, Florida , Mathews Jackon Wakhungu

A Plan for Progress, Preservation, and Presentation at the Safety Harbor Museum and Cultural Center , Amanda L. Ward

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Pathways to Parenthood: Attitudes and Preferences of Eight Self-Identified Queer Women Living in Tampa Bay, FL , Emily Noelle Baker

"It's Not Addiction Until You Graduate": Natural Recovery in the College Context , Breanne I. Casper

Tales of Trafficking: Performing Women's Narratives in a Sex Trafficking Rehabilitation Program in Florida , Jaine E. Danlag

Perceptions of Infrastructure, Flood Management, and Environmental Redevelopment in the University Area, Hillsborough County, Florida , Kris-An K. Hinds

Eating in America: Easing the Transition for Resettled Refugees through an Applied Anthropological Intervention , Emily A. Holbrook

Genetic Testing and the Power of the Provider: Women’s Experiences with Cancer Genetic Testing , Dana Erin Ketcher

An Archaeological Investigation of Enslavement at Gamble Plantation , S. Matthew Litteral

“Right in the Trenches with Them”: Caregiving, Advocacy, and the Political Economy of Community Health Workers , Ryan I. Logan

Exploring Variations in Diet and Migration from Late Antiquity to the Early Medieval Period in the Veneto, Italy: A Biochemical Analysis , Ashley B. Maxwell

Least of My Worries: Food Security, Diet Quality, and Antiretroviral Adherence among People Living with HIV , Charlotte Ann Noble

The Tampa Gym Study: An Ethnographic Exploration of Gyms, Female Gym-Goers and The Quest for Fitness in Tampa, FL , Danielle Reneé Rosen

Environmental Legacies of Pre-Contact and Historic Land Use in Antigua, West Indies , Anthony Richard Tricarico

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Home > Humanities and Sciences > Anthropology > Anthropology ETDs

Anthropology Theses, Dissertations, and Professional Papers

This collection includes theses, dissertations, and professional papers from the University of Montana Department of Anthropology. Theses, dissertations, and professional papers from all University of Montana departments and programs may be searched here.

Theses/Dissertations from 2024 2024

Peoples of India: The use of craniometric data to distinguish a separate ancestral group , Stephanie A. Craig

REIMAGINING THE ACCURACY OF THE LOVEJOY ET AL. (1985) AGE ESTIMATION METHOD OF THE AURICULAR SURFACE OF THE ILIUM THROUGH MODERN COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS , Alyssa L. Edwards

SWIMMING THROUGH TIME: ANCIENT DNA ANALYSIS OF SALMONID REMAINS AT HOUSEPIT 54, BRIDGE RIVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA , Kara K. Fox

BEARING WITNESS: ANCIENT DNA ANALYSIS AND THE DYNAMICS OF FOOD PROCUREMENT IN A HISTORIC MISSOULA CHINESE COMMUNITY , Sarah Elizabeth Grenfell

FOODWAY COMPARIONS AND PATTERNS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: THE USE OF ORPHAN AND SALVAGE ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS FROM HISTORIC MISSOULA, MONTANA , Emily Thea Meick

Repatriation and a Biological Profile of Indigenous Remains of West Texas , Haley P. Rebardi

A HOME FOR ALL: INNOVATIVE MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES FOR HISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGISTS AT FEDERALLY REGULATED LANDSCAPES AT THE GARNET GHOST TOWN , Andrea Jean Shiverdecker

Zooming in on a Snapshot of Care: Adapting the Index of Care for Historical and Modern Individuals in the Terry Collection , Felicia Robyn Sparozic

Complexities of Companionship: Exploring the Human-Dog Relationship Through mtDNA Analysis of Bridge River Canine Remains , Seth Warnick

AN ETHNOHISTORY OF THE BANNOCK TRAIL , Katharine Lucienne White

Puerto Rican Haplogroup Distribution: A Taíno History , Paige Mackenzie Williams

Theses/Dissertations from 2023 2023

THE ANALYSIS OF ANCIENT DNA: FROM MITOCHONDRIA TO PATHOGENS , Tre Joseph Marcus Blohm

AN EXAMINATION OF THE FOOD SYSTEM, FOODSCAPE, DIETARY PATTERNS, AND ACCOLATED HEALTH OUTCOMES OF SALISH PEOPLE WITHIN THE CONFEDERATED SALISH AND KOOTENAI NATION , Joshua William Brown

Activity Pattern Analysis from a Commingled and Fragmentary Necropolis: Entheseal Changes at Kourion Amathus Gate Cemetery (KAGC) , Hannah Burgess Carson

All Under One Roof: An Ethnographic Commons in the Missoula Public Library , Caitlin Ervin

NEGOTIATING THE SACRED: UNDERSTANDING IMPACTS TO IKS AND ITEK FROM USE OF REMOTE SENSING AND GIS TECHNOLOGIES WITHIN TRIBAL LANDSCAPES , Renelda R. Freeman

Ancient Migrations in West Mexico: MtDNA Analyses , Patricio Gutiérrez Ruano

UNDERSTANDING IDENTITY, POWER, AND USE OF SPACE OVER TIME WITHIN HOUSEPIT 54, BRIDGE RIVER SITE (K’ETXELKNÁ’Z), BRITISH COLUMBIA , Ashley Elizabeth Hampton

META-ANALYSIS OF SCENT DETECTION CANINES AND POTENTIAL FACTORS INFLUENCING THEIR SUCCESS RATES , Molly Marie Jaskinia

FLICKER FEATHER FILMS: VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY, INDIGENOUS FILM, AND DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING , Martin I. Lopez

Venturing into the Virtual: An Analysis of Virtual Museums and Creation of UMACF Southwestern Basketry Virtual Exhibit , Monica D. Lusnia

Re-Curation and Recognition: Addressing The Curation Crisis Through the Garnet Ghost Town , Jocelyn A. Palombo

The Cultivation of Therapeutic Landscapes: A Medical Anthropological Approach to Understanding the Health and Wellbeing Qualities of the Garden of 1,000 Buddhas , Andrew Thomas Ranck

CHINESE MATERIAL CULTURE SIGNATURES IN NATIVE NORTH AMERICA: A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN ONLINE COLLECTIONS AND PLAINS , Erin Drin Rosenkrance and Erin D. Rosenkrance

SEEKING A COMMON THEME: A STUDY OF CERAMIC EFFIGY ARTIFACTS IN THE PRE-HISPANIC AMERICAN SOUTHWEST AND NORTHERN MEXICO USING COMPUTER IMAGE PATTERN RECOGNITION AND PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS , Lee Roger Tallier Jr.

UMFC 140 A COMPREHENSIVE CASE REPORT , Daniel D. Warila

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

USING BONE BIOLOGY TO ENHANCE FORENSIC AND PALEOANTHROPOLOGICAL DNA ANALYSIS , Keith M. Biddle

Linear Programming Analysis and Diet Breadth Modeling at Bridge River, British Columbia , Sean Patrick Boyd

MORPHOMETRIC ANCESTRAL ANALYSIS OF INFRAORBITAL FORAMEN AND MAXILLO-FACIAL LANDMARKS OF ADULT NORTH AMERICAN SKULLS USING X-RAY AND COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY SCANS , Anna-Marie Lynn David

The Mountain Home: Spatial and Optimal Foraging Assessments of Hunter- Gatherer Mountain Landscape Use In The Beartooth Mountains, Montana , Scott William Dersam

Revisiting the Ladle House Site: A Starch Granule Analysis of Ground Stone Artifacts from 5MT3873, Cortez, Colorado , Kathryn Marie Kemp

TRACING MIGRATION AND SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN SUBADULTS AT THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF CONVENTO: A PRELIMINARY STRONTIUM ISOTOPIC ANALYSIS , Holli Kaye McDonald

Identifying Skeletal Trauma Markers Associated with Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) , Haley K. Omeasoo

THE SYNDEMIC LANDSCAPE: A NEW PARADIGM FOR MONTANA SUICIDE PREVENTION GROUNDED IN AGRICULTURAL RENEWAL , Emory Chandler Padgett

PRELIMINARY STUDY IN MORE EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF 87Sr/86Sr ANALYSIS IN THE FIELD OF FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY , Samantha Powers

The effects humidity & temperature has on DNA contamination during storage , Samantha L. Ramey

THE EFFECTS HUMIDITY & TEMPERATURE HAS ON DNA CONTAMINATION DURING STORAGE , Samantha Leigh Allison Ramey

NEW INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AT 48PA551: LAND TENURE AND SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES AMONG MIDDLE HOLOCENE ROCKY MOUNTAIN HUNTER-GATHERERS , Ethan Patrick Ryan

MOCCASIN ECONOMICS: ENTANGLED MUSEUM STORIES OF NIITSITAPI WOMEN, LABOR, AND FOOTWEAR , Michaela Ann Shifley

FOR THE LOVE OF LANGUAGE: MICRORITUEL IN THE SOCIALIZATION OF LANGUAGE TEACHERS , Rebekah Morgan Skoog

A COMPREHENSIVE FORENSIC CASE REPORT WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY LAB UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA FORENSIC CASE #167 , Tyler J. Trettin

Y-Chromosome DNA Extraction from Post-Cranial Skeletal Elements , Mykala D. Ward

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AND HISTORIC ARTIFACT ANALYSIS FOR THREE PROJECTS IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK , Monte Keoua White

HE, SHE, THEY, OTHER: AN EXAMINATION OF GENDER ASSOCIATIONS WITH THE CHATELAINE IN THE ANGLO-SAXON CULTURE , DANE A. WILLIAMS

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

THE ECOLOGY OF PUHA: IDENTITY, ORIENTATION, AND SHIFTING PERCEPTIONS REFLECTED THROUGH MATERIAL CULTURE AND SOCIORELIGIOUS PRACTICE , Aaron Robert Atencio

Mapping Ethnophysiographies: An Investigation of Toponyms and Land Cover of Missoula County, Montana , Emily L. Cahoon

A Moral Influenza: An Historical Archaeological Investigation of the Prohibition Era in the United States 1920-1933 , Kelli Michele Casias

A COMPREHENSIVE FORENSIC CASE REPORT FOR THE BONNER COUNTY CORONER CASE #20-100 , Megan Copeland

Uncovering Cooperation in Housepit 54, Bridge River, British Columbia, Canada , Megan Denis

Exploring Indigenous Involvement in the Fur Trade at the Bridge River Pithouse Village, British Columbia , Rebekah Jean Engelland

THE EFFECTS OF HEAVY METAL CONTAMINATION IN SOIL ON DNA DEGRADATION AFTER DECOMPOSITION , Samantha Hofland

Devastation and Displacement: The Destruction of Native Communities as a Result of Specifically the Garrison Dam on the Missouri River in North Dakota and the Dalles Dams on the Columbia River in Oregon , Farryl Elisa Hunt

Buffalo in the Mountains: Mapping Evidence of Historical Bison Prescence and Bison Hunting in Glacier National Park , Kyle Langley

Summer Vacation in the Wild: An Historical and Archaeological Study of Timber Land Fraud in the Tobacco Plains, Montana , Tyler Jay Rounds

READING THE BONES: A TAPHONOMIC INVESTIGATION OF ARCHAEOFAUNAL REMAINS RECOVERED FROM SITE 48PA551, NORTHWEST WYOMING , Morgan H. Thurman

The Influence of Ancestry, Sex, and Age on the Morphology of the Frontal Sinus in Black and White Individuals , Hope Annelise Vance

The Lost Histories of the Shetayet of Sokar: Contextualizing the Osiris Shaft at Rosetau (Giza) in Archaeological History , Nicholas Edward Whiting

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

THREE-DIMENSIONAL GEOMETRIC MORPHOMETRIC SEX DETERMINATION AND MODELED FRAGMENTARY ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN PUBIC BONE , Katherine Scot Baca

SPIRIT EYE CAVE: REESTABLISHING PROVENIENCE OF TRAFFICKED PREHISTORIC HUMAN REMAINS USING A COMPOSITE COLLECTION-BASED ANCIENT DNA APPROACH , Tre Blohm

Conceptions and Receptions: A Case Study Analysis of Community Engagement at Four Local Museums , Mary L. Casey

A Comparative Analysis of Homicide Rates Utilizing the University of Tennessee Forensic Data Bank , Anna F. Hampton

SYNCHRONY: AN ASPECT OF THE ABILITIES OF STEPPE HORSE ARCHERS IN EURASIAN WARFARE (525 BCE – 1350 CE) , Chris Hanson

Alas, Poor Yorick: A DNA Analysis of Ancestry Using Crania , Claire Hanson

SECRETS OF SOIL: A GEOCHEMICAL INVESTIGATION AND SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF THE EARLY LIVING FLOORS OF HOUSEPIT 54, BRIDGE RIVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA , Nathaniel Louis Perhay

DIET-BREADTH ANALYSIS IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST: METABARCODING METHOD WITH COPROLITES , Paige Nicole Plattner

A Snapshot of Care: Creating Models of Care for Individuals Included in the Terry Collection , Felicia Robyn Sparozic

THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT AT PLAZA H, CAHAL PECH: A STUDY IN RESILIENCY , Rachel A. Steffen

A Chip off the Old Rock: An Investigation of Hunter-Gatherer Lithic Behavior at Site 48PA551 Using the FIeld Processing Model , Emma Lydia Vance

HANDING DOWN THE HERITAGE: PRESERVING IRISH DIASPORIC IDENTITIES IN THE FESTIVAL CITY OF MONTANA , Margaret Mary Walsh

A NEW CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM FOR ANALYZING BURNED HUMAN REMAINS , Amanda Noel Williams

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

3D PRINTING OF THE PROXIMAL RIGHT FEMUR: IT’S IMPLICATIONS IN THE FIELD OF FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY AND BIOARCHAEOLOGY , Myriah Adonia Jo Allen

THE QUEST OF VISION: VISUAL CULTURE, SACRED SPACE, RITUAL, AND THE DOCUMENTATION OF LIVED EXPERIENCE THROUGH ROCK IMAGERY , Aaron Robert Atencio

Sexual Dimorphism in Skeletal Trauma Associated with Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) , Keith Biddle

RECONNECTING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE TO THE SUNLIGHT BASIN: INTEGRATING TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY , Liz Dolinar

GRANT-PROPOSAL WRITING AS A CRAFT AND POTENTIAL WAYS TO IMPROVE GRANT-PROPOSAL WRITING KNOWLEDGE AND APPLICATION READINESS FOR STUDENTS SEEKING FUNDING ASSISTANCE ATTENDING POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION , Eileen L. Flannigan-Lewis

A Comprehensive Forensic Case Report for the University of Montana Forensic Collection Case #141 , Nohely Gonzalez

“IF THE WATER IS TAKING IT AWAY, LET THE WATER TAKE IT AWAY…”: A STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF CONSULTATION AT LAKE KOOCANUSA , Kayla Ciara Johnson

Cultural Property Protection and Preservation During Counterinsurgency Operations: A Handbook for Archaeologists Choosing to Serve with the American Military in the Global War on Terrorism , Thomas Joseph Livoti

HERITAGE ALCHEMY: A MODEL FOR SUSTAINING THE BUILT HERITAGE OF MONTANA IN THE CHANGING LANDSCAPES OF THE 21ST CENTURY VIA PERSPECTIVES FROM THE NETHERLANDS ON POLICY, EDUCATION, AND STEWARDSHIP , Jeffrey MacDonald

NATIVE AMERICAN CONSERVATION CORPS PROGRAMS: CULTURAL HERITAGE AS AN APPROACH TO COMMUNITY WELL-BEING , Michaelle Anne Machuca

HUMAN VS. NON-HUMAN BONE: A NON-DESTRUCTIVE HISTOLOGICAL METHOD , Haley N. O'Brien

Mapping Ideologies: Place Names in Glacier National Park , Kaitlin E. Pipitone

DNA ANALYSIS ON CERAMIC COOKING VESSELS , Britney J. Radford

DNA integrity in forensic samples , Samantha L. Ramey

LEARNING FROM THE LANDSCAPE: INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES AND PLACER MINING LANDSCAPES IN THE ELK CREEK MINING DISTRICT, WESTERN MONTANA , Brent Stephen Rowley

Learning From Stone: Using Lithic Artifacts to Explore the Transmission of Culture at Bridge River, British Columbia , Anne V. Smyrl

IS HUMLA, NEPAL REALLY OPEN DEFECATION FREE? LATRINE USAGE AND UPKEEP POST ODF , Evan William Stewart

A Comprehensive Case Report for the University of Montana Forensic Anthropology Laboratory Case #18-188 , Elizabeth Rose Valentine

An Investigation of Historic Euro-American Inscriptions at Madison Buffalo Jump , Jay Thomas Vest

THE ANZICK ARTIFACTS: A HIGH-TECHNOLOGY FORAGER TOOL ASSEMBLAGE , Samuel Stockton White V

CONSTRUCTING DISTANCE, RESPONSIBILITY, AND MEMORY MANAGEMENT THEORIES: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACH TO DEATH NOTIFICATION INTERACTIONS , Teresa Ann 'Lilly' White

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT , Erin Chiniewicz

8HG1312 Amanda's Terrace Lithic Analysis , SEAN FLYNN

The Sylvan Blindspot: The Archaeological Value of Surface Vegetation and a Critique of its Documentation , John S. Harris

VARIATION OF TOOL MARK CHARACTERISTICS IN FROZEN BONE AS IT RELATES TO DISMEMBERMENT , Elena Hughes

A CERAMIC ANALYSIS OF TWO TERMINAL CLASSIC MAYA SITES: EXAMINING ECONOMIC TIES THROUGH POTTERY , Kara B. Johannesen

PIG TRAUMA MODELS: A CIVILIAN PERSPECTIVE ON AR-15 POST-CRANIAL SKELETAL TRAUMA , Lauren M. Kenney

TRIBAL CONSULTATION: A CRITICAL REMINDER OF CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT LAWS AND OBLIGATIONS , Natasha F. LaRose

SOCIAL, CULTURAL, AND ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON THE PROCESS OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION , Cheyenne Louise Laue

The Battle of the Little Bighorn Gunshot Trauma Analysis: Suicide Prevalence Among the Soldiers of the 7th Cavalry , Genevieve M. Mielke

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DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY

• Undergraduate

Senior Theses and Honors

Conducting original research is central to the field of Anthropology. By undertaking original research in Anthropology students develop core skills in critical thinking, research, and written and oral communication. These skills, rooted in the holistic discipline of Anthropology, are widely applicable regardless of your career choice. Original research for the Senior Thesis may be based on library, laboratory, or field research on a topic that the student has chosen in consultation with their faculty adviser. The Senior Thesis is an opportunity for students to explore a topic of their interest in Anthropology.

Majors with an interest in pursuing original research in anthropology during their senior year identify a thesis topic and advisor during their junior year and submit an application to write a senior thesis to the Honors Coordinator by spring of junior year. The thesis requires:

• Completion of 399 in the Fall quarter of senior year
• Completion of 398 in Winter quarter of senior year

398 may be counted toward the 300-level requirements for the major. 399 is in addition to the 300-level requirements for the major

Honors in Anthropology

Students interested in pursuing honors in Anthropology are required to (1) prepare a 1-2 page project proposal and (2) secure a project advisor during their junior year. The proposal and an email from the advisor attesting to their work with the student should be sent to the Honors Coordinator, Prof. Erin Waxenbaum ( [email protected] ), by July 1 of the student’s junior year.

Students who write a thesis and whose theses and grades meet university criteria are recommended to the college for graduation with honors. Eligibility for honors includes:

• Writing an outstanding senior thesis
• 3.3 GPA overall
• 3.5 GPA in Anthropology 

Honors and awards

Students who prepare an outstanding honors thesis will be nominated for honors in anthropology to the Weinberg College Committee on Undergraduate Academic Excellence, which has the final authority to grant the honors degree. All students writing an honors thesis are also eligible for following departmental awards:

• Oswald Werner Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Anthropology

This prize honors Professor Emeritus Oswald Werner’s research, teaching, fieldwork training and administrative contributions. He was a faculty member for 35 years, a department chair, founder, and director of the Northwestern University Ethnographic Field School, and an ardent supporter of undergraduate research.

• Friends of Anthropology Award for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Public Anthropology

This prize recognizes outstanding research that  matters to the communities in which the researcher works, addressing important  social issues and helping to foster change. The award was established in 2005 with funding from the "Friends of Anthropology at Northwestern" (FAN) Alumni Group.

• Elizabeth M. Brumfiel Award for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Archaeology

See a list of award-winners who have won scholarships and other prizes.

The Honors Coordinator for Anthropology is: Prof. Erin Waxenbaum 

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Anthropology concentrators pursue a diverse range of topics and places that covers every time period from the pre-historical to the present, and every major world area. Recent senior honors thesis have investigated:

• The relationship between the Boston Catholic Church and its Spanish-speaking members
• Islamic Finance in Malaysia
• A Cancer Ward in Kenya
• Stigma in the Lives of Unmarried Women in Contemporary China
• Challenges in Housing Rights Advocacy in Bolivia

The requirements for honors eligibility are distinguished by program. Certain honors recommendations are possible without a thesis. 

Students are encouraged to consult A Student's Guide to Reading and Writing in Social Anthropology and the AnthroWrites website.

• Archaeology Honors
• Social Anthropology Honors
• Combined Archaeology-Social Anthropology Honors

Thesis Track (12 courses)

• Including one Archaeology Graduate-Level Research Seminar (2000-level)
• ANTH 99: Thesis Tutorial in Anthropology, a full-year writing workshop, culminating in the submission of a senior thesis and an oral thesis examination.

Non-Thesis Track (10 courses)

All graduating seniors in Archaeology who are not thesis candidates and have taken a 2000-level course may be considered for a non-thesis honors recommendation of Honors (but not High or Highest Honors), provided that their concentration grade point averages calculated at the end of their next to last terms are among the highest twenty-five percent of non-thesis candidates in their graduating class in Archaeology. To be considered for a High or Highest Honors recommendation in Anthropology, a student must complete a thesis, in addition to the requirements specified above.

• Basic Concentration Requirements

All graduating seniors in Social Anthropology who are not thesis candidates may be considered for a non-thesis honors recommendation of Honors, provided that their concentration grade point averages calculated at the end of their next to last terms are among the highest twenty-five percent of non-thesis candidates in their graduating class in Social Anthropology. To be considered for a High or Highest Honors recommendation in Anthropology, a student must complete a thesis, in addition to the requirements specified above.

All graduating seniors in Combined Archaeology and Social Anthropology, who are not thesis candidates may be considered for a non-thesis honors recommendation of Honors (but not High or Highest Honors), provided that their concentration grade point averages calculated at the end of their next to last terms are among the highest twenty-five percent of non-thesis candidates in their graduating class in Combined Archaeology and Social Anthropology. To be considered for a High or Highest Honors recommendation in Anthropology, a student must complete a thesis, in addition to the requirements specified above.

• For Prospectives
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• Anthropology Undergraduate Advising Packet (2023-2024)

Theses and Dissertations

Booklets – m.a. recipients & ph.d. graduates.

• 2019-20, 2020-21, Summer 2021

2023-24 Theses, Reports, and Dissertations

Master’s Theses & Reports

Elizabeth Arnold, M.A. Unveiling Diasporic Markets: An Archaeology of Consumption in California’s Chinatowns Chair: Monica L. Smith, Ph.D.

Natalie Finnegan, M.A. Mitochondrial DNA for phylogeny building: Assessing individual and grouped mtGenes as proxies for the mtGenome in platyrrhines Chair: Jessica Lynch, Ph.D.

Thomas Gabriel Gerz, M.A. Colonialism; Language Ideologies; Linguistic Landscape; Ryukyuan Languages; US Military & Okinawa Chair: Erin Debenport, Ph.D.

Sophie Elizabeth Klitgaard, M.A. An Evolutionary Approach to Privacy Co-Chairs: H. Clark Barrett, Ph.D. and Daniel Fessler, Ph.D.

Leroy F. Moore, M.A. Krip-Hop Nation: Community-Based Education at the Intersection of Blackness & Disability Co-Chairs: H. Samy Alim, Ph.D. and Norma Mendoza-Denton, Ph.D.

Doctoral Dissertations

Vincent M. Belletto, Ph.D. Attitudes of Loss: A Phenomenological Analysis of Identity, Cultural Shift, and Language Death Among the Unserdeutsch Creole German Community of Australia Chair: C. Jason Throop, Ph.D.

Blake Erickson, Ph.D. Challenges to Psychiatric Care: A Clinical and Anthropological Analysis of Psychosis and Dependency Chair: Laurie Kain Hart, Ph.D.

Aditi Anand Halbe, Ph.D. Trademarks of Tradition: Artisan Labor, Development and Place making in Rural India Chair: Akhil Gupta, Ph.D.

Delaney Knorr, Ph.D. Embodied experiences: a mixed-methods approach to understanding stress and resilience in Latina mothers Chair: Molly Fox, Ph.D.

Naakoshie Awurama Mills, Ph.D. Cultures of Foreign Policymaking: State Department Diplomats and Race in US-Africa Strategy Chair: Laurie Kain Hart, Ph.D.

Molly Theodora Billings Oringer, Ph.D. Spatial Relations: Post-War Reconstruction and the Afterlives of Jewish Terrains in Lebanon Co-Chairs: Laurie Kain Hart, Ph.D. and Susan Slyomovics, Ph.D.

Rachel Parks, Ph.D. Translating Pain, Communicating Care: Representing Expertise, Kinship, and Disability Through the DisDAT Form Chair: C. Jason Throop, Ph.D.

Reuven Sinensky, Ph.D. Early Agriculture and Indigenous Foodways in the US Southwest and Mesoamerica: Cuisine and Social Change in Mobile Farming Societies Chair: Gregson Schachner, Ph.D.

Jaime Vela, Ph.D. Diabetes Prevention Strategies for the Diné: Cultural Learning to Implement change. A Qualitative Study Chair: Russell Thornton, Ph.D.

Sasha Lutz Winkler, Ph.D. Evolutionary Perspectives on Play and Laughter Co-Chairs: Erica Cartmill, Ph.D. and Susan Perry, Ph.D.

Haoyan Zhuang, Ph.D. Collective Individualization: Co-living among Youth in Contemporary China Co-Chairs: Nancy E. Levine, Ph.D. and Yunxiang Yan, Ph.D.

2022-23 Theses, Reports, and Dissertations

Madison Aubey, MA

The Archaeology of Sovereignty: Africatown, Black Mobile, and Resistive Consumption

Chair: Justin P. Dunnavant

Amber Kela Chong, MA

Experiments in Sovereignty: Cultivating ʻĀina Momona at Waipā

Chair: Jessica Cattelino  

Dani Heffernan, MA

Constructing the “Cisgender Listening Subject”: Trans-Feminine Speakers’ Commentaries on Voice and Being Heard

Chair: Norma Mendoza-Denton  

Sally Li, MA

Racial and temporal differences in fertility-education tradeoffs highlight the effect of economic opportunities on optimum family size in the US

Chair: Brooke Scelza  

Robin Stevland Meyer-Lorey, MA

Manifest Destiny in Southeast Asia: Archaeology of American Colonial Industry in the Philippines, 1898-1987

Chair: Stephen Acabado  

Victoria Newhall, MA.

Evaluating the Role of Foodways During Large-Scale Socio-Political Transformations at Formative Tres Zapotes

Co-Chairs: Richard Lesure and Gregson Schachner  

Wanda Quintanilla Duran, MA

Chair: Jason De León  

The Force of Intimacy in a Honduran Community

Nicole Smith, M.A.

From Exile to Eviction: Garífuna Indigeneity, Land Rights, and Heritage in Roatán, Honduras

Co-Chairs: Jason De León and Justin Dunnavant

Steven Ammerman, PhD

Human-Animal Interaction at the Ancient Urban Site of Sisupalgarh, India

Chair: Monica L. Smith

Spencer Chao-Long Chen, PhD

Dubbing Ideologies: The Politics of Language and Acoustic Aesthetics in Taiwan’s Mandarin-Voiceover Production

Chair: Paul V. Kroskrity

Kristine Joy Chua, PhD

Environmental, Biological, and Cultural Influences on Health and Behavior

Chair: Abigail Bigham

Rodney R. Gratreaks Jr., PhD

Talking to the Wind: Towards an Understanding of Numic Verbal Art and Language Planning in the Village of Shaxwapats

Emily Virginia Jones, PhD

A Violent Operation: Trauma Surgery, Policing, and the Politics of Care in a Los Angeles County Public Hospital

Chair: Laurie Kain Hart

Sucharita Kanjilal, PhD

Home Chefs: Indian Households Produce for the Global Creator Economy

Chair: Akhil Gupta

Andrew E. MacIver, Ph.D.

The Shang-Zhou Transition: Immanence, Power, and the Micropolitics of Encounter

Chair: Li Min

Joshua L. Mayer, PhD

Conjuring Territory: Afro-Indigenous Authority and Settler Capitalism in Nicaragua

Chair: Shannon Speed

Bianca Romagnoli, PhD

Patrolling North of 60: Military Infrastructure in Canada’s Arctic Communities

Co-Chairs: Salih Can Açiksöz and Laurie Kain Hart

Theodore Samore, PhD

Traditionalism, Pathogen Avoidance, and Competing Tradeoffs During a Global Threat

Chair: Daniel M.T. Fessler

William James Schlesinger, PhD

The Production and Governance of Risky Sexual Subjectivity in the Era of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) to HIV

Chair: Salih Can Açiksöz

Saliem Wakeem Shehadeh, PhD

Researching the General Union of Palestine Students from the Diaspora

Co-Chairs: Jemima Pierre and Susan Slyomovics

Madeleine Amee Yakal, PhD

Spanish Colonialism in Bikol, Philippines: Localizing Devotion to Our Lady of Peñafrancia

Chair: Stephen Acabado

2021-22 Theses, Reports, and Dissertations

Master’s Theses & Reports

Emilia Rose Ørsted Holmbeck, MA

Contextualizing PTSD as Diagnosis and Intervention: Situating Trauma and the Subjective Experience of Suffering in Locally Meaningful Worlds

Co-Chairs: Douglas W. Hollan & Linda Garro  

Jewell Ruth-Ella Humphrey, MA

Harboring History: A Maritime Archaeological Analysis of an 18th Century Shipwreck in Coral Bay, St. Jan

Co-Chairs: Stephen Acabado & Justin Dunnavant  

Lillian Kohn, MA

Public Mourning, Online Spaces: Virtual Memorialization and Binational Grief in Israel-Palestine

Chair: Susan Slyomovics  

NaaKoshie Awurama Mills, MA

Par for the Corps: Black Diplomats and Race in U.S. Foreign Policy

Chair: Laurie Hart  

Abdullah Puckett, MA

Decarceration and Social Justice Activism in South Central LA

Chair: Philippe Bourgois

  Matthew James Schneider, MA

Against Accountability: Policing and Public Knowledge in Los Angeles

Chair: Hannah Appel  

Doğa Tekin, MA

Claiming Big Sur: How Places Enter Semiosis

Co-Chairs: Erin Debenport & Paul V. Kroskrity  

Kimberly Tanya Zhu, MA

Genomic Features Underlying Andean High-Altitude Adaptive Hemoglobin Levels

Chair: Abigail Bigham  

Brittany Nicole Florkiewicz, PhD

Properties of Facial Signaling in Captive Chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes )

Chair: Brooke Scelza   Yanina Gori, PhD

Re/mediating Revolution: Cultivating Solidarity in a Cuban Queer Community

Co-Chairs: Hannah Appel & C. Jason Throop  

Jananie Kalyanaraman, PhD

Window seats: Making connection through transport and mobility in Bengaluru city, India

  Eva Rose Melstrom, PhD

The Gate of Weeping: Ethiopian Women Returning from Domestic Work in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf

Co-Chairs: Douglas W. Hollan & C. Jason Throop  

Zachary Mondesire, PhD

Region-craft: An Ethnography of South Sudan’s Transnational Intelligentsia

Lauren Textor, PhD

Deserving Abandonment: Governing Pain and Addiction across U.S. Opioid Landscapes

Co-Chairs: Philippe Bourgois & Laurie Hart

2020-21 Theses and Dissertations

Master’s Theses

Sara Isabel Castro Font, MA

Hipsters, Drunks, Tourists, and Locals: Calle Loíza as a Site of Ideological Contestation

Co-Chairs: Erin Debenport & Paul V. Kroskrity

Lilit Ghazaryan, MA

Speak Beautifully – Language Policies and Practices in Public Kindergartens in Armenia

Chair: Erica Cartmill

Nicco Amedeo La Mattina, MA

“Giving the Meaning” as a Social Practice on Pantelleria: The Metasemantics of Atttunement

Chair: Alessandro Duranti

Alessandra May Laurer Rosen, MA

Semiotic Labors of Personalization: Modernization and Access in an American Yoga School

Danielle Leigh Steinberg, MA

A robust tool kit: first report of tool use in crested capuchin monkeys ( Sapajus robustus )

Chair: Jessica Lynch

Jessie Serene Stoolman, MA

Writing Letters and Reading against the Grain of Anthropology’s Past

Chair: Aomar Boum

Donghyoun We, MA

Food and Restaurants: A Review of the Literature and Exploratory Observations of Restaurant Pivots in LA in the Time of COVID-19

Madeleine Louise Zoeller, MA

Eye See You: Investigating Predictors of the Evil Eye

Chair: Joseph Manson

Farzad Amoozegar-Fassaie, PhD

The Pursuit of Happiness and the Other: Being a Syrian Refugee Child in America

Co-Chairs: Alessandro Duranti & C. Jason Throop

Theresa Hill Arriola, PhD

Securing Nature: Militarism, Indigeneity and the Environment in the Northern Mariana Islands

Chair: Jessica Cattelino

Yael Assor, PhD

Objectivity as a Bureaucratic Virtue: The Lived Experience of Objectivity in an Israeli Medical Bureaucracy

Chair: C. Jason Throop

Amanda Jean Bailey, PhD

Alluvial Hope: The Transformative Practices of Placemaking at a Montana Tribal College

Co-Chairs: Paul V. Kroskrity & Cheryl Mattingly

Hannah Addaline Carlan, PhD

Producing Prosperity: Language and the Labor of Development in India’s Western Himalayas

Alejandro Suleman Erut, PhD

Lying: an anthropological approach

Chair: H. Clark Barrett

Nafis Aziz Hasan, PhD

Techno-politics of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) – Investigating Practices and Social Relations in Indian Public Bureaucracies

Tanya Ruth Matthan, PhD

The Monsoon and the Market: Economies of Risk in Rural India

Agatha Evangeline Palma, PhD

The Migrant, The Mediterranean, and the Tourist: Figures of Belonging in Post-Austerity Palermo

Co-Chairs: Aomar Boum & Laurie Kain Hart

Sonya Rao, PhD

Privatizing Language Work: Interpreters and Access in Los Angeles Immigration Court

Alexander Malcolm Thomson, PhD

Mesologues: An Ethnobibliographic Study of Cultural and Lingual Politics in Contemporary Brittany

Co-Chairs: Laurie Kain Hart & Paul V. Kroskrity

2019-20 Theses, Reports, and Dissertations

Ulises Espinoza, MA

Intuitions on Ownership Among the Achuar of Southeastern Ecuador

Eden Franz, MA

Cultural and Interspecific Symbiosis at Salemi, Sicily: Exploring Colonial and Human-Animal Interactions Through Faunal Analysis

Joelle Julien, MA

Haitian Migration to Tijuana, Mexico: Black Migrants and the Political Economy of Race and Migration

Chair: Jemima Pierre

Eric Andrew Sinski, MA

Imagined Communities: Patriotic Sentiment Among Chinese Students Abroad in the Era of Xi Jinping

Chair: Yunxiang Yan

Sasha Lutz Winkler, MA

The Development of Sex Differences in Play in Wild White-Faced Capuchins

Katelyn Jo Bishop, PhD

Ritual Practice, Ceremonial Organization, and the Value and Use of Birds in Prehispanic Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, 800-1150 CE

Co-Chairs: Richard Lesure & Gregson Schachner

Molly Josette Bloom, PhD

Thick Sociality: Community, Disability, and Language in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation

Chair: Norma Mendoza-Denton

Courtney Evelyn Cecale, PhD

Scientific Governance and the Cultural Politics of Climate Change Adaptation in the Peruvian Andes

Amy Marie Garey, PhD

The People’s Laughter: War, Comedy, and the Soviet Legacy

Chair: Nancy E. Levine

Kotrina Kajokaite, PhD

Social relationships in wild white-faced capuchin monkeys ( Cebus capucinus ): Insights from new modeling approaches

Chair: Susan Perry

Matthew Richard McCoy, PhD

Unsettling Futures: Morality, Time, and Death in a Divided Belfast Community

Dalila Isoke Ozier, PhD

City of Magic: Aesthetic Value in the Los Angeles Magic Scene

Chair: Sherry B. Ortner

Mindy Gayle Steinberg, PhD

Legal Status and the Everyday Lives of Mexican-Origin Youth in Los Angeles: Family, Gratitude, and the High School Transition

Chair: Thomas S. Weisner

Christopher Shawn Stephan, PhD

“Focus on the Users”: Empathy, Anticipation, and Perspective-Taking in Healthcare Architecture

Anoush Tamar Suni, PhD

Palimpsests of Violence: Ruination and the Politics of Memory in Anatolia

Chair: Susan Slyomovics

Gwyneth Ursula Jean Talley, PhD

Gunpowder Women: Gender, Kinship & Horses in Moroccan Equestrian Performance

Co-Chairs: Nancy E. Levine & Susan Slyomovics

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Anthropology

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Home / Undergraduate / Anthropology Undergraduate Handbook / Senior Thesis

Senior Thesis

Students considering an independent thesis must arrange for the sponsorship and support of a faculty member before beginning research. An independent senior thesis (not written within a senior seminar) should be based on original research and reflect the student’s understanding of fundamental theories and issues in anthropology. The thesis should be comparable in content, style, and length (generally 25–30 pages) to a professional journal article in its subfield. Students who wish to complete the senior comprehensive requirement through and independent thesis will enroll in a section of ANTH 195S supervised by their thesis sponsor or ANTH 195A , ANTH 195B and ANTH 195C series.

Senior theses have been based on independent ethnographic studies, life histories, and laboratory analyses of archaeological or osteological remains. The department has copies of past Senior Theses available for review in the Ethnographic Library (328 Social Sciences 1). These theses are an excellent resource for students who want to get an idea of the range of topics available for study and the appropriate structure and style of Senior Theses. Students are permitted to review the various theses but they are not to be removed from the Ethnographic Library.

Senior Thesis Process

Students who plan to write an independent Senior Thesis must begin planning well in advance – typically three quarters before they plan to graduate. The Senior Thesis process usually takes about a full academic year and requires that students are highly self-motivated and committed to their thesis topic. Most students spend at least one quarter conducting research and one quarter writing the thesis. The steps for completing a Senior Thesis are described below.

STEP 1:    Decide on a topic. This can be developed independently or in conjunction with a faculty member. The Senior Theses in the Ethnographic Library are an excellent resource for students in the process of determining the style, subject, and scope of their research and writing process.

STEP 2:    Find a permanent Anthropology faculty member who will sponsor and advise you on your thesis. Your faculty sponsor will supervise your research and writing, evaluate your thesis, and write your final thesis evaluation. Visiting faculty, lecturers and graduate students cannot supervise Senior Thesis projects. The department recommends that you approach a faculty member with whom you have taken a course with in the past and whose research interests are similar to yours.

Most faculty will not supervise students whom they have never supervised in a class, nor will faculty ordinarily work with students who have not already demonstrated superior work in their Anthropology coursework at UCSC. If you intend to do ethnographic fieldwork for your Senior Thesis you should first select a thesis adviser, then plan this research in consultation with your adviser. Do not complete the fieldwork first and then attempt to find an adviser.

STEP 3:    If the research for your thesis involves work with either human subjects or with animals, then you MUST talk to your thesis adviser regarding the Human Subjects or CARC applications. Human Subjects and CARC applications are a very important aspect of doing advanced research. Without submitting and gaining approval on a Human Subjects or CARC application students cannot present or publish any findings from thesis research.  

STEP 4:    Conduct your thesis research. You may elect to take an Independent Study course (ANTH 197, 198 or 199) with your thesis adviser so that you can receive units for your research. Keep in mind that only  ONE  Independent Study course may be counted towards your Upper- Division major requirements and that all students must complete 10 Upper-Division courses in the major.

STEP 5:    Enroll in ANTH 195S and write your thesis. For information on format, rules, and style, talk to your thesis adviser and see the  American Anthropological Association’s Style Guide . Anthropology Senior Theses must demonstrate proficiency in the discipline of Anthropology.   Your senior thesis must be submitted by the end of the quarter in which you are enrolled for ANTH 195S.  

Submitting Your Senior Thesis

The final draft of your senior thesis must be submitted to the department so that the Anthropology Undergraduate Advisor can confirm completion of the senior comprehensive requirment when processing major checklists for graduation.

Below is a link to the Senior Thesis Submission and Evaluation Form.  You will be required to provide the following information in the form:

• Student ID #
• Faculty Sponsor for Thesis (Instructor of Record for ANTH 195S or ANTH 195A/B/C)
• Current Quarter and Year
• Thesis Title
• Geographic Region of Research Project
• Summary of Thesis
• Upload of Thesis Document
• If you choose to share your thesis, it will be available to UCSC affiliates logged into their UCSC Google Account

You will not be able to submit the form until all of these fields are completed.

Upon submission of the form, you will automatically be redirected to DocuSign where you will confirm your decision to share the thesis by initial (required).  Because the thesis is unable to be transmitted to DocuSign, you will be prompted to upload a copy of your thesis again.  The document you upload through DocuSign will be appended to the DocuSign form.

Once you have submitted the DocuSign form, it will be routed to your faculty sponsor who will confirm that the thesis submitted satisfies the senior comprehensive requirement. 

If your faculty sponsor determines that the thesis warrants review for honors, they will select another senate faculty member from the Department of Anthropology to review as a second reader.  The second reader will confirm whether the thesis merits honors.

Finally, the completed DocuSign document will be routed to the Anthropology Undergraduate Advisor who will process completion of the senior comprehensive requirement. 

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Explore our doctoral dissertations and master’s theses that span all of the subfields of anthropology, including sociocultural, archaeological, museum and visual, linguistic, medical, and biological.

Anthropology

What this handout is about.

This handout briefly situates anthropology as a discipline of study within the social sciences. It provides an introduction to the kinds of writing that you might encounter in your anthropology courses, describes some of the expectations that your instructors may have, and suggests some ways to approach your assignments. It also includes links to information on citation practices in anthropology and resources for writing anthropological research papers.

What is anthropology, and what do anthropologists study?

Anthropology is the study of human groups and cultures, both past and present. Anthropology shares this focus on the study of human groups with other social science disciplines like political science, sociology, and economics. What makes anthropology unique is its commitment to examining claims about human ‘nature’ using a four-field approach. The four major subfields within anthropology are linguistic anthropology, socio-cultural anthropology (sometimes called ethnology), archaeology, and physical anthropology. Each of these subfields takes a different approach to the study of humans; together, they provide a holistic view. So, for example, physical anthropologists are interested in humans as an evolving biological species. Linguistic anthropologists are concerned with the physical and historical development of human language, as well as contemporary issues related to culture and language. Archaeologists examine human cultures of the past through systematic examinations of artifactual evidence. And cultural anthropologists study contemporary human groups or cultures.

What kinds of writing assignments might I encounter in my anthropology courses?

The types of writing that you do in your anthropology course will depend on your instructor’s learning and writing goals for the class, as well as which subfield of anthropology you are studying. Each writing exercise is intended to help you to develop particular skills. Most introductory and intermediate level anthropology writing assignments ask for a critical assessment of a group of readings, course lectures, or concepts. Here are three common types of anthropology writing assignments:

Critical essays

This is the type of assignment most often given in anthropology courses (and many other college courses). Your anthropology courses will often require you to evaluate how successfully or persuasively a particular anthropological theory addresses, explains, or illuminates a particular ethnographic or archaeological example. When your instructor tells you to “argue,” “evaluate,” or “assess,” they are probably asking for some sort of critical essay. (For more help with deciphering your assignments, see our handout on understanding assignments .)

Writing a “critical” essay does not mean focusing only on the most negative aspects of a particular reading or theory. Instead, a critical essay should evaluate or assess both the weaknesses and the merits of a given set of readings, theories, methods, or arguments.

Sample assignment:

Assess the cultural evolutionary ideas of late 19th century anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan in terms of recent anthropological writings on globalization (select one recent author to compare with Morgan). What kinds of anthropological concerns or questions did Morgan have? What kinds of anthropological concerns underlie the current anthropological work on globalization that you have selected? And what assumptions, theoretical frameworks, and methodologies inform these questions or projects?

Ethnographic projects

Another common type of research and writing activity in anthropology is the ethnographic assignment. Your anthropology instructor might expect you to engage in a semester-long ethnographic project or something shorter and less involved (for example, a two-week mini-ethnography).

So what is an ethnography? “Ethnography” means, literally, a portrait (graph) of a group of people (ethnos). An ethnography is a social, political, and/or historical portrait of a particular group of people or a particular situation or practice, at a particular period in time, and within a particular context or space. Ethnographies have traditionally been based on an anthropologist’s long-term, firsthand research (called fieldwork) in the place and among the people or activities they are studying. If your instructor asks you to do an ethnographic project, that project will likely require some fieldwork.

Because they are so important to anthropological writing and because they may be an unfamiliar form for many writers, ethnographies will be described in more detail later in this handout.

Spend two hours riding the Chapel Hill Transit bus. Take detailed notes on your observations, documenting the setting of your fieldwork, the time of day or night during which you observed and anything that you feel will help paint a picture of your experience. For example, how many people were on the bus? Which route was it? What time? How did the bus smell? What kinds of things did you see while you were riding? What did people do while riding? Where were people going? Did people talk? What did they say? What were people doing? Did anything happen that seemed unusual, ordinary, or interesting to you? Why? Write down any thoughts, self-reflections, and reactions you have during your two hours of fieldwork. At the end of your observation period, type up your fieldnotes, including your personal thoughts (labeling them as such to separate them from your more descriptive notes). Then write a reflective response about your experience that answers this question: how is riding a bus about more than transportation?

Analyses using fossil and material evidence

In some assignments, you might be asked to evaluate the claims different researchers have made about the emergence and effects of particular human phenomena, such as the advantages of bipedalism, the origins of agriculture, or the appearance of human language. To complete these assignments, you must understand and evaluate the claims being made by the authors of the sources you are reading, as well as the fossil or material evidence used to support those claims. Fossil evidence might include things like carbon dated bone remains; material evidence might include things like stone tools or pottery shards. You will usually learn about these kinds of evidence by reviewing scholarly studies, course readings, and photographs, rather than by studying fossils and artifacts directly.

The emergence of bipedalism (the ability to walk on two feet) is considered one of the most important adaptive shifts in the evolution of the human species, but its origins in space and time are debated. Using course materials and outside readings, examine three authors’ hypotheses for the origins of bipedalism. Compare the supporting points (such as fossil evidence and experimental data) that each author uses to support their claims. Based on your examination of the claims and the supporting data being used, construct an argument for why you think bipedal locomotion emerged where and when it did.

How should I approach anthropology papers?

Writing an essay in anthropology is very similar to writing an argumentative essay in other disciplines. In most cases, the only difference is in the kind of evidence you use to support your argument. In an English essay, you might use textual evidence from novels or literary theory to support your claims; in an anthropology essay, you will most often be using textual evidence from ethnographies, artifactual evidence, or other support from anthropological theories to make your arguments.

Here are some tips for approaching your anthropology writing assignments:

• Make sure that you understand what the prompt or question is asking you to do. It is a good idea to consult with your instructor or teaching assistant if the prompt is unclear to you. See our handout on arguments and handout on college writing for help understanding what many college instructors look for in a typical paper.
• Review the materials that you will be writing with and about. One way to start is to set aside the readings or lecture notes that are not relevant to the argument you will make in your paper. This will help you focus on the most important arguments, issues, and behavioral and/or material data that you will be critically assessing. Once you have reviewed your evidence and course materials, you might decide to have a brainstorming session. Our handouts on reading in preparation for writing and brainstorming might be useful for you at this point.
• Develop a working thesis and begin to organize your evidence (class lectures, texts, research materials) to support it. Our handouts on constructing thesis statements and paragraph development will help you generate a thesis and develop your ideas and arguments into clearly defined paragraphs.

What is an ethnography? What is ethnographic evidence?

Many introductory anthropology courses involve reading and evaluating a particular kind of text called an ethnography. To understand and assess ethnographies, you will need to know what counts as ethnographic data or evidence.

You’ll recall from earlier in this handout that an ethnography is a portrait—a description of a particular human situation, practice, or group as it exists (or existed) in a particular time, at a particular place, etc. So what kinds of things might be used as evidence or data in an ethnography (or in your discussion of an ethnography someone else has written)? Here are a few of the most common:

• Things said by informants (people who are being studied or interviewed). When you are trying to illustrate someone’s point of view, it is very helpful to appeal to their own words. In addition to using verbatim excerpts taken from interviews, you can also paraphrase an informant’s response to a particular question.
• Observations and descriptions of events, human activities, behaviors, or situations.
• Relevant historical background information.
• Statistical data.

Remember that “evidence” is not something that exists on its own. A fact or observation becomes evidence when it is clearly connected to an argument in order to support that argument. It is your job to help your reader understand the connection you are making: you must clearly explain why statements x, y, and z are evidence for a particular claim and why they are important to your overall claim or position.

Citation practices in anthropology

In anthropology, as in other fields of study, it is very important that you cite the sources that you use to form and articulate your ideas. (Please refer to our handout on plagiarism for information on how to avoid plagiarizing). Anthropologists follow the Chicago Manual of Style when they document their sources. The basic rules for anthropological citation practices can be found in the AAA (American Anthropological Association) Style Guide. Note that anthropologists generally use in-text citations, rather than footnotes. This means that when you are using someone else’s ideas (whether it’s a word-for-word quote or something you have restated in your own words), you should include the author’s last name and the date the source text was published in parentheses at the end of the sentence, like this: (Author 1983).

If your anthropology or archaeology instructor asks you to follow the style requirements of a particular academic journal, the journal’s website should contain the information you will need to format your citations. Examples of such journals include The American Journal of Physical Anthropology and American Antiquity . If the style requirements for a particular journal are not explicitly stated, many instructors will be satisfied if you consistently use the citation style of your choice.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Scupin, Raymond, and Christopher DeCorse. 2016. Anthropology: A Global Perspective , 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Solis, Jacqueline. 2020. “A to Z Databases: Anthropology.” Subject Research Guides, University of North Carolina. Last updated November 2, 2020. https://guides.lib.unc.edu/az.php?s=1107 .

University of Chicago Press. 2017. The Chicago Manual of Style , 17th ed. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Department of Anthropology

Writing Guide

The steps to writing a research paper.

1. Select a general topic

2. Research the selected topic

• How to Do Research at the UNT Library (from the UNT Libraries' Web site)
• Anthropology Subject Guide (finding anthropology-related books and articles from the UNT Libraries' Web site)
• Research Tools from the UNT Library

3. Evaluate your resources

• How to Search the Internet and Evaluate Internet Sources

5. Define/Refine Your Topic and Develop Your Thesis

Thesis - An arguable statement put forth for discussion and proof.

• A thesis should be a strong, original idea, claim, or argument.
• A thesis is normally found in the introduction of a paper.
• A thesis informs the reader of the purpose of your paper.
• A thesis should be specific, not broad or vague. Avoid vague terms like "good" or "bad."
• A thesis should analyze, not summarize.
• A thesis will tie together all the ideas of your paper.

6. Re-read with an eye on the thesis

7. Develop Supporting Ideas and Arguments

Make sure the content of your papers is relevant tyour argument. Read carefully and cut or revise parts of your paper that don't support your argument.

8. Types of Supporting Ideas and Arguments

• Data from a Research Project If you conducted a project, present summaries of the data you collected, and relevant examples.
• Facts & Figures Information about your topic that has been collected by other agencies or researchers
• Statistics These are not as central tanthropology as some other fields, but they can still greatly strengthen your arguments.
• Authorities (Quotes from Experts) You must establish the credentials of the authorities before their quotes are persuasive and credibility tthe argument.
• Textual Evidence Supporting information from texts.
• Historical Background

9. Take notes

10. Organize notes

11. Develop an Outline

An outline is key the organization of your paper. See the Purdue University guide for developing outlines at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_outlin.html

12. Write a Draft

When writing a draft, make sure to reference the Chicago Manual of Style . Please note that this requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader .

The Writing Lab at Purdue University provides thorough information on writing a research paper see below for assistance with particular parts of a draft:

• Writing a first draft ( http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/1draft.html )
• Introduction ( http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/writeintro.html )
• Paragraphs ( http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/paragrf.html )
• Conclusion ( http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/conclude.html )

13. Avoid Plagiarism

Plagiarism may be defined as the following:

• Using the exact words or phrases of a source without proper quotation marks both before and after the words or phrases.
• Using the exact words or phrases or the ideas of a source without proper documentation in APA style.
• Using slightly changed words or phrases of a source tavoid quotation.
• Submitting a paper that in any way represents the words, phrases, or ideas of someone else as your own.
• Submitting a paper that you did not write.

This definition of plagiarism was written by the English Faculty at Weatherford College.

14. Citing Works Within a Paper

When citing works within a paper, make sure to reference the Chicago Manual of Style Please note that this requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader .

15. Write a Works Cited or Bibliography

When writing a Works Cited or Bibliography, make sure to reference the Chicago Manual of Style Please note that this requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader .

When using APA style, you may reference APA Formatting and Style Guide at Purdue http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

16. Leave it alone for a couple of days

17. Submit for peer review if possible

18. Revise, revise, and revise!

19. Proofread, Proofread, Proofread!

For an excellent, proofreading checklist, visit the Writing Center at George Mason University Online Handouts, including:

• 23 Ways to Improve Your Draft
• Editing Checklist

All available at https://writingcenter.gmu.edu/writing-resources/wc-quick-guides .

If you need assistance writing your research paper, try these UNT Resources

• The University Writing Center
• The Learning Center

Thinking about UNT?

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The department archives all theses and dissertations that our students produce. The earliest thesis is dated 1959. Theses and dissertations can be viewed at the department office. We do not let our copies out of the office and we do not make copies. A copy can be borrowed from Holland and Terrell Libraries through the interlibrary loan system. The library can be contacted by phone at 509.335.9671.

Download the department thesis and dissertation list (55 pages, pdf)

For answers to any questions not covered in these pages please email , call or write to us:

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Anthropology Theses & Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2021 2021.

The Materiality of Metaphor in Mayan Hieroglyphic Texts: Metaphor in Changing Political Climates , Dinkel A. Rebecca

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Home > College of Arts and Sciences > Anthropology > ANTHRO_THESES

Anthropology Theses

Theses from 2024 2024.

Bridging Spaces: An Ethnographic Study of Transnational African Art in Atlanta , Bukunmi Kehinde Bifarin

American Essentialism, Weirdo Habitus, and the Tensions of Queer Performativity , Michael-Anthony Claytor

More Than Words: An In-Depth Examination of Materiality in MS Junius 11 and Manuscript Digitization , Allie M. Hayes

The Impact of Obesity in Estimating Age-At-Death: An Analysis of Senescence of Features on the Auricular Surface , Dawson W. Lamb

An Analysis of Pottery from Western North Carolina Using pXRF , Mark Pifer

Langaj Pale, Langaj Konprann: The Role of Langaj in Haitian Ritual Life , Alexandra St Tellien

Trans* in the Neoliberal University: Students’ Relationship with Georgia State University and its LGBTQ+ Support Structures , Elizabeth Townsend

Theses from 2023 2023

Applied Anthropological Perspectives on the Use of Art Therapy and Creative Expression for Adults in Georgia , Juel Ables

Paleoindian and Early Archaic Hunter-Gatherer Landscape Use: A Case Study from the Brier Creek Drainage in Burke County, Georgia , Quinn Connally

A Space for Grace: Avenues to Ameliorate Obstacles Faced by Human Trafficking Survivors and Resource Providers , Cassandra L. Eng

Postmortem Interval Estimation Within the Context of Adipocere Formation , Emily Fields

Gendered Division of Labor among the Late Woodland Iroquois: Lithic Scrapers and Hide Production at the Simmons Site, New York , Brittany G. Hart

Teaching Truth: Grassroots Reactions to Classroom Censorship Legislation in Georgia , Emma Hugonnet

The Image Bank: Reflections on an Incomplete Archive , Anuolapo Boluwatife Oluleye

Sexual Dimorphism of the Second Cervical Vertebra in Humans , Morgan Paskins

The Debt I Owe: Consequences of Criminal-Legal Debt in Metro Atlanta , Daniel A. Pizarro

Community Recovery in Eastern Kentucky after the July 2022 Flooding , Margaret L. Smith

No Easy Path: A Ground-Penetrating Radar Investigation of the Historic Penfield Cemetery. , Robert Paul Theberge

Theses from 2022 2022

Pre-Hispanic Frailty and Mortality in the Lambayeque Valley: Wilson Bands as Evidence of Early Life Stress , Chelsea B. Batchelder

Representations of Southern Tourism Imaginaries and Negotiations of Difficult History in Plantation Site Interpretation , Elizabeth C. Johnson

Increasing the Accessibility of Archaeological Education: Exploring the Possibilities of Inquiry-Based Pedagogy Through Collections Research , Aspen Kemmerlin

Finding Lost Voices: An Archaeological Study of Historic, African American Burial Sites in North Georgia , Ayesha Khan

Filling in the Gap: A quantitative analysis of dental restoration types among body donors of Asian descent at the Mann-Labrash Osteological Collection , Melissa Bernadette Romero McCarthy

Barriers to Abortion Access: An Ethnography of the Clinic , Amelia Phan

An Art Museum at the Intersection of Science and Technology:  An Anthropological Approach , Birney L. Robert

Theses from 2021 2021

Maternal Inheritance in Colonial Lambayeque, Peru , Lateefa Abel

“We’re Still Learning and Growing”: An Ethnographic Program Evaluation of an After-School Program for Refugee Youth , Shelby M. Anderson-Badbade

Artifact Discard Eligibility: A Potential Alleviation to the Growing Curation Crisis , Andrew Jerome Blank

Role of Civil Society Under Autocratic Regime: Evaluating Activists' Role in a Nondemocratic Setting to Promote Sociopolitical Awareness , Yanet E. Fundora

Archaeological Analysis of Built Environments at Coastal Ancient Maya Port Sites , Lindsey A. Goff

Coyote- A Wily, New Emblem for the Anthropocene? Why One of the Most Reviled Predators in North America Could Change Conservation Forever. , Kimberly Myers

Chen Mul Modeled Type Effigy Censers, Maya Caves, and Their Relationship with Ritual Practices: Emerging Evidence in Quintana Roo, Mexico , Joy A. Przybyla

Enhancing the Safety of People Who Inject Drugs: A Program Evaluation of a Syringe Services Program in Atlanta , Megan A. Sarmento

Theses from 2020 2020

Sacred History, Sacred Time: A comparative cultural study of the commemoration of Independence Wars in Modern Greece and the USA , Emmanouil Androulakis

Osteoarthritis of the Thoracic Spine: An Analysis of the Relationship Between Sex Differences and Degeneration of the Thoracic Spine During the Life Course , Kelsey Lauren Bagwell*

Elliptical Fourier Analysis of Maxillary Molars in the Belgian Neolithic , Brandon Cory Bryan

The Representation of the Archaic Record at Traversant, Troup County, Georgia , Ethan Gilbert

Urban Spaces, Places, and Identity in Early Medieval Britain , David Grogan

Oral Health in the Inka Heartland During the Late Horizon: A Tale of Two Sites , Macie Orrand

Theses from 2019 2019

Post-resettlement Health Realities of Rohingya Refugees: An Ethnographic Study in the Context of U.S. Health Care System in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area , Md Asaduzzaman

Exploring Intersections of Art, Labor, and Identity in Urban Atlanta , Samantha Camirand

Residential Mobility in the Late Pre-hispanic Osmore Drainage: Isotopic Analyses of Hair from the Estuquiña , Danielle E. Carmody

Necrotic Machines/Zombie Genders: Transfeminine Disruptions of Feminist Progress , Alexandra Chace

The Georgia IUD Project: An Ethnography of Birth Control and Biopolitics , Nicole Elliott

Analysis of Experimental Bone Tools from Swartkrans Cave, South Africa , Sara Gardner

Elemental Analysis of Pre-Contact and Contact Period Ceramics From Northeastern Florida , Jeanie R. Jackson*

Childhood Trauma in Refugee Children: Caretakers’ Perspectives , Ghazal Khaksari

A Comparison of Molar Morphology from Extant Cercopithecid Monkeys and Pliocene Parapapio from Makapansgat, South Africa Using Elliptical Fourier Analysis , Alexander Chil Kim*

Military Members: Body, Identity, and The Transformations of Military Service , Valerie Masutier

Healthcare Providers´ Experience With Wellness Seeking Refugees In Clarkston, Georgia , Litza Pabon Malave

Diversity, Culture, and Islam in Higher Education: An Anthropological Approach , Laila Panjwani

Feminist Music in Brazil and its Effects on Women's Identity: Feminism, Sexuality, and Blackness , Alexis Lynn Powers

From the Past to the Present: Collaborating on the Production of a Community Museum in Chiquilá, Quintana Roo, Mexico , Mikaela Razo

Lion Dance in the United States: Exploring Panethnicity and Identity Through Performance Arts , Rachel Watford

Theses from 2018 2018

Bridging Loves: How Korean-American Mothers and Daughters Trouble "Tradition and Modernity" through Love , Su C. Choe

Orfean Harmony: An Ensemble's Creation Of Ancient Greek Music As Ode To The Resilience Of Modern Greece , Aikaterini Grigoriadou

Fracture Patterning and Distribution in the Appendicular Skeleton of Pigs Resulting from Explosions: Implications of Blast Trauma in Forensic Anthropological Investigations of Human Rights Abuses , Katherine M. Lane

The Educational Experience of Virtual Reality: An Archaeological Case Study of the Maya Site, Vista Alegre , Jessica M. Moss

Unintentional Secrets of a Museum: Exploring Possibilities of an Underutilized Museum Collection , Theresa LJ Nosacek

Investigating Paleodiet and Mobility throughout Stable Isotope Analysis at the Site of Tumilaca La Chimba, Moquegua, Peru , Breidy Ivan Quispe Vilcahuaman

Dental Morphology and Diet Use-wear of the Belgian Neolithic: A Study of Mass Cave Burials in the Meuse River Basin , Katherine E. Sherrill Ms

Theses from 2017 2017

Sexual Education Among Indigenous Ngöbe Costa Ricans: A Tale of Two Schools , Maria G. Alvarado

Cultural Competence in Theory and Practice , Britni Ashkinazy

Diet and the Dietary Niches of the Malagasy Subfossil Lemurs: An Analysis of Dental Microwear, Dental Proportions, and Grit Accumulation , Cristel Bender

Needle Exchange: Social Value for Outreach Workers , Elise D'Alessandro

Dietary Study of The Postclassic Sites of El Rey and San Miguelito, Isla Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico , Emily Duke

Psychosocial Stress, Race, and Social Support among Breastfeeding Mothers in the American South , Brandice Evans

Craft Production and Exchange in the Pre-Hispanic Andes: LA-ICP-MS and pXRF Analyses of Tiwanaku Ceramics , Colette V. Gabler

Exploring Settlement Patterns at the Ancient Maya Port Site of Conil, Quintana Roo, Mexico , Verna Gentil

Albinism: Cultural and Ethnographic Perspectives in a Southern City , Tabitha C. Green

Embodying Cosplay: Fandom Communities in the USA , NATASHA L. HILL

Watering Fruits: How the State "Develops Culture" in Korea , Sunhyeong Kwon

“… Next Time”: Gulf Coast Residents’ Relationship with Hurricanes , Robert Lloyd

A Bioarchaeological Approach to Social Transition in the Pre-Hispanic Andes: A Diachronic Study of Health at Tumilaca la Chimba, Peru , Shannon A. Lowman

A Morphometric Study of Maxillary Post Canine Dentition in Australopithecus Africanus from Sterkfontein, South Africa: One Species or Two? , Lesley K. Mackie

GIS on the Qualla Boundary: Data Management for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Historic Preservation Office , Emma Mason

Watching for Wolves: Perspectives on Policing Among Experienced Officers in Atlanta , William G B Odum

Sacrifice Reconsidered: Interpreting Stress From Archaeological Hair At Huaca De Los Sacrificios , Benjamin J. Schaefer

Theses from 2016 2016

Dental Microwear and Stable Isotope Analyses as Indicators of Changes in Subsistence Practices During the Spanish Colonial Period in the Lambayeque Valley Region of Northern Peru , Keegan Trace Brooks

Transnational Health Seeking Behavior of Bangladeshi People Living in Atlanta , Md Tanveer Hassan

Brushing Off the Dust: Transitionary Diet at the site of Cerro del Oro , Brittany Hundman

Functional Morphology of the Distal Forelimb and the Evolution of Tool Use in Humans , Sarah Love

Does tooth size matter?: A dental measurement analysis on StW 252 from Sterkfontein, South Africa , Caitlin Mayer

Remaking Resistance: Cultural Meaning and Activism in the SOA Watch Movement , Kevin McGuire

The MARTA Collection: An Investigation of an Archaeological Legacy and Cache of History , Lori C. Thompson

Elemental Analysis of Colonial Period Ceramics from Moquegua, Peru , Joshua Wackett

Inaka ga Kokoro ni Fureru: The Practices and Parlance of Cultural Exchange in the Japan-America Grassroots Summit , Gary Walsh

Theses from 2015 2015

Eating at the Desk: Human Encounters with Workplace Food , Chinelo Arinze

Arte Clandestino: Rebellion, Graphic Art and Youth Culture in Oaxaca, Mexico , Elizabeth Barnett

Isla Palenque Revisited: An Archaeological Community Study , Johnny Bogle

The Atlanta Phoenix Project: Applications of Gamification for Online Civic Engagement , Robert Bryant

Extrinsic Effects of Cranial Modification: A Case Study of Cranial Porosity and Cranial Modification Intensity in Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000 - AD 1400) Andahuaylas, Peru , Davette N. Gadison

Both Ends of the Leash: Pit Bull Ownership and Activism in Atlanta, Georgia , Sarah Goss

Bioarchaeological Analysis of Isolated Crania from the Elizabeth Site in the Lower Illinois River Valley , Daniel Jones

Medical Music: Anthropological Perspectives on Music Therapy , Stephen McMasters

The Mobile Phone and You: Human Interaction and Integration with Mobile Technology , Ryan C. Miller

Come To The Cypress Pond: The Archaeological Survey of an Antebellum Plantation , Lindsey Renaud

The Others: Self-Perception And Social Stratification Amongst Incarcerated United States Citizens , Hannah Spadafora

Space, Settlement, and Environment: Detecting Undocumented Maya Archaeological Sites with Remotely Sensed Data , Andrew Vaughan

Holy Bass: Spirituality in Electronic Dance Music Culture , Malone H. Walker

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Recent Doctoral Dissertations and MA Theses

Chen, Hsi-Wen (2023)  Provisioning a Pilgrimage Center: Land Use and Settlement Patterns in Niuheliang, Liaoning, China . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Dakovic, Gligor (2023)  Long-term Social Processes and Demographic Dynamics of the Early Bronze Age (2800–1700 BC) in the Northern Banat Region of Serbia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Li, Xiang (2023)  Social Differentiation among Commoners at Erlitou: A Household Archaeological Perspective . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Neidich, Deborah (2023)  Bioarchaeology of identity formation in Late Antique and Migration Period Bavaria, Germany . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Priyadarshini, Aanmona (2023)  Shattered Sacred, Broken Lives: Destruction and Reconstruction of Religious Sites in Ramu, Bangladesh . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Suarez, Amanda (2023) Emergence of Social Complexity in the Precolumbian Site Java, Southern Costa Rica . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Qiu, Yijia (2023)  Productive Differentiation and Pottery Consumption Among House Groups in Three Districts of Lower Dover During Late Classic Period: A Geochemical Perspective . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

BK, Amar B (2022) Dalit Women’s Struggle for Dignity Through a Charismatic Healing Movement: Caste, Gender, and Religion in Nepal . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. 

Beckhorn, Patrick (2022)  The Lives of Cycle Rickshaw Men: Labor Migration and Masculinity in North India . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Cai, Yan (2022) The Role of Productive Differentiation in the Development of Early Social Complexity in Palau, Micronesia, 200BC-1800AD . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Farquhar, Jennifer (2022) Human-Environment Interactions: The Role of Foragers in the Development of Mobile Pastoralism in Mongolia's Desert-Steppe . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Mullins, Patrick James (2022) Legacies in the Landscape: Borderland Processes in the Upper Moche Valley Chaupiyunga of Peru . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Netsch-Lopez, Trisha S (2022) Intercultural Health in Ecuador: A Critical Evaluation of the Case For Affirmative Biopolitics . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Ran, Weiyu (2022) Sustaining Ritual: Provisioning a Hongshan Pilgrimage Center at Niuheliang . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Toth, Sharon (2022)  ACL rupture rates and disparities: Using dog CCL rupture as a translational medical model for humans . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Wong, Wei Mei (2022) Poetics and politics of purpose: Understanding dating app users in Shanghai . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Kennedy, Sarah (2021)  Marginalized Labor in Colonial Silver Refining: Reconstructing Power and Identity in Colonial Peru (1600-1800 AD) .   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Rovito, Benjamin (2021)  Analysis of the A1/A2 Alleyway Peri-Abandonment Deposit at Cahal Pech, Belize . Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.

Ruiz-Sánchez, Héctor-Camilo (2021) Facing the Plagues Alone. Men Reshaping the HIV and Heroin Epidemics in Colombia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Walker, Jessica (2021) Social Identity and Life Course Stress in Nabatean Jordan .  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Baiocchi, María Lis (2020)  A Law of One’s Own: Newfound Labor Rights, Household Workers' Agency, and Activist Praxis in Buenos Aires, Argentina . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Cervantes Quequezana, Gabriela (2020) Urban Layout and Sociopolitical Organization in Sicán , Perú. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Gremba, Allison (2020): Biocultural Analysis of Otitis Media and its Relationship to Traditional Skeletal Stress Markers in the Assessment of Structural Violence . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Grosso, Alicia (2020): Tissue Variability Effects on Saw Mark Evidence in Bone . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Hoyos Gomez, Diana Rocío (2020) Campesinos and the State: Building and Experiencing the State in Rural Communities in the 'Post-conflict' Transition in Montes de María, Colombia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. 

Kello, Erin (2020): Facial clefting and the Vietnam War: A Study of DNA Methylation Patterns and Intergenerational Stress.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. 

Kojanic, Ognjen (2020)  Ownership vs. Property Rights in a Worker-Owned Company in Post-Socialist Croatia.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)

Krishnamurti, Lauren Sealy (2020) Care with Aloha: Preventing Suicide in Oahu, Hawaii.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Walker, Jessica (2020) Social Identity and Life Course Stress in Nabataean Jordan .

Zhang Chi (Charles) (2020) A Critical Assessment of Sampling Biases in Geometric Morphometric Analysis: The Case of Homo erectus. Doctoral Dissertation , University of Pittsburgh. 

Zhao, Chao (2020): A Study of Land-use across the Transition to Agriculture in the Northern Yinshan Mountain Region at the Edge of Southern Mongolia Steppe Zone of Ulanqab, China .  

Chen, Peiyu (2019) Big Transitions in a Small Fishing Village: Late Preceramic Life in Huaca Negra, Virú Valley, Peru . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Franchetti, Fernando (2019):  Hunter-gatherer adaptation in the deserts of northern Patagonia.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.  Kocic, Miroslav (2019): Emergence of Social Complexity and Community building in the Late Neolithic (5400-4600 cal. BCE) of the Central Balkans.

Muñoz Rojas, Lizette (2019) Cuisine and the Conquest: Contrasting Two Sixteenth Century Native Populations of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Doctoral Dissertation . University of Pittsburgh.

Ng, Chuen Yan (2019): Subsistence Economics among Bronze Age Steppe Communities: An Archaeobotanical Approach to the study of  Multi-resource Pastoralism in the Southeastern Ural Mountains Region, Russia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Pantovic, Ljiljana (2019):  Private within the Public: Negotiating Birth in Serbia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Pompeani, Katherine M. (2019): The Bioarchaeology of Life, Death, and Social Status in the Early Bronze Age Community at Ostojićevo, Serbia.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Portillo, Alejandra Sejas (2019):  Local Level Leadership and Centralization in the Late Prehispanic Yaretani Basin, Bolivia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Yoo, Wonji (2019):  The Making of God's Subject: Christian Conversion and Urban Youth in China. Doctoral Dissertation , University of Pittsburgh.

Cao, Junyang (2018) The Extirpation of the Chinese Alligator in North China. Masters Paper , University of Pittsburgh.

Carlson, Rebecca, (2018) More Japanese than Japanese: Subjectivation in the Age of Brand Nationalism and the Internet. Doctoral Dissertation. University of Pittsburgh.

Chamberlin, Rachel (2018)  Defining the Bio-citizen in Pluralistic Healthcare Settings: The Role of Patient Choice. Doctoral Dissertation .  University of Pittsburgh.

Chechushkov, Igor (2018)   Bronze Age Human Communities in the Southern Urals Steppe: Sintashta-Petrovka Social and Subsistence Organization . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. 

Wang, Wenjing (2018)  Lingjiatan Social Organization in the Yuxi Valley China: A Comparative Perspective . Doctoral Dissertation. University of Pittsburgh.

Bridges, Nora (2017)  The Therapeutic Ecologies of Napo Runa Wellbeing. Doctoral Dissertation. University of Pittsburgh.

Chan, Zi Lin Carol (2017)  Gendered Moral Economies of Transnational Migration: Mobilizing Shame and Faith in Migrant-Origin Villages of Central Java, Indonesia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Guler-Biyikli, Senem (2017)  Sacred Secular Relics: World Trade Center Steel in Off-Site 9/11 Memorials in the United States . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Khalikova, Venera (2017)  Institutionalized Alternative Medicine in North India: Plurality, Legitimacy, and Nationalist Discourses .  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Puzo, Ieva (2017)  The Local LIves of Global Science: Foreign Scientists in Japan's Research Institutions .  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Robinson, Amanda S. (2017)  Animal Socialities: Healing and Affect in Japanese Animal Cafés .  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Sharapov, Denis V. (2017) Bronze Age Settlement Patterns and the Developments of Complex Societies in the Southern Ural Steppes (3500-1400 BC) . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Sturm, Camilla (2017)  Structure and Evolution of Economic Networks in Neolithic Walled Towns of the Jianghan Plain: A Geochemical Perspective.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Vargas Ruiz, Juan Carlos (2017)  Complex Societies, Leadership Strategies and Agricultural Intensification in the Llanos of Casanare, Colombia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Venegas, Maria (2017)  Alienated Affliction: The Politics of Grisi Siknis Experience in Nicaragua . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Wakefield-Murphy, Robyn (2017)  The Bioarchaeology of Gendered Social Processes Among Pre- and Post-Contact Native Americans: An Analysis of Mortuary Patterns, Health, and Activity in the Ohio Valley .  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Zickefoose, Amanda (2017)  Sustainable Practices and Sustainability Ideology on Small Farms in North-Central West Virginia. Doctoral Dissertation. University of Pittsburgh.

Fajardo, Sebastian (2016)  Prehispanic and Colonial Settlement Patterns of the Sogamoso Valley.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Kesterke, Matthew J. (2016)  The Effects of In-utero Thyroxine Exposure On Mandibular Shape in Mice.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Leeper, Bobbie J. (2016)  Evaluation of Current Methods of Soft Tissue Removal From Bone.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Li, Tao  (2016)  Economic Differentiation in Hongshan Core Zone Communities (Northeastern China): A Geochemical Perspective.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Li, Dongdong  (2016)  The Emergence of Walled Towns and Social Complexity in the Taojiahu-Xiaocheng Region of Jianghan Plain China.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Wentworth Fournier, Chelsea  (2015)  Feasting and Food Security: Negotiating Infant and Child Feeding in Urban and Peri-Urban Vanuatu. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Lin, Hao-Li  (2015)  Vanua as Environment: Conservation, Farming, and Development in Waitabu, Fiji.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Johnson, James  (2015)  Community Matters? Investigating Social Complexity Through Centralization And Differentiation In Bronze Age Pastoral Societies Of The Southern Urals, Russian Federation, 2100 – 900 BC.   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Ikehara Tsukayama, Hugo C.  (2015)  Leadership, Crisis And Political Change: The End Of The Formative Period In The Nepeña Valley, Peru.   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Herckis, Lauren R.  (2015)  Cultural Variation in the Maya City of Palenque.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Harmansah, Rabia  (2015)  Performing Social Forgetting in a Post-Conflict Landscape: The Case of Cyprus.   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Garrido Escobar, Francisco Javier  (2015)  Mining and the Inca Road in Prehistoric Atacama Desert, Chile.   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

de St. Maurice, Gregory  (2015)  The Kyoto Brand: Protecting Agricultural and Culinary Heritage.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Clark, Julia  (2015)  Modeling Late Prehistoric and Early Historic Pastoral Adaptations in Northern Mongolia's Darkhad Depression.   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Argüello García, Pedro María  (2015)    Subsistence Economy And Chiefdom Emergence in the Muisca Area. A Study of the Valle De Tena.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Williams, James T.  (2014)  Staple Economies and Social Integration in Northeast China: Regional Organization in Zhangwu, Liaoning, China. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Sung, Shih-Hsiang   (2014)  The Flowing Materiality of Crystal: A Global Commodity Chain of Fengshui Objects From Brazil, China to Taiwan.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Romano, Francisco  (2014)  Changing Bases of Power: The Transition From Regional Classic to Recent in the Alto Magdalena (Colombia).   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.             

Roman, Michael  (2014)  Migration, Transnationality, and Climate Change in the Republic of Kiribati.   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.  

Pesantes Villa, Maria Amalia  (2014)  Out of sight out of mind: intercultural health technicians in the Peruvian Amazon.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Ornellas, Melody Li  (2014)  When a Wife is a Visitor: Mainland Chinese Marriage Migration, Citizenship, and Activism in Hong Kong.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Giraldo Tenorio, Hernando Javier  (2014)   Sources of Power and the Development of Sociopolitical Complexity in Malagana, Southwestern Colombia.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Berrey, Charles A.  (2014)  Organization and Growth among Early Complex Societies in Central Pacific Panama.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Ventresca Miller, Alicia (2013)  Social Organization And Interaction In Bronze Age Eurasia: A Bioarchaeological And Statistical Approach To The Study Of Communities.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Tulbure, Narcis (2013)  Chary Opportunists: Money, Values, And Change In Postsocialist Romania.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Sözer, Hande (2013)  Managing (In)Visibility By A Double Minority: Dissimulation And Identity Maintenance Among Alevi Bulgarian Turks.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Sol Castillo, Ricardo Felipe (2013)  Religious Organization And Political Structure In Prehispanic Southern Costa Rica. Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Roman-Lacayo, Manuel/A (2013)  Social And Environmental Risk And The Development Of Social Complexity In Precolumbian Masaya, Nicaragua.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Rak, Kimberly (2013)  Seeing Green: Gendered Relationship Expectations And Sexual Risk Among Economically Underserved Adolescents In Braddock, Pennsylvania.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Ming, Kevin (2013)  Slow Separations: Everyday Sex Work In Southern China.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

McCarthy, Rory G. (2013)  The Sikh Diaspora In Australia: Migration, Multiculturalism And The Imagining Of Home.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Lopez Bravo, Roberto (2013)  State Interventionism In The Late Classic Maya Palenque Polity: Household And Community Archaeology At El Lacandon.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Lee, Yi-Tze (2013)  Divided Dreams On Limited Land: Cultural Experiences Of Agricultural Bio-Energy Project And Organic Farming Transition In Taiwan.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Hoggarth, Julie A.  (2013)  Social Reorganization and Household Adaptation in the Aftermath of Collapse at Baking Pot, Belize.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Guerra-Reyes, Lucia (2013)  Safe motherhood and maternal mortality reduction strategies: a cross cultural perspective.  Master Essay, University of Pittsburgh.

Guerra-Reyes, Lucia (2013)  Changing Birth in The Andes: Safe Motherhood, Culture and Policy in Peru.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Gamez Diaz, Laura (2013)  Cosmology And Society: Household Ritual Among The Terminal Classic Maya People Of Yaxha (Ca. A.D. 850-950), Guatemala.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Marcone, Giancarlo (2012)  Political Strategies And Domestic Economy Of The Lote B Rural Elite In The Prehispanic Lurín Valley, Peru.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Macia, Laura (2012)  Dealing With Grievances: The Latino Experience In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Hooe, Todd (2012)  “Little Kingdoms”: Adat And Inequality In The Kei Islands, Eastern Indonesia.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Hamm, Megan (2012)  Activism, Sex Work, And Womanhood In North India.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Frenopoulo, Christian (2012)  The Referential Functions Of Agency: Health Workers In Medical Missions To Madiha (Kulina) Indians In The Brazilian Amazon.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

DePaoli, Lisa Coffield (2012)  "No Podemos Comer Billetes": Climate Change And Development In Southern Ecuador.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Campbell, Roberto  (2012)  Socioeconomic differentiation, leadership, and residential patterning at an Araucanian chiefly center (Isla Mocha, AD 1000-1700).  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Household Organization and Social Inequality at Bandurria, A Late Preceramic Village in Huaura, Peru.  Alejandro Jose Chu Barrera.  2011.

Kokeshi: Continued and Created Traditions/Motivations for a Japanese Folk Art Doll.  Jennifer E. McDowell.  2011.

Ideology and the Development of Social Hierarchy at the Site of Panquilma, Peruvian Central Coast.  Luis Enrique Lopez-Hurtado Orjeda.  2011.

Our Roots, Our Strength: The Jamu Industry, Women's Health and Islam in Contemporary Indonesia.  Sarah Elizabeth Krier.  2011.

An investigation of sex determination from the subadult pelvis: A morphometric analysis.  Kathleen Ann Satterlee Blake.  2011.

Carrying Out Modernity: Migration, Work, and Masculinity in China .  Xia Zhang.  2011.

Marriage Across the Taiwan Strait: Male Migrants, Marital Desire and Social Location.   Joseph Leo Cichosz.  2011.

Conditions of Social Change at El Dornajo, Southwestern Ecuador .   Sarah Ruth Taylor .  2011 .

Transfers and the Private Lives of Public Servants in Japan: Teachers in Nagasaki’s Outer Islands .   Blaine Phillip Connor .  2010 .

Oapan Nawa Folktales: Links to the Pre-Hispanic Past in a Contemporary Indian Community of Mexico .  Joanne Michel de Guerrero .  2010 .

Communal Tradition and the Nature of Social Inequality Among the Prehispanic Households of El Hatillo (HE-4), Panama .  William A. Locascio .  2010 .

Prehispanic Social Organization in the Jamastrán Valley, Southeastern Honduras .  Eva L. Martinez .  2010 .

Democracy “At Risk”? Governmental and Non-governmental Organizations, “At Risk” Youth, and Programming in Juiz de Fora, Brazil .   Penelope Kay Morrison .  2010 .

Emergent Complexity on the Mongolian Steppe: Mobility, Territoriality, and the Development of Early Nomadic Polities .  Jean-Luc Houle .  2010 .

Between the Kitchen and the State: Domestic Practice and Chimú Expansion in the Jequetepeque Valley, Peru.   Robyn E. Cutright. 2009.

Craft Specialization and the Emergence of the Chiefly Central Place Community of HE-4 (El Hatillo), Central Panama .  Adam Clayton Joseph Menzies .  2009 .

The Interaction of Androgenic Hormone and Craniofacial Variation: Relationship Between Epigenetics and the Environment on the Genome with an Eye Toward Non-Syndromic Craniosynostosis .   James John Cray, Jr. .  2009 .

The Development of Complex Society in the Volcán Barú Region of Western Panama .  Scott Palumbo .  2009 .

Huaracane Social Organization: Change Over Time at the Prehispanic Community of Yahuay Alta, Perú .  Kirk E. Costion .  2009 .

The Social and Political Evolution of Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, Mexico: An Analysis of Changing Strategies of Rulership in a Middle Formative Through Early Classic Mesoamerican Political Center .  Timothy D. Sullivan .  2009 .

Social Change in Pre-Columbian San Ramon de Alajuela, Costa Rica, and Its Relation with Adjacent Regions .  Mauricio Murillo Herrera .  2009 .

The Domestic Mode of Production and the Development of Sociopolitical Complexity: Evidence from the Spondylus Industry of Coastal Ecuador .   Alexander Javier Martin .  2009 .

Bread, Sweat, and Tears? The Ascendance of Capitalist Accumulation Strategies in the Russian Republic of Karelia, 2001-2002 .  Mark Wesley Abbott .  2008 .

The Organization of Agricultural Production on the Southwest Periphery of the Maya Lowlands: A Settlement Patterns Study in the Upper Grijalva Basin, Chiapas, Mexico .  Dean H. Wheeler .  2008 .

Donkey Friends: Travel, Voluntary Associations and the New Public Sphere in Contemporary Urban China .  Ning Zhang .  2008 .

Fashioning Change: The Cultural Economy of Clothing in Contemporary China .   Jianhua (Andrew) Zhao .  2008 .

Time and Process in an Early Village Settlement System on the Bolivian Southern Altiplano .  Jason (Jake) R. Fox .  2007 .

Social and Economic Development of a Specialized Community in Chengue, Parque Tairona, Colombia .  Alejandro Dever .  2007 .

Tracing the Red Thread: An Ethnography of Chinese-U.S. Transnational Adoption .  Frayda Cohen .  2007 .

Identity and Development in Rural Bolivia: Negotiating Gender, Ethnicity, and Class in Development Contexts .  Christine Hippert .  2007 .

Three-Dimensional Morphometric Analysis of the Craniofacial Complex in the Unaffected Relatives of Individuals with Nonsyndromic Orofacial Clefts .  Seth M. Weinberg .  2007 .

Cultural Politics and Health: The Development of Intercultural Health Policies in the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua .   Edgardo Ruiz .  2006 .

Ritual and Status: Mortuary Display at the Household Level at the Middle Horizon Wari Site of Conchopata, Peru .  Charlene D. Milliken .  2006 .

“Crafting” Hongshan Communities? Household Archeology In The Chiefing Region Of Eastern Inner Mongolia, PRC .   Christian Eric Peterson .  2006 .

Subsistence, Environment Fluctuation and Social Change: A Case Study in South Central Inner Mongolia .  Gregory G. Indrisano .  2006 .

Power and Competition in the Upper Egyptian Predynastic: A View from the Predynastic Settlement at el-Mahâsna, Egypt .  David Allen Anderson .  2006 .

Dusk Without Sunset: Actively Aging in Traditional Chinese Medicine .   Xiaohui Yang .  2006 .

The Organization of Agricultural Production in the Emergence of Chiefdoms in the Quijos Region, Eastern Andes of Ecuador.   Andrea Cuellar .  2006 .

The Utility of Cladistic Analysis of Nonmetric Skeletal Traits for Biodistance Analysis .  James Christopher Reed .  2006 .

Ethnography of Voting: Nostalgia, Subjectivity, and Popular Politics in Post-Socialist Lithuania .   Neringa Klumbyte .  2006 .

Risky Business: Cultural Conceptions of HIV/AIDS in Indonesia .   Piper Crisovan .  2006 .

The Mahaney Site (UB 666) -- Habitation or Special Purpose Site? .  Catherine M. Serventi .  2006 .

Food for the Dead, Cuisine of the Living: Mortuary Food Offerings from Pacatnamú and Farfán, Jequetepeque Valley, Perú .  Robyn E. Cutright .  2005 .

Czech Balneotherapy: From Public Health to Health Tourism.   Amy Speier.  2005.

Taxonomy of the Genus Perodicticus .  David Paul Stump .  2005 .

Rice Agricultural Intensification and Sociopolitical Development in the Bronze Age, central western Korean Peninsula.   Bumcheol Kim.  2005.

A Cold Of The Heart: Japan Strives To Normalize Depression .  George Kendall Vickery.  2005.

Cayuga Iroquois Households and Gender Relations During the Contact Period: An Investigation of the Rogers Farm Site, 1660s--1680s (New York) .  Kimberly Louise Williams-Shuker.  2005.

The Camutins Chiefdom: Rise and Development of Social Complexity on Marajo Island, Brazilian Amazon . Denise Pahl Schaan.  2004.

Cuban Color Classification and Identity Negotiation: Old terms in a New World. Shawn Alfonso Wells. 2004.

Natural Variation in Human Mating Strategy and the Evolutionary Significance of Mate Choice Criteria.  Helen Katherine Perilloux.  2004.

The Emergence and Development of Chiefly Societies in the Rio Parita Valley, Panama . Mikael Haller.  2004.

The Form, Function, and Organization of Anthropogenic Deposits at Dust Cave, Alabama. Lara Kristine Homsey. 2004.

Does Natal Territory Quality Predict Human Dispersal Choices? A Test of Emlen's Model of Family Formation . Elizabeth R. Blum. 2004.

Pragmatic Singles: Being an Unmarried Woman in Contemporary Japan. Tamiko Ortega Noll. 2004

Regional Settlement Patterns and Political Complexity in the Cinti Valley, Bolivia . Claudia Rivera Casanovas. 2004.

Turning Numbers Against Themselves: Religion, Statistics, and Political Distance in Romania . Mihnea Vasilescu. 2004.

(Re) Producing the Nation: The Politics of Reproduction in Serbia in Serbia in the 1980's and 1990's . Rada Drezgic. 2004.

Female Choice, Male Dominance, and the Evolution of Low Voice Pitch in Men . David Andrew Putz. 2004.

A Cultural History of the Micheal and Mary Jane Brubaker Family of Somerset County, Pennsylvania, with a Focus on Women's Marriage. John Michael Krajnak. 2004.

Cranial Content Changes in Craniosynostotic Rabbits . Wendy Kay Fellows-Mayle.  2004.

Created Unequal: Multiregionalism and the Origins of Anthropological Racism. Adam Wells Davis. 2004.

Gendered Visions of the Bosnian Future: Women’s Activism and Representation in Post-War Bosnia-Herzegovina . Elissa Lynelle Helms. 2003.

Spirtual Warfare and Social Transformation in Fiji: The Life History of Loto Fiafia of Kioa . Thomas James Mullane. 2003.

Samurai Beneath Blue Tarps: Doing Homelessness, Rejecting Marginality and Preserving Nation in Ueno Park (Japan) . Abby Rachael Margolis. 2003.

The Evolutionary Biology of the Apolipoprotein E Allele System with Special Reference to Alzheimer's Disease . Jessica Ann Garver. 2003

Setting Nets on Troubled Waters: Environment, Economics, and Autonomy Among Nori Cultivating Households in a Japanese Fishing Cooperative. Alyne Elizabeth Delaney. 2003.

Skeletal Maturation and Estimating Age-At-Death During the First Decade of Life . Frank D. Houghton Jr. 2003.

"Civil Society or a Nation-State?" Macedonian and Albanian Intellectuals Building the Macedonian State and Nation(s) . Nevena Dicheva Dimova. 2003.

Sex Determination of the Fragmented Pelvis Using Euclidean Distance Matrix Analysis . Joan A. Bytheway. 2003.

Proximate Mechanisms of Kin Recogniton in Non-human Primates. Aislinn Kelly. 2003.

The Evolution of Hairlessness in Humans a a Means of Increased Vitamin D Biosynthesis . D. A. Putz. 2003.

The Evolution of the Bogota Chiefdom: A Household View . Michael H. Kruschek. 2003.

Multi-Scalar Analysis of Domestic Activities at Parker Farm: A Late Prehistoric Cayuga Iroquois Village . Tracy Sue Michaud Stutzman. 2002.

Late Intermediate Period Political Economy and Household Organization at Jachakala, Bolivia. Christine Beaule. 2002.

Indigenous Federations, NGOs, and the State: Development and the Politics of Culture in Ecuador's Amazon. Patrick C. Wilson. 2002

Wild Resources in the Andes: Algarrobo, Chanar and Palqui: Implications for Archaeology . Claudia Rivera-Casanovas. 2002.

Nonmetric Population Variation In The Skulls of Human Perinates . Seth M. Weinberg. 2002.

Intensive Agriculture and Political Economy of the Yaguachi Chiefdom of Guayas Basin, Coastal Ecuador . Florencio German Delgado-Espinoza. 2002.

Sedentism, Site Occupation and Settlement Organization at La Joya, A Formative Village in the Sierra De Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico . Valerie J. McCormack. 2002.

The Road to Health: The Experience of Tuberculosis in Southern Chile Joan Elizabeth Paluzzi. 2002.

Household and Community Organization of a Formative Period, Bolivian Settlement . Courtney Elizabeth Rose. 2001.

Emerging Cultural Markets and Private Enterprise in Urban China: Managing Change in Values, Families and Futures . David Hudgens. 2001.

Equal Education - Unequal Lives: Life Course Goals of Japanese Female Undergraduates . Judith Lynn Misko. 2001.

Women’s Economic Activities in an Industrializing Malay Village . Margaret Wolfberg Kedia. 2001.

Interisland Interaction and the Development of Chiefdoms in the Eastern Caribbean . John Gordon Crock. 2001.

Public and Private Space at Mohenjo-Daro: the Implications for Social Organization . Sara Clark. 2001.

Anasazi Settlement Patterns: the Importance of Seasonal Mobility . Charlene Milliken. 2001.

Post-Saladoid Age Pottery in the Northern Lesser Antilles: Lessons Learned from Thin Section Photography . Martin Todd Fuess. 2001.

Peasants and the State: The Political economy of a Village in Maoist and Post-Mao China .Young Kyun Yang. 2000.

The Chichén Itzá - Ek Balam Transect Project: An Intersite Perspective on the Political Organization of the Ancient Maya . James Gregory Smith. 2000.

Japanese Adult Learning: Karaoke Naraigoto . Hideo Watanabe. 2000.

Inventing Indigenous Knowledge: Archaeology, Rural Development, and the Raised Field Rehabilitation Project in Bolivia . Lynn Swartley. 2000.

Valuable Women: Gendered Strategies for Success in Korean College Culture . Elise Michelle Mellinger. 2000.

A Study of Late Classic Maya Population Growth at La Milpa, Belize. John Janson Rose. 2000.

Development of the Central Nervous System and the Evolution of the Neocortex . Elizabeth Louise Dick. 2000.

Dynamical Systems Modeling in Archaeology: A GIS Approach to Site Selection Processes in the Greater Yellowstone Region . Thomas G. Whitley. 2000.

Rural Agrarian Diversity in the Late Classic (600-950 A.D.) Naco Valley, Northwest Honduras . John Douglass. 1999.

The Functional Morphology of the Lower Cervical Spine in Non-Human Primates . Susan R. Mercer. 1999.

T he Organization of Agricultural Production at a Maya Center. Settlement Patterns in the Palenque Region, Chiapas, Mexico . Rodrigo Ruben Gregorio Liendo Stuardo. 1999.

The Political Ecology of Indigenous Self-Development in Bolivia’s Multiethnic Indigenous Territory . J. Montgomery Roper. 1999.

Origins Research in Archaeology at the Turn of the Millennium and Giambattista Vico’s New Science (1744) . Stephanie Koerner. 1999.

Social Differentiation at the Kerniskey Site?: A Contribution to the Study of Emerging Social Complexity . Elizabeth Ramos Roca. 1999.

Lithic Economy and Household Interdependence Among the Late Classic Maya of BelizeLithic Economy and Household Interdependence Among the Late Classic Maya of Belize . Jon VandenBosch. 1999.

The Late Formative to Classic Period Obsidian Economy at Palo Errado, Veracruz, Mexico . Charles Leonard Fredrick Knight. 1999.

Postclassic Craft Production in Morelos, Mexico: The Cotton Thread Industry in the Provinces . Ruth Fauman-Fichman. 1999.

The Organization of Staple Crop Production in Middle Formative, Late Formative, and Classic Period Farming Households at K'axob, Belize . Helen Hope Henderson. 1998.

The 'Becoming' Mother: Transitions to Motherhood in Urban China . Suzanne Kelley Gottschang. 1998

Prehispanic Intensive Agriculture, Settlement Pattern and Political Economy in the Western Venezuelan Llanos . Rafael Angel Gassón Pacheco. 1998.

Prehispanic Change in the Mesitas Community: Documenting the Development of a Chiefdom's Central Place in San Agustín, Colombia . Víctor González Fernández. 1998.

"We Just Live Here": Health Decision Making and the Myth of Community in El Alto, Bolivia . Jerome Winston Pettus Crowder. 1998

Bases of Social Hierarchy in a Muisca Central Village of the Northeastern Highland of Columbia . Ana Maria Boada Rivas. 1998.

The Effect of Time Manipulation on the Exchange of Information in the Patient-Provider Encounter. Van Yasek. 1998.

Social Support Networks of Impaired Older Adults . Marcie Caryn Nightingale. 1998.

Early Village-Based Society and Long-Term Cultural Evolution in the South-Central Andean Altiplano. Timothy McAndrews. 1998.

Sacred Confluence: Worship, History and the Politics of Change in a Himalayan Village. Lipika Mazumdar. 1998

Anthropology@Princeton

Anthropology senior theses and prizes awarded, where to go find (and read) an anthropology senior thesis:.

» Princeton University Senior Thesis Catalog » Senior Theses Collection on DataSpace (Princeton-network access only) » Anthropology Department library of bound senior theses (for reference by current students) 

The titles of selected Anthropology senior theses are listed below to help illustrate the breadth of research topics chosen by our majors. 

Senior Thesis Prizes : Anthropology senior theses have been recognized for excellence by many academic programs and units across the University. The following examples of senior thesis titles list prizes that have been awarded to Anthropology majors. The use of bold print followed by an asterisk (*) denotes a first-prize or co-winner.

Occasionally Anthropology senior theses include creative components . For examples, see: Andie Ayala, Eamon Foley, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, E Jeremijenko-Conley, Madeleine LeCesne, Lauren McGrath, Julia Ressler, Feyisola Soetan, Brady Valashinas.

Senior theses from 2014 to the present are available online . Bound copies of 2019 and earlier senior theses are available in the Department of Anthropology office in Aaron Burr Hall.

Selected Senior Thesis Titles

Rund Abdelfatah, 2013 The Veiled Phantoms of Andalucía: A Journey through Time, Space, and Memory toward Demystifying Identity.

Elektra E. Alivisatos, 2014 "You Can't Teach That Love": Implementing government initiatives for healthy eating in public schools.

Sophia Alvarez, 2018 (Anthropology / Community-Based Learning* ) When It Rains, It Floods: An Ethnography of Infrastructure and Citizenship in New Orleans.

Adaugo Amobi, 2009 ( Anthropology* )  "It's Not Perfect But It's Home": Returnees in Ghanaian Society.

Talia Anisfeld, 2020 ( Judaic Studies*  /  Near Eastern Studies*) “In the end, we’re neither here nor there. And yet we’re almost there”: Disidentification Among Ethiopian Jewish Israelis.

Ellen Anshelevich, 2019 A Disease in Disguise: Addressing the Stigma of HIV/AIDS and Its Repercussions in Healthcare.

Margaret Arbuthnot, 2007 ( Environmental/Stroh* )  Bordering on Extinction: The Mahout-Elephant Relationship in Modern Thailand. 

Andie Ayala, 2019 (Anthropology) Kaleidoscope Stories: Film (My Nana's Home) as a Dialogic Platform for Life Stories.

Ysabel Ayala, 2021 ( Anthropology* ) Movements Toward Decolonization: Considering Dance as Communicative Practice for PilipinxAmericans in the Bay Area.

Colleen Baker, 2016 Teach a Man to "Fish Forever": The Integration of Culture in Community-Based Fisheries Management.

Catherine Bauman, 2015 Into the Woods: American Narratives and the Appalachian Trail.

Kathryn S. Benedict, 2010 (Anthropology)  Into the Flower and Willow World: Geisha, Gender, and Performance. 

Megan Berry, 2019 Staging Queer Lives: An Ethnographic Exploration.

Francesca Billington, 2019 ( Canadian Studies* ) Home and Native Lands: Infrastructures of Integration in Toronto and Stockholm.

Zoë Billington, 2014 Roma, Reframed: Examining the Disparate Views of the Roma Rights Movement through the Lens of the Law.

Joshua Blaine, 2008 ( Anthropology* / Community-Based Learning* ).  "It ain't dere no more" New Orleans Mental Health Care in Recovery: An Ethnographic Investigation.

Christine Anne Blauvelt, 2012 (Global Health) Economies of Survival. When Global AIDS Interventions Meet Local Communities in Kenya.

Kujegi Camara, 2016 Migration as Continuity and Rupture: A Discord in the Soninke Imaginary.

Carolina Cantu, 2020 ( Brazilian and Portuguese Studies* ) The Politics of Indigeneity in Brazil: From Colonial Representations to Indigenous Activism Today.

Jasmin Capellan, 2020 (Global Health) Living on Wheels: An Ethnographic Account of Disability, Sanctuary, and Kinship in the Dominican Republic.

Martina Car, 2010 (Anthropology / Environmental Studies* ) Évolène: A Case Study of the Challenges to Sustainable Development in Alpine Agro-Pastoral Systems.

Özlem Cebeci, 2014 (Anthropology / Urban Studies* ) From Non-Places to Places: Neoliberalizing Istanbul, Taksim Gezi Protests, and Reflections on the Right to the City. 

Luciana Chamorro Elizondo, 2012 ( Anthropology* /  Latin American Studies* ) Narrating the Nicaraguan Civil War: An Ethnographic Account of Re-membering in San Juan del Norte.

Stephen Chao, 2019 Curating Queer of Color Utopia in Queer/Trans Asian/Pacific Islander American Nightlife.

Agnes Cho, 2014 Commodifying Cookstoves: Social Entrepreneurship and the Improved Cookstove Industry.

Beata Corcoran, 2022 (Anthropology / Global Health) Life on Island Earth: A New Generation of Kanaka Maoli Perspectives.

Wesley Cornwell, 2016  A Fugue on Nostalgia.

Lauren Crees. 2014 Every Contact Leaves a Trace: A Contextual History of Forensic Science.

Colleen Culbertson, 2013 ( Anthropology* /  Human Values* ) Testing the Malaria Vaccine: Membership, Expertise, and the ‘Adverse Effects’ of Accountability.

Allison Daminger, 2012 ( Community-Based Learning* /  Global Health* ) Known, Un-known: An Ethnography of AIDS Care and Treatment Adherence in Guatemala.

Brandon Davis, 2013 ( Anthropology* /   Judaic Studies) Desiring Israel: Gays, Jews, and Homonationalism.

Alexandra Deprez, 2012 ( Environmental Studies* ) Nature Re-Visioned: An Ethnographic Diary from the Peruvian Amazon.

Mary DeVellis, 2021 (Anthropology) Born in an Unsocial World: An Ethnographic Exploration of American Pregnancy Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Carol Dreibelbis, 2011 ( Anthropology* ) (Not Quite) as American as Apple Pie: An Ethnographic Study of the Place of Vegan Dessert Shops in American Culture.

Divya Farias, 2015 (Anthropology / Canadian Studies* ) Unstacking Maps: The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Politics of Place and Identity.

Susan Farrell, 2017 Women in the Wild: Changing the Story We Tell Ourselves.

Mariachiara Ficarelli, 2019 (Anthropology / Human Values* ) Fuori Campo: Affect, Dwelling, and Transience in Eritrean Rome.

Olivia Fiechter, 2018 Fear, Fetish, and Façade: The Role of Privilege and Self-Curation in Educational Outcomes.

Sacha Finn, 2014 The American Fetus: Maternal and Fetal Citizenship in Conflict.

Remy Fisher, 2014 Same Name, Different Game: An Ethnography of the Female Philanthropic Identity Shift.

Bernice Fokum, 2014 Cultivating Agents of Change: Individual and Community Resilience in Chicago's Teen Health Council.

Eamon Foley, 2015 ( Lewis Center for the Arts ) Director/Ethnographer, Ethnographer/Director: Using Ethnography to Create HERO, a Theater Dance Piece.

Ayo Foster-McCray, 2020 ( Anthropology* ) Racializing Midwifery: An Ethnography of Blackness, Gender, and Birth Care in Atlanta, Georgia.

Joshua Franklin, 2011 (Anthropology /   Brazilian and Portuguese Studies*  /  Community-Based Learning* /  Latin American Studies* ) Claiming the Right to Transgender Health in Brazil.

Raphael Frankfurter, 2013 ( Anthropology* /  Global Health* ) Transience and the Lives Therein: An Ethnography of Global Health and Care in Sierra Leone. Alice Frederick, 2017 The Green Tongue: A Linguistic Anthropological Framework of Esperanto and Esperantists.

Glenna Jane Galariion, 2021 ( American Studies Willard Thorp*  / Gender and Sexuality Studies) “Honor”: Rapping and Representing Asian America.

Maria Garavito, 2017 The Café: Power Dynamics in a Colombian Restaurant.

Ryan Gedrich, 2016 Notion of a Nation: An Exploration of Self and the Irish Theatre.

Alex Gertner, 2010 (Anthropology / Brazilian and Portuguese Studies*  / Community-Based Learning* / Global Health*  / Latin American Studies* )  Pharmaceutical Care, Public Experiments, and Patient Knowledge in the Brazilian Public Healthcare System.

Sam Gravitte, 2017 Theatres of the National Imaginary: Economies, Spatial Politics, and Nation in French and American Theatre.

Vanessa Grégoire, 2018 Beyond Social Suffering: Rethinking Structural Violence and Care in Urban America through the Work of the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation. 

Erica E. Greil, 2010 (Anthropology)  The Social Structures of Cooperatives in Post-Conflict Rwanda. 

Jessica Haley, 2014. Sustaining (Female) Circumcision.

Kaitlyn Hamilton, 2011 ( Gender and Sexuality Studies* ) Reclaiming Birth after Cesarean: An Ethnographic Study of the Beliefs and Practices of Midwives in the 21st Century.

Helena Hengelbrok, 2016 ( Anthropology* /Global Health / Latin American Studies* ) Water Belongs to Those Who Are Thirsty: An Ethnography of Water, Political Belonging, and Health in Urubamba, Peru.

Laura Hergenrother, 2019 The Tick(ing) Time Bomb: Temporality and Morality in the Care of Late-Stage Lyme Disease Patients.

Devyn Holliday, 2018 Mythicizing the Nation: Rugby and Indigenous Pasifika Identity in Post-Colonial Oceania.

Katie Horvath, 2015 ( Anthropology* ) "Llevar Palestina en el corazón": Ambiguities of Palestinian Identity in Santiago de Chile.

Edric Huang, 2018 ( Anthropology* / French Studies* / Human Values* ) Life's Good Ailleurs: The Labor of Hope Among Sudanese Refugees in Paris.

Annaliese Ionson, 2015 ( Canadian Studies*  / Human Values* ) Competing Discourses: Diabetes and the Narrative of First Nations Identity.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, 2006 HEART!!! and On the Writing of HEART!!! as an Anthropological Venture, or Notes Towards Writing Plays about Black People that Black and White Folks Will Want to See.

E Jeremijenko-Conley, 2020 ( Lewis Center for the Arts ) An Ethnography of Pet Psychics.

Audrey Marie Jones, 2017 (Anthropology) “I’m a friend, an aunt, an adoptive mother, a writer”: Turner Syndrome and the Contemporary American Woman.

Makailyn Jones, 2022 ( Anthropology* ) At the Crossroads: An Exploration of New Orleans Vodou, Disaster, and Literary Anthropology.

Kelsey Kane-Ritsch, 2016 ( French Studies* ) "La culture est l'environnement": Modernization, Cultural Transformation, and Environmental Destruction in New Caledonia.

Deberly Kauffman, 2014 The Vienna Philharmonic and 'Viennese' Sound: Performing a Cultural Identity Extending beyond the Sound Itself.

Angela Kim, 2019 Becoming "No Excuses": Lessons and Takeaways for the Future of Urban Teaching.

Jamie Kim, 2022 (Anthropology) Listen to Her, Listen to Them: A Patient-Centered Ethnography of Breast Cancer.

Emily Kunkel, 2019 Gentrifying Spice: Refuge and Rebellion In Marseillais Spice Shops.

Akash Kushwaha, 2021 (Anthropology) Virtualizing Violence: Playing with Power in Multiplayer Online Games (MOGs).

Jessica Lambert, 2022 ( Anthropology* / Environmental/Stroh* / Center for Digital Humanities* / Human Values* / ProCES Community Engaged* ) Defending our Freedom: The U.S. Military, Environmental Contamination, and Ongoing Native Land Theft in the Choctaw Nation.

Hannah Lapkin, 2017 Logging-In to Fandom: An Exploration of Modern Fan Cultures in the United States.

Madeleine Le Cesne, 2019 Debris.

Lauren Ledley, 2010 ( Anthropology* )  A “Necessary Sorrow”: Protecting “Conservative” Family Values through Abortion in Japan. 

Zach Levine, 2017 (Global Health) Conspiracy & Sorcery, The Public & Expertise: Searching For Conceptualizations of Global Health in the Post-Truth Era.

Allegra Mango, 2014 The Religious Experience of Individuals Diagnosed with Terminal Illness.

Timothy McGinnis, 2013 ( Anthropology* ) We Drew an Electric Area Cycle.

Lauren McGrath, 2021 ( ProCES Community-Engaged* / Center for Digital Humanities* ) The Side Unseen: Ethnographic Data Visualization as a Methodology to Visualize the Health Impacts of Structural Violence in Urban Philadelphia Communities. Amalya Megerman, 2016  "You Don't Come to This Earth to Live a Normal Life".

Ailee Mendoza, 2021 (Anthropology) Reflections on a Twilight World: Ethnographic Imagination in the Movies and Marvels of Christopher Nolan. Anna Menke, 2016 ( Environmental / Stroh* ) Using the Environment to Claim Identity: The Nicaraguan Canal and Indigenous People.

Anna Miller, 2009 ( Anthropology* ) Stories of Our Emergence as Modern Humans.

Damaris Miller, 2015 The Practice of Knowing: Environmental Education and Action in a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery.

Kalila Minor, 2011 (Anthropology)  Coming Back Stronger: Neighborhood and Individual Recovery in Post-Katrina New Orleans.

Angelika Morris, 2021 (Anthropology) Surviving the Cesarean: An Analysis of the Clinical Decision Making Culture in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Gaya Morris, 2014 Do Toujours Laay Am. "It's not every day that I Have": Notes on Gifts and Economy in an Urbanizing Village in Senegal.

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Varshini Narayanan, 2016 ( Anthropology* ) Ser y Estar: The Art of Being Flamenco.

Rebecca Newmark, 2014 (Gender and Sexuality Studies) The Fruit of Their Labor: Placentophagia and Embodied Meaning-Making among American Women.

Anika Nishat, 2021 ( Anthropology* ) Cooking the Home: An Ethnographic Account of Home Cooking in a Bangladeshi Diaspora.

Gabriela Novogratz, 2017 (Anthropology) This Great Symbol of Hope: Examining the Predicament of the Modern Refugee through the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Ashley Nurse, 2021 ( Princeton Prize in Race Relations Senior Thesis Prize* ) The Veil: The Silent Lynching of the Black Woman.

Jamie O'Leary, 2019 ( African Studies* / Anthropology* / Gender and Sexuality Studies* ) Duma Doyal Ci Maam Maryaama: Ins and Outs of Gendered Embodiment in a Senegalese Daara.

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Anna Offit, 2008 ( American Studies*  / Environmental Studies* ).  Imagism Re-Imagined: An Ethnographic Approach to Ezra Pound's Modernist "Invention".

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Rachel Parks, 2015 ( Brazilian and Portuguese Studies*  /Latin American Studies) Bolivians in Brazil: the Interface of Culture, Race, and Health in an Immigrant Community of São Paulo.

Caitlin Paul, 2010 ( American Studies* )  A Place at the Table: The Potential for Sustainable Food Equality in the United States. 

Anna Pearson, 2018 Where Are You From? Defining Home and Belonging as a Third Culture Kid.

Minerva Pedroza, 2014 ( Brazilian and Portuguese Studies* ) Lives in Transition: Navigating Public Trans Healthcare in São Paulo, Brazil.

Pooja Pendri, 2014 Navigating Uncertainty: Negotiations on the Care of Extremely Preterm Infants.

Caroline Pinke, 2012 (Global Health) An Ethnography of Care: Reclaiming Dignity for Boston's Chronically Homeless.

Sonia Porter, 2011 (Anthropology / CBLI) The Art of Aspiration: Crafting Life Chances at an Income Generation Project in Cape Town, South Africa.

Storm Portner, 2014 (Global Health) Imagining Partnerships: An Ethnography of Community Health Workers in a Global Health Intervention in Sierra Leone.

Elisabeth Powell, 2014 ( Anthropology* ) Anthropologists in Business: Professing Anthropology in the Classroom of Everyday Life.

Lauren Prastien, 2013 (Anthropology) Relevance through Ambiguity: An Examination of the Changing Character of Chaplains and Anthropologists in the Midst of their Great “Afters”.

Sarah Qari, 2016 Identity in Play: An Ethnography of South Asian Theater in London.

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Isabel Reis, 2019 Ancestors of the 'Āina: Exploring the Anthropocene through Native Hawaiian Values.

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Elizabeth C. Rosen, 2010 ( Anthropology* /  Women's Studies* )  Public Girls, Separate Prep: Single-Sex Public Education in New York City.

Carolina Salazar, 2018 ( Anthropology* / Latin American Studies* ) Estar Con La Planta: Being With Plants: Ecologies of Knowledge and Ritual Healing in the Peruvian Amazon.

Jake Schade, 2017 Addressing the Wounds of the Past: The Politics of Care in Post-Apartheid South Africa.

Ellen Scott-Young, 2020 ( Environmental Studies* ) The Efficacy of a Princeton University Education In A Deteriorating World.

Charissa Shen, 2014 "Team Buhay or Team Patay?": Public Response to Reproductive Health Policy in the Philippines.

Kai Shibuya, 2014 Beyond the Bear Suit: A Cultural Translation of Kumamon.

Yuta Shinozaki, 2013 (Anthropology) Entextualizing Culture: A Contextualization Analysis of Rakugo.

Elizabeth Skeen, 2007 (Anthropology / Law and Public Affairs* ) The Rape of a Trial: Jacob Zuma, AIDS, Conspiracy, and Tribalism in Neo-Liberal Post-Apartheid South Africa. 

Elisabeth Slighton, 2020 ( Anthropology* / Global Health* ) Organic Local Theorists: A Patient and Provider Ethnography of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Feyisola Soetan, 2019 (Gender and Sexuality Studies) Princeton Stories: Political Activism Through Ethnographic Theater.

Connor Still, 2014 Dental Formation Timing: A Study of the Developing Permanent Dentition in Children of African-American and European-American Ancestry Born at the End of the 20th Century.

Trina Swanson, 2020 (African Studies) becoming mothers: journeys of young motherhood in a Tanzanian health centre.

Scot Tasker, 2016 Between Cyborgs and Zombies: Procrastination, Consciousness, and Narrative Structures at Princeton University.

Victoria Tobolsky, 2012 ( Anthropology* ) Getting a Grip: Precision, Technological Innovation, and Hominin Evolution.

Brady Valashinas, 2014 Sex in Public; The Important Roles of Gender, Sexuality, Acrobatics and Performance in Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity.

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Alyse Wheelock, 2011 ( Global Health* )  Maps of Rural Health: An Ethnography of Access to Care in Peru.

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Department of anthropology.

Senior Thesis Option

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Deadlines for 2024-2025 Academic Year

Proposal form deadlines.

• Friday, September 6, 2024 (5:00pm ET):  Online Senior Thesis Proposal Form due for ANTH 4010 enrollment in fall 2024. See full details .
• Friday, December 13, 2024 (5:00pm ET): Online Senior Thesis Proposal Form due for ANTH 4010 enrollment in spring 2025. See full details . Students taking ANTH 4010 in spring are encouraged to submit their proposal as early as possible in the fall. 

Note: Proposals for taking ANTH 4010 in spring semester will be approved only if the student has already begun working on their project with supervision of an advisor in or before the previous fall semester.

Senior Thesis Deadlines Fall 2024

• Deadline 1: Advisor Review  - Friday, October 18, 2024 (5:00pm ET) 
• Deadline 2: Final Submission to Department  - Friday, December 13, 2024 (5:00pm ET)

Senior Thesis Deadlines Spring 2025

• Deadline 1: Advisor Review - Friday, March 14, 2025 (5:00pm ET)
• Deadline 2: Department of Anthropology Senior Thesis Prize  - Wednesday, April 30, 2025 (5:00pm ET) 
• Deadline 3: Final Submission to Department - Wednesday, April 30, 2025 (5:00pm ET)

Introduction Overview Thesis Advisors Research Ethics in Anthropology Funding and Research Support Thesis Format Preparing for Your Senior Thesis Project Proposing Your Senior Thesis Project to the Department ANTH 4010 Senior Thesis Style and Formatting Guide Deadlines for 2022-2023 Academic Year Deadline 1: Advisor Review Deadline 2: Department of Anthropology Senior Thesis Prize Deadline 3: Final Submission to Department Graduating with Departmental Honors Use of a Previously Written Term or Research Paper Multiple Theses

Introduction

The Anthropology Department encourages all majors to do anthropological research. You can find examples of senior theses on the library  Scholarly Commons .  You may participate in research through coursework and opportunities such as PURM, field and laboratory experiences, internships, and work-study. You may work on research projects directed by Anthropology Department faculty; Penn Museum curators, researchers, and staff; or advanced graduate students. We encourage you to explore research possibilities early on. Motivated students have the opportunity go one step further by conducting independent research and writing a senior thesis, though completing a senior thesis is not mandatory. 

Students considering the senior thesis option should discuss this possibility with the Undergraduate Chair and potential thesis advisors as early as possible, and no later than spring of the junior year. The senior thesis requires significant preparation and effort on the part of the student as well as their advisor(s). Though called a “senior thesis”, the process begins well before senior year. In addition, the quality of scholarship we expect exceeds that of the typical term paper. Considerable time and energy is required, which may preclude participation in other important aspects of undergraduate life, for example study abroad, summer jobs, or some extracurricular activities. Writing a senior thesis is not for everyone, and it is not the only way to get the most from your anthropology major. Because of these considerations, we hope you will reflect deeply upon what you hope to achieve through the senior thesis experience, and whether it is a good fit for you, before you begin. 

The timeline for the senior thesis process is as follows:

• In freshman, sophomore, and junior year , get experience doing anthropological research through coursework and opportunities such as PURM, field and laboratory experiences, internships, and work-study.
• Enroll in ANTH 4000 (the required Research Seminar), in fall of your junior year . While students may also complete this course in the fall of senior year, senior thesis students are strongly encouraged to enroll in the junior year, as it will help prepare them to conduct independent research.
• By spring of junior year , you should start defining your research questions and methods with the guidance of your thesis advisor(s) and the Undergraduate Chair. Determine whether you need to submit your research protocols for IRB approval , and if so complete the CITI training and IRB submission. At this time, seek funding to support your research. Most research funding deadlines are in February and March.
• Focus on data collection for your project during the summer between junior and senior year . You can also collect data in the fall of senior year, but it will leave you less time for analysis and writing, so summer is preferred.
• Work on the analysis, writing, and revisions of your thesis throughout your senior year . Enroll in ANTH 4010 (the Senior Thesis independent study) in fall and/or spring of your senior year . Students must take ANTH 4010 at least once to fulfill the senior thesis requirements.
• Submit your senior thesis in the spring of your senior year , following the senior thesis deadlines.

Thesis Advisors

For most students, the senior thesis advisor will be someone with whom they have already done research in another capacity. You should build connections with faculty members early by getting involved in research projects, internships, etc. This is the best way to form relationships that have the potential to develop toward a senior thesis project. Since serving as a senior thesis advisor requires a significant commitment of time and energy, it is best to ask someone who already knows you well. You should ask about your advisor’s schedule well in advance to assure that person would be able to work with you during the duration of your senior thesis project.

Your advisor will help you define and focus the thesis project and help you identify research materials, protocols for research, potential contacts in other departments, and funding sources for travel, research costs, and supplies. When your project is underway, your advisor will provide feedback during research, analysis, interpretation, and writing.

Generally the thesis advisor is a Full, Associate, Assistant, or Adjunct Professor in the Anthropology Department . You may also petition the Undergraduate Chair to enlist an affiliated faculty member, a faculty member in another department or school, a Penn Museum staff member, or an advanced graduate student to advise your undergraduate thesis project. In the case of a non-Anthropology faculty member, you must also arrange for a co-advisor who is a member of the Anthropology faculty. The role of the thesis advisor is distinct from that of your major advisor or primary faculty advisor, but the two advisors might be the same person. You may have more than one advisor for the thesis.

If you have an idea for a senior thesis project but you do not already have strong faculty connections in your junior year, it will be more difficult to find an advisor. If you are in this situation, we recommend you first meet with the Undergraduate Chair to discuss your project idea. Then, identify and reach out to out to 3 to 4 people who could potentially serve as an advisor. To identify possible advisors, search for people who research related topics and/or employ the methods and theory you plan to use.

Research Ethics in Anthropology

All students conducting senior thesis research must follow ethical research practices. Considerations for ethical research should begin with the American Anthropological Association Statement on Ethics , and discussions with your advisor.

Many anthropology senior thesis projects involve human research participants, and are therefore subject to review by the Penn Institutional Review Board. You can read more on the Penn IRB website under  Guidance for Student Researchers . Penn IRB also offers a  Student Guidance Manual . If your research involves human research participants, you must complete the CITI Training for Human Research . Then, you will need to submit your research protocols to the Penn IRB  before your project is underway. The IRB will review your project and request changes, if needed. Research that does not need IRB review may include archaeological projects or those entirely based upon museum collections and/or archives. If unsure, ask your advisor and the Undergraduate Chair, or reach out directly to the Penn IRB Student Research Analyst .

You must collect and store research data in a secure and responsible manner. See Penn Libraries resources on Data Management and Planning  for guidance.

Depending on your research, you may need certain permissions or clearances (for example, a background check or Child Abuse History Clearance.) You are responsible for determining if you require any such clearances, and securing them if needed.

The American Anthropological Association (AAA) provides a list of Ethics Resources  that you should refer to as you develop your research project.

Finally, students must adhere to the University of Pennsylvania Code of Academic Integrity throughout the senior thesis research process.

Funding and Research Support

Many students receive financial support from at least one funding source to help cover research costs. Such funding can be used to support travel, research expenses, and analysis related to a senior thesis project. Most deadlines occur in March or earlier, so students who plan ahead and apply to funding sources in the junior year are much more likely to receive financial support.

The Anthropology Department grants a limited number of Undergraduate Research Awards  awards every spring, and the Penn Museum also awards Student Field Funds . Juniors planning to complete senior thesis research are encouraged to apply to these funding sources, both of which have deadlines in March.

The Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF) maintains an extensive list of funding opportunities for undergraduate students, which we highly encourage students to explore. Sign up for the CURF mailing list  to stay informed about opportunities.

Additionally, students in the Benjamin Franklin Scholars program may apply for BFS Summer Research Funding .

Research Support

The Penn Libraries have a dedicated research librarian for Anthropology and Archaeology available to assist you, as well useful guides on Anthropology , Archaeology , and Ethnography . There are also guides for specific software you may use, such as Excel and NVivo . Students working on qualitative and mixed-methods research can use software on computers in the Penn Libraries .

The Information Commons provides invaluable resources including training , equipment lending , and software . This includes video and audio recording equipment and technology for interview transcription. Help with statistical research skills (including STATA, R, and Excel) is available by making an appointment for a Statistical Software Consultation .

Students interested in research on Penn Museum collections should consult with the Academic Engagement Department .

The Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials provides resources for students interested in archeological analysis and digital archaeology.

Thesis Format

The typical senior thesis is a long research paper. There is no designated required page length; however, your thesis must show substantial research on your chosen topic. You will work with your thesis advisor to agree on an estimated thesis length that is appropriate for your research topic. Previously, senior theses have ranged from 20 pages to 120 pages, depending on the focus of the research and the applied methods.

You may propose to complete your senior thesis in a format other than the typical research paper. For a thesis project with an experimental or non-traditional format (a documentary video, for example) you will work closely with your advisor to fulfill individualized departmental guidelines. In this situation, you must meet with the Undergraduate Chair to agree upon your timeline and evaluation measures before submitting your Senior Thesis Proposal Form.

Preparing for Your Senior Thesis Project

1. Devise a senior thesis idea based on your own interests and prior academic and research experience. 2. Identify your senior thesis advisor(s). 3. Establish your project’s specific focus and research protocols with the help of your advisor(s). 4. Determine whether you need to submit your research to the Penn Institutional Review Board (IRB). Most senior theses involving human subjects research need IRB review. If so, complete the CITI training and IRB submission well in advance of the time you will start collecting data. The review process may take several weeks and you may need to modify specific aspects of your project based on IRB feedback. 5. Apply for funding to support your research, if needed.

Proposing Your Senior Thesis Project to the Department

After you have adequately prepared for your senior thesis project, you must submit the online Senior Thesis Proposal Form to the department for approval.

When you submit the form, automated emails will be sent to 1) your listed advisor and 2) the Anthropology Undergraduate Chair. Each of them will be prompted to review your submission and approve your form with their digital signature.

After the approvals are complete, the Undergraduate Coordinator will contact you with instructions for enrolling in ANTH 4010.

The deadlines to submit the form are as follows:

• Friday, September 6, 2024 (5:00pm ET):   Online Senior Thesis Proposal Form due for ANTH 4010 enrollment in fall 2023.
• Friday, December 13, 2024 (5:00pm ET):   Online Senior Thesis Proposal Form due for ANTH 4010 enrollment in spring 2024. Students taking ANTH 4010 in spring are encouraged to submit their proposal as early as possible in the fall.

ANTH 4010 is the 1 c.u. senior thesis independent study course. To complete the senior thesis, you must enroll in ANTH 4010 during the fall and/or spring of your senior year. Your thesis advisor will serve as the instructor for the course. You must take ANTH 4010 at least once, but you may take it twice. If you take ANTH 4010 twice, you will receive an "S" grade for the first semester of work. When you complete your thesis, your advisor will assign a final grade to both semesters of the project.

The Undergraduate Coordinator will set up a section of ANTH 4010 for you and issue you a permit to enroll after receiving your completed senior thesis proposal form by the appropriate deadline. You will not be able to find ANTH 4010 in the Course Search, since the sections are created on an individual basis.

ANTH 4010 is not to be confused with ANTH 4000. ANTH 4010 is the independent study only for senior thesis students, while ANTH 4000 is the research seminar required for all majors.

Senior Thesis Style and Formatting Guide

Your thesis must follow the Department's Senior Thesis Style and Formatting Guide .

Deadlines for Spring 2024 

• Deadline 1: Advisor Review  - Friday, March 14, 2025 (5:00pm ET)
• Deadline 2: Department of Anthropology Senior Thesis Prize  - Wednesday, April 30, 2025 (4:00pm ET)
• Deadline 3: Final Submission to Department  - Wednesday, April 30, 2025 (5:00pm ET)

Deadline 1: Advisor Review

Friday, March 14, 2025 (5:00pm ET)

Description

You must submit a full draft of your thesis to your thesis advisor. By this time, your draft must include your data, analysis, discussion, and bibliography. Your advisor will review your thesis and note areas for revision. Then, your advisor will inform you and the Department (via an email to the Undergraduate Chair) if your thesis would be acceptable to fulfill the thesis requirement for departmental honors, once revised.

If the advisor does not recommend your thesis for departmental honors, they may offer you the chance to revise it to meet departmental expectations for honors. You and your advisor will agree upon a deadline for revisions.

Email your completed thesis draft to your advisor(s) by the deadline.

Deadline 2: Department of Anthropology Senior Thesis Prize

Wednesday, April 30, 2025 (5:00pm ET)

Each year the Department of Anthropology awards a cash prize for the best senior thesis. A committee of Anthropology faculty members evaluates the submissions, looking for a clear and well-written presentation of original research with appropriate theoretical framework and methodology. Your thesis must follow the Department's Senior Thesis Style and Formatting Guide .

Eligibility Criteria

Students must take ANTH 4010 in either the fall or spring of their senior year, and the advisor must agree that the thesis is ready for submission.

Email your completed senior thesis in Word or PDF format to the Undergraduate Coordinator by the deadline.

Deadline 3: Final Submission to Department

You must submit your senior thesis to the department following predetermined protocols. This multi-step process may take several days. Therefore, review the Submission Guide  well in advance of the deadline to ensure you can complete the steps on time. Your thesis must follow the Department's Senior Thesis Style and Formatting Guide . Once you've completed this process, you will need to submit a signed  Author Agreement  form to the Undergraduate Coordinator. 

Follow all of the requirements outlined in the Submission Guide  by the deadline. Reach out to the Undergraduate Coordinator if you have any questions. Submit the signed  Author Agreement  form after you've submitted the thesis. 

Graduating with Departmental Honors

Completing the senior thesis is one of the requirements for graduating with departmental honors (a notation of “Distinction in Anthropology” added to the student’s transcript upon graduation.) To earn departmental honors, students must:

1. Complete the senior thesis. Students must meet all requirements of the senior thesis by the appropriate deadlines, and the thesis advisor(s) and Undergraduate Chair must thereafter approve the thesis for honors.

2. Achieve a 3.50+ GPA in all coursework applied to the Anthropology major.

3. Opt-in to be considered for departmental honors by emailing the Undergraduate Coordinator no later than 30 days prior to your date of graduation.

Use of a Previously Written Term or Research Paper

Your thesis may be a substantially revised and expanded version of a term or research paper written for a course in Anthropology or a closely related field, but only with the express permission of your senior thesis advisor and the course instructor for whom you wrote the original paper. You must indicate this on the senior thesis proposal form. Additionally, the original paper must be submitted to the department with your senior thesis proposal form by the proposal deadline. Your senior thesis must incorporate an anthropological approach, perspective, methodology, and/or theory (even if the original paper did not.)

If you already carried out research with human subjects for the original assignment without receiving IRB approval, you must consult with your advisor to determine how to move forward.

See the University of Pennsylvania Code of Academic Integrity .

Multiple Theses

Anthropology students who are double majoring may consider writing a senior thesis for each major. A senior thesis cannot be submitted for credit to more than one department or program. In rare cases, students may petition to use library or research data as the basis for separate senior theses, provided that each individual thesis is framed within the theory and methods of the appropriate disciplines and/or departments. In order to do this, the student must petition and receive approval from the senior thesis advisors of both theses, the Undergraduate Chair in the Department of Anthropology, and the equivalent individuals in the other department, program, and/or school in advance of beginning the thesis process. See the University of Pennsylvania Code of Academic Integrity, Part D (Multiple Submission) .

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Recent Submissions

Role of education in promoting gender equality in post-genocide rwanda , men and musafari: masculinities in circular labour migration among pukhtuns in pakistan , electric masculinities: re-producing energy infrastructure in india's sundarbans , apostasy and asylum in the united kingdom , schooling-in-wartime in northern sri lanka: a bourdieusian exploration , ethnographic study of scottish gaelic language revitalisation and nature conservation in the western isles , critical socio-cultural autoethnography: a soldier, here, there and back again , understanding agricultural transitions and sustainability: a study of farmers' perspectives in rural north-west india , technocratic tuberculosis control: health professionals at the interstices of dots in shanghai, china , seeking the riches of the past: uncertainty, historicity, and treasure-hunting in north-western turkey , biosocial fragiities: life with chronic lyme disease in scotland , speaking up for the dead in bukit brown cemetery an anthropological enquiry on contemporary civil society in singapore , markets, morals and medicalised maternity: navigating a shifting health service terrain in bangladesh , spectacles of development: the materiality of success at the barefoot college, rajasthan , surviving senses: life-forms in a contaminated world after the fukushima nuclear disaster , toxicities, illegalities and protest: a landscape of coal in south india , fractals of a mountain: human-environment relations in the peruvian andes , dog person: nature–cultures of more-than-human kinship in edinburgh and on the internet , bittersweet: living with sugar and kin in contemporary scotland , holding space: friendship, care and carcerality in the uk immigration detention system .

Anthropology Department

Writing a thesis proposal in anthropology.

Look at model thesis proposals (below)!

Every research project should begin with an original research proposal. Any good proposal does at least two things: it articulates an interesting question or goal, and it lays out a plan for answering that question or achieving that goal.

A good thesis proposal will tell varied readers why your project is novel, describe its significance to anthropology, present a detailed methodology or course of action, detail the preparation and resources that you have lined up to date, and commit to a final product that will contribute to broader understandings of your topic and research problem.

Thesis proposals also work for you, the researcher. They are an important way to begin the process of making your thesis project real, of committing to a particular anthropological problem and approach, and of demarcating a feasible topic and methodology. Thesis proposals can also jumpstart your planning for how you will manage your thesis research and writing. How will you proceed? What are the likely primary and secondary sources you will use? Within what theoretical discourses will you situate yourself? What useful methodological strategies might you identify?

To prepare for this, go back to your course notes and look at anthropological theory and other adjacent social theory writings that particularly intrigued or inspired you, then look at ethnographic books and articles and consider the authors' research methods and their primary sources or data. Are there theories, methodologies and forms of data you would like to draw on and/or emulate? 

Consider as well what you are most curious and passionate about. You will be living and  breathing this research project over your senior year! Still, your project should challenge you , it should take you outside of your current knowledge, past experience, and immediate environment. 

The Proposal

There are multiple ways to organize a thesis proposal. To cover the most important information, yours should include the following sections in this order (each section should be be set off with a subtitled heading).

1) Title: get the readers' attention

Your title should be descriptive and concise. It can be divided into two sections before and after a colon (:). You should aim to include all or most of the key words that pertain to your proposed research, but there's an art to good titling!

2) Problem: provide a succinct statement (one paragraph)

Research is not a summary of what is available on a given topic but an original analysis of a specific problem. A research problem is distinct from a topic in that it is more specific and orients research toward an analysis or solution; your research problem should generate research questions.

Research questions should be complex. If you already know the answer to the question, or if it can be answered through a few simple inquiries, it is not addressing an adequate research problem. Your research problem should be a conundrum, a lacuna, or a multi-faceted issue you want to illuminate and better understand. It should also require you to look at multiple sources. In introducing your research problem in your thesis proposal, you should provide a succinct statement which will help you to remain focused on the issue that you are addressing and how the information you will be discussing is related to that issue. This should not just be a list of questions !

3) Background: create a common ground of understanding and enter into the scholarly conversation

In order for the reader to understand the issue you are presenting, it is necessary to provide a context. In a thesis proposal, that section provides a brief overview of the larger issues and ideas of your topic, and how this specific research problem relates to these larger issues. Whatever you choose to highlight, the reader should be convinced that your research will contribute to understandings of broader social, historical or cultural issues.  

Provide a brief literature review. A research project should be original, rather than reproducing existing literature on the topic. Yet it is helpful to consider any current research as part of a scholarly conversation. This is an opportunity to begin that conversation by reviewing the anthropological (and adjacent) research to date, indicating what aspects of it your project will build upon and the ways that your proposed research differs from what has already been done. You should be able to identify themes that emerge from the existing research as well as its shortcomings. Or, you may find that what exists on the topic is truly excellent, but that it doesn’t account for the specific problem you have identified. I n this section, you should also clarify the anthropological (and adjacent) theories you will use to conceptualize your project and identify specific sources you will draw on for those theories.  

4) Methodology: Explain how you will do the thesis research

What, precisely, will you do to answer the question you are posing? With your main research problem and questions in mind, this section should answer the questions of where, who, how, and whe n. Will you conduct ethnographic fieldwork or will you be doing an archival project? What will be your primary sources of data? (e.g., a particular archive online or in a specific institution, social media communities or posts, participant observation, interviews, online media and advertisements, specific texts).

Here you need to convince the reader that your proposed methodology, your primary data, and modes of analysis or interpretation are logically linked to your stated questions or goals. You also need to convince the reader that this approach will be feasible (in the relatively short time period of the senior thesis) and credible (e.g., you have the specific language/course training, relevant work or travel experience and/or contacts to carry out the work). 

Optionally, you could provide a rough timeline or work plan for the thesis project here. This can help you begin the planning process and give readers a clear picture of how your project will unfurl. When and how will you take each of the steps towards achieving your goals? What logistical hurdles might you encounter? 

5) Significance and Style: Why does this matter? (one paragraph)

This should be a very brief summation of the importance of your thesis project. What contribution do you hope your project will make to anthropological debates and ideas? How might it challenge or expand on previous work?

Optionally, you could state here what kind of final product you plan to produce: a historical analysis? a new theory? a life history, a problem-oriented ethnography, a comparative study, a personal narrative, etc.? Will the project be multimodal? How? Is the style of the ethnography important for the work you hope to do?

6) Bibliography: Cite your sources!

This should include the sources you have to date or think you should consult, which link up with your stated research problem, methodology and literature review. In addition, all references cited in earlier sections of the proposal should be included here. You should use the Chicago Manual of style author-date system for citations and references.

Model Anthropology Thesis Proposals

These thesis proposals model the format and kind of project plans the Department is looking for in a strong thesis proposal. They demonstrate effort in preliminary research into potential primary and secondary sources, and first stab thoughts about both the topic and the research problem and questions that will organize the project. Note that the thesis did not necessarily turn out to be this project exactly, but they did get the authors off to a great start.

• Arianna Aguirre Thesis Proposal 2023
• Eva Gallardo Thesis Proposal 2023
• Sienna Otero Thesis Proposal 2023
• Anna Romo Thesis Proposal 2023

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Anthropology

Paige lynh awarded a dissertation fieldwork grant from the wenner-gren foundation for anthropological research, departmental news.

Posted:  May 27, 2024 - 12:00am

Paige Lynch, graduate student in the Evolutionary Anthropology program, has been awarded a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research .

This grant program funds doctoral or thesis research that advances anthropological knowledge. Our goal is to support vibrant and significant work that furthers our understanding of what it means to be human. There is no preference for any methodology, research location, topic, or subfield. The Foundation particularly welcomes proposals that integrate two or more subfields and pioneer new approaches and ideas.

I propose to investigate the interplay between biology and culture by examining how non-elite people responded biologically during significant sociocultural and climatic change periods. The human skeleton represents one’s biological history, recording lived experiences that reveal an individual’s biocultural response to their environment. A political-economic lens allows for a deeper interpretation of why sociocultural changes impact biology whereas embodiment theory enlightens how the body responds. Traditionally, non-elites are overlooked in historical and archaeological studies, despite comprising most of a population. In line with recent dialogues in anthropology, this research gives agency to historically silenced individuals. This project will use molecular and skeletal analyses of human remains combined with historical documentation to examine how institutional inequality impacts ordinary people. The late Medieval (14-16 th  c.) and post-Medieval (17-18 th  c.) periods in Poland provide an ideal case study because Poland experienced a cultural shift toward a feudal economic social structure. I will investigate how sociocultural factors impact biological responses by evaluating the relationship between sociocultural changes and migration, the effects on diet, and the impacts on early life skeletal manifestations of stress and adult longevity. The results can advance bioarchaeology into current migration conversations to better establish future migration policy.

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Presentation Master's thesis - Marit van Diepen - Clinical Psychology

Roeterseilandcampus, Gebouw: L, Straat: Nieuw Achtergracht 129b, Ruimte: L0.11

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterised by an instability in interpersonal relationships, affect, and self-image, as well as impulsive behaviour and problems with emotion regulation. BPD patients often exhibit impaired general functioning and a low quality of life. Comorbid eating disorders (EDs) are common in BPD patients, and are associated with both impaired psychosocial functioning and health. This study aimed to examine the impact of comorbid EDs on severity of BPD symptoms and well-being, and to examine whether emotion dysregulation mediates these relationships. The study included 204 BPD patients from the Borderline Optimal Treatment Selection study (BOOTS), a randomised clinical trial. Participants were assessed pre-treatment for emotion dysregulation, severity of BPD symptoms, quality of life, global functioning, and happiness. Mediation analyses were conducted to explore the relationships between the presence of a comorbid ED, emotion dysregulation, and the outcome variables. The presence of a comorbid ED was significantly associated with lower quality of life. For global functioning, a significant direct effect was found that showed that the presence of a comorbid ED was associated with more impaired global functioning. However, no significant relationships were found between the presence of a comorbid ED and both the severity of BPD symptoms and happiness. Contrary to expectations, emotion dysregulation did not mediate these relationships, although it was significantly negatively associated with BPD severity, quality of life, and happiness. The study highlights the negative impact of comorbid EDs on quality of life and global functioning in BPD patients, and suggests that other mediating factors, beyond emotion dysregulation, should be explored in future research.

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OHIO Student Farm provides hands-on agricultural education rooted in sustainability

The OHIO Student Farm is a place where those passionate about farming and agriculture can learn, research and reap fresh produce. The student farm demonstrates the value of sustainable agriculture and how it benefits the University and surrounding communities.

Alex Semancik | August 7, 2024

Do you know where your food comes from? Have you considered the work it took to grow and how it arrived on your favorite store’s shelf?

Modern grocery stores often obscure the long journey some food takes to get from farm to the table. With the help of dedicated faculty, student interns and volunteers, the OHIO Student Farm demonstrates the value of local, sustainable agriculture – and how it continues to benefit the University and its surrounding communities.

The OHIO Student Farm , managed by the Environmental and Plant Biology department  within the College of Arts and Sciences , is a unique resource located on West State Street within the Ohio University Research & Enterprise Green, only a five-minute shuttle ride from Baker University Center . The farm is a place where those who are passionate about farming and agriculture can learn, research and reap fresh produce in the process. The oldest part of the farm was created more than 40 years ago. It has since expanded to include approximately two acres in total including outdoor classrooms, learning gardens, student garden plots and a high tunnel—a structure resembling a greenhouse that extends the growing season for certain crops.

An experience rooted in academics and hands-on learning

The primary goal of the student farm is education. Students from a variety of programs, across multiple colleges utilize the designated experiential learning space for several functions. Classes in subjects like food studies, medicinal plants, nutrition, physiological ecology, plant biology, sustainable agriculture and more are involved with the farm. Internships at the farm are also available to students in the spring, summer and fall.

“Being on the main part of campus is enjoyable, but this is a totally different experience,” said Claire LeMelle, an OHIO Student Farm intern and second-year student majoring in anthropology and philosophy. “We have somewhere that is a local farm but also meant just for learning, so students can not just go see a farm but learn anything they want to there.”

The student farm has no full-time staff and is primarily managed by Associate Professor Emeritus and volunteer Dr. Arthur Trese and Farm Manager Tony Noble whose position is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and nonprofit Rural Action. Trese took over the farm when it was much smaller and still called the learning garden. Over time, he honed his passion to create something bigger and expand what is now the OHIO Student Farm. Nearly all activities on the farm are funded directly from its produce sales. Students also learn the business side of agriculture by selling the produce they grow.

“The OHIO Student Farm really is operating as a small business,” said Trese. “We grow the same kind of produce most local produce farmers grow, that you would grow in a garden any given time of year in Ohio, and then we sell it to local restaurants; we sell some to the university and then we sell some at the Chesterhill Produce Auction.”

OHIO Student Farm interns are given class credit or stipends funded from the farm’s produce sales for their work. Funding from a USDA Capacity Building Grant to the Ohio University Environmental and Plant Biology Department also helps support internships. Interns inherit Trese’s passion for the student farm and enjoy learning from experienced mentors in a hands-on setting.

“People don’t know how rewarding the work is until they do it,” said Kaya Stone, an OHIO Student Farm intern and fourth-year student studying environmental science and sustainability. “I know outside work is not for everyone, but it’s beautiful here and it’s really nice to wake up and know that you’re going to work at a place where everyone is putting in 100 percent and it inspires you to put in 100 percent. Art and Tony really care about teaching us; it’s nice to learn from someone who’s so passionate and has so much experience.”

Experiences beyond the classroom

Beyond class credit and internship experience, students who work on the farm are imparted with high standards of producing quality foodstuffs. The entire student farm is Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certified by the USDA, meaning fruits and vegetables are voluntarily produced, packed, handled and stored to minimize risks of microbial food safety hazards. GAP practices ensure traceability of food from source to sink. Students also work in the USDA certified organic portion of the farm and learn the rigor of producing organic food and the nuances of the organic certification process. Additionally, the OHIO Student Farm provides many students with a different outlook on how food systems function and where food comes from.

“The education component and why that matters from where I'm sitting is that I didn't know where my food came from when I grew up. The experience is the same for many students—they went to the grocery store. That's where food came from,” said OHIO Student Farm Coordinator and Associate Professor of Plant Biology Dr. David Rosenthal. “And so, the promoting of the student farm and what it does is to really give students some grounding in where their food comes from and an understanding of what it takes to grow food on a relatively small scale in a diversified, sustainable farm.”

OHIO Student Farm Interns Lindsey Copeland (left) and Kaya Stone (right) spread leaf compost sustainably collected from University landscaping.

OHIO Student Farm Manager Tony Noble (foreground) and a Student Farm intern hang netting over crops.

Increasing access to sustainably grown food

Through education, the OHIO Student Farm produces an impressive amount of food. The farm operates in spring, summer and fall and grows different fruits and vegetables throughout the different growing seasons. In contrast to larger, industrial monoculture farms, the diversity of crops found on the student farm means the production scale is smaller; however, the variety of fruits and vegetables is incredible. The farm grows more than two dozen different kinds of plants, including, but not limited to:

• Blueberries
• Blackberries
• A variety of herbs
• Hops (used in OHIO’s Craft Brewing Certificate courses)
• A variety of lettuce
• Raspberries
• Strawberries

With the wide array of produce available, there are crops that cater to every taste. Many of the fruits and vegetables grown at the farm make their way to Ohio University students. Being GAP certified allows the Student Farm to sell produce directly to Ohio University Culinary Services during the school year. This food ends up feeding students at dining halls and markets around campus. In 2023, Culinary Services purchased more than 900 pounds of local, sustainably grown produce from the OHIO Student Farm, according to Culinary Services’ Procurement and Contracts Manager Jeff Augsburger.

“We are a proud supporter of the student farm and consider them a great University partner,” said Augsburger.

Ohio University students can access additional Student Farm goods through the Student Farmers Market. Every fall semester a team of volunteers sells produce from the farm to students at or below market price. The Farmers Market has been in Baker University Center in years past but will likely move to the Grover Center Atrium this fall. Any leftover food is donated to Cat’s Cupboard , OHIO’s food pantry. The student farmers market was started by recent Honors Tutorial College (HTC) and Environmental Studies graduate Kate Harmon with the goal of increasing students’ access to local sustainably grown food, especially those living on campus.

“Our main goal was to provide access, not make a profit,” said Harmon. “The overall concept of my thesis is to research the benefits of sustainable agriculture and local food and specifically how the student farm can provide those benefits to students within our campus community.”

Harmon worked with her thesis advisor Dr. Rosenthal and others to continue to engage like-minded students about sustainable agriculture. In addition to the farmers market, Harmon also started Ohio University Student Farmers Club last spring semester. The club provides students with farm tours, workshops, volunteer opportunities and a sense of community surrounding sustainable agriculture. As the club’s advisor, Rosenthal says it is his goal to keep students engaged and involved in the club and sustainable practices in the area. Harmon has similar thoughts.

“Another thing that came from my thesis was starting a club for students who are interested in local food and getting engaged with the student farm and other local farms in the community,” explained Harmon. “We’ve toured a bunch of local farms, volunteered on the student farm and just kind of have been a community for students who are interested in these issues.”

Community impact

Through selling produce to local businesses and working with southeast Ohio nonprofit organizations, the OHIO Student Farm has established intimate connections with the city of Athens and surrounding communities. The student farm provides fresh, sustainable produce to local businesses and restaurants including but not limited to Jackie O’s, Kindred Market, Little Fish, Salaam and The Village Bakery. The farm contributed 8,700 pounds of produce to the local food system in 2022 alone.

Students also sell fruits and vegetables at the Chesterhill Produce Auction , a social enterprise and food hub of the nonprofit Rural Action . The auction connects the community by providing local farmers with a venue to sell their food to thousands of customers throughout Appalachian Ohio, West Virginia and other parts of Ohio.

Dr. Trese developed many of these community relationships before his retirement and his continued dedication to the farm through volunteering has helped the student farm maintain these connections.

“It gradually developed with my class; we had a farm that was something more than just a little garden. As it expanded, we really wanted people to come see,” said Trese. “We did tours here, we did workshops here, I was really able to connect with a lot of the local farming community.”

An Athens-area first-grade student holds carrots harvested from the OHIO Student Farm as part of Community Food Initiatives' Sprouts program.

Dr. David Rosenthal often gives tours of the OHIO Student Farm and helps younger students like those in the Sprouts program engage in hands-on lessons.

The student farm often works with nonprofits to host tours, workshops and other community events. OHIO Student Farm Coordinator David Rosenthal works with Community Food Initiatives Director of Garden Education Molly Gassaway and other entities like Live Healthy Appalachia to organize field trips to the farm for students as young as the first grade. Students on these trips engage in hands-on lessons, harvest produce and learn about the importance of agriculture and the environment.

While the student farm continues to impact the Athens and Ohio University communities, those involved are working to secure its future. The grant-funded position of farm manager expires in 2025; however, there are plans to support Noble and possibly more interns with additional grant funding from the USDA and others. Rosenthal also says he has received departmental support for the time he spends working on and administering the farm and classes associated with the farm.

To ensure the farm’s longevity, Rosenthal and Trese would like to work toward the goal of creating a permanent farm manager position. Trese’s hope is that a portion of this position could be paid out of revenue from produce the farm sells. Personnel exclusively dedicated to teaching at the OHIO Student Farm would make certain it will continue educating students and churning out sustainable produce for years to come.

To learn more about the OHIO Student Farm or to get involved, visit: https://www.ohio.edu/cas/plant-biology/research/facilities-laboratories/ohio-student-farm