I am originally from a small town in southern Ohio called Waverly. I moved to a suburb of Columbus in 1994. After high school, my family moved to Lafayette, IN. I attended Ball State University in Muncie, IN where I received my bachelor's degree in 2003. I took a year off between then and now and lived in Lafayette working odd jobs, restaurants and banks, to earn money and take a breather from school.

I have a background in cultural anthropology and biology. I recently co-authored two chapters in a book entitled The Other Side of Middletown. It is a collaborative ethnography about the black community in Muncie, Indiana. It is set up as a slight follow up to the original Middletown study done by Robert and Helen Lynd in the 1920's. It was recently published by AltaMira Press.

My current interests are in human osteology of current populations, skeletal biology, and medical anthropology. My thesis hopefully will be focusing on Paleopathology. Also, this summer I am hoping to attend a bioarchaeology field school in Kampsville, IL taught by Jane Buikstra.

MOLLY BURNS

I grew up in both New England and Florida. I majored in Anthropology and German with a minor in Economics at the University of Vermont. While I attended UVM I presented on the topic of culture in within the Jewish ghettos of Poland during World War II at a Northeastern Anthropological Association conference in New York. This experience furthered my interest in academics and anthropology, in particular. As an undergraduate, I also studied abroad in Augsburg, Germany and continue to travel to Europe often. After graduating I worked in Boston, Alaska, and Cincinnati.

At UC my focus is in cultural anthropology.

For my thesis I am writing on the study of food in anthropology. I focus mostly on the work of anthropologists after 1975 and the influence of Geertzian theory on the methods of food study. I am interested in how cultural and individual identity is produced, maintained, and conveyed though the production and consumption of food.

CARRIE CASTLE

I am originally from Skidmore, Texas and live in Danville, Kentucky when I am not in Cincinnati. I received my B.A. from Eastern Kentucky University in Anthropology.

My interests are Archaeology and Ethnobotany. I am interested in two cultural groups; the Mayan and the Celtic populations of the late Bronze/Early Iron Age era. While at Eastern Kentucky University, I worked on research connected to the production of an official report on excavations; which were conducted on the Blue Grass Army Depot with Dr. Kelly Carmean. We analyzed and classified all pottery sherds recovered.

Beyond this my senior thesis project dealt with New Age religious groups, how they identified themselves, what types of in-group classifications they employed and what sorts of approaches they took to things such as medicine. This project was of great interest to me because I found that many of these people self-medicate using herbal remedies and holistic techniques. Beyond this, they are networked in ways that I had not realized. As a field expresses I am thankful for the acceptance that they afforded me during my times at their fairs and weekend festivals.

For my Master's thesis at the University of Cincinnati, I would like to work on ceramic analysis in the Ohio River Valley region.

JENNIFER CHMILAR

I am one of many who are living proof that you do not need a BA to go into anthropology. I received a BSc (a Bachelor of Science degree) from the University of Calgary in archaeology with a minor in geography. Within archaeology I concentrated in Mayan archaeology and developed an interest in environmental archaeology. The University of Calgary is one of three universities in the US and Canada that have an archaeology department separate from an anthropology department. Because of that my undergraduate training focused on archaeological topics such as the ancient Maya, ceramic and lithic analysis, Mesoamerican writing systems, and geoarchaeology.

At the University of Cincinnati I have continued to develop my interests in ancient Maya and environmental archaeology. My thesis work is based on excavations from June and July 2004 in Belize. There, I directed a small operation surrounding what is presently a pond, but is a feature hypothesized to have held and distributed water for the ancient Maya. To test this proposition I am examining the following crucial indicators: the presence of channels exiting the reservoir, the interior of the reservoir for a sequence of appropriate sediment build up, the interior of the reservoir for water management related features such as a silting tank, as well as anomalous surface exposures in the vicinity of the reservoir. Whether the purpose of the reservoir was agricultural or for promoting the development of a potable drinking source will also be examined. Other than excavations, soil samples were taken and are presently being analyzed. Classes offered in the geography department such as soil analysis, GIS, and a field course to develop geoarchaeological and paleoecological skills have supplemented coursework in anthropology.

I am originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is a city of nearly one million people that thrives on oil and gas, winter sports (because the winter is so long, the mountains are so close, and the Flames almost had the Stanley cup last year), the largest outdoor show on earth (aka the Calgary Stampede, a ten day annual rodeo and exhibition), and good beer.

Other work I have done in the field of archaeology include a field school in 1999 in Calgary excavating a bison kill site. In 2001 I worked at St. Mary's Reservoir in southern Alberta excavating 11 000 year old deposits. I made my first trip to Belize, Central America, in 2002 with an advanced field school through the University of Calgary. There, I excavated a small shrine mound. After I completed the field school in Belize I began working in the realm of cultural resource management (CRM) where I stayed for approximately fourteen months before beginning graduate school. During this time I excavated at numerous prehistoric and historic sites throughout Alberta, created soil profiles, mapped surface features, performed lithic and ceramic analysis, digitized soil profiles and plan maps, proof read government reports, as well as a number of odd jobs.

SHELI DELANEY

I am originally from Evansville, Indiana and am now a part-time grad student, part-time Jr. Research Associate. I earned a B.A. in Anthropology from University of Cincinnati in 2003. Currently, I am working on developing an environmental justice and environmental genetics curriculums for Latino, Appalachian migrant, and African American populations in Cincinnati. My fieldwork experience includes community-based participatory research and qualitative analysis of data associated with the Partnerships to Educate on Environmental Genetics Issues (PEEGI) project among the aforementioned target populations.

KATE HARRELL

I grew up in San Antonio, Texas and moved to Austin when I was attending the University of Texas for my bachelor's education. Some advice, when visiting Texas, be sure to get Tex-Mex in San Antonio, BBQ in Austin, and don't bother going anywhere else.

I received a B.A. from the University of Texas in Classical Archaeology. My fieldwork was not conducted in Greece or Italy however, but in Belize with the Programme for Belize, where my long-held interest in Latin America was reinforced. At U.C. I changed my focus to Cultural Anthropology. My Master's thesis research focuses cultural politics, social movements, and gender issues in Latin America. Specifically my research will examine Nicaraguan gay and lesbian political movements and their relationship to and the negotiation of citizenship. My other interests in anthropology include myth and lore, religion and spirituality, feminism, and anthropology in education.

DOUG KEMPER

I received my bachelor's degree in Elementary Education from Xavier University and for the past 2 years I have taught 5th grade English and Science at Loveland Intermediate School. I found out about the UC Anthropology Graduate program through our "science day" at LIS. On science day many different types of scientists and pseudo-scientists come to the school to expose the students to the many different types of sciences and fields that they would not think would necessarily include science. One group was graduate students from the anthropology department. I was able to get in touch with one of them to find out about the program and the rest is history.

My primary focus is biological anthropology with a focus in evolution / paleopathology. However I have a growing interest in culture and how it might affect biology.

I haven't done any fieldwork and unfortunately do not have the funds to do it right now. This summer I hope to volunteer (with pay if possible) at either the zoo or the museum center working with their education programs. There is not anything certain at this point though.

Regarding my thesis, I am not sure exactly what it will be on. I plan on incorporating education into it since one of my goals for this program is to take what I have learned about anthropology and teach it to the younger kids 5th-12th grades. After finishing this degree I hope to return to teaching and someday go for my doctorate. Since I'm not at the point of a thesis, I guess I should just mention my interests in anthropology. Right now I find it all interesting, but it looks like I would like to do something that involves biological and cultural, however I am not sure what that might fall under.

KATE CLARK

I'm originally from Ohio. I was born in Kettering, OH. My family moved when I was around 5 to the Pacific Northwest, and I've lived in either Portland or Seattle ever since.
I've been interested in archaeology (Indiana Jones-style) since I was a little girl. But as I grew-up, I realized that the real science of anthropology and archaeology was even more fascinating, and captured my imagination. So I decided to major in it, after having dabbled in genetic Engineering, Geology, Geography and English.

I did my undergraduate at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR. I have a BA in Anthropology, specializing in Archaeology. I worked at a field school in Dyea, Alaska with my professor, Dr. Brauner. It was a historic town site along the Chilkoot Trail, famous for the Klondike Gold Rush. We excavated a building to determine what it had been used for, since the photo record was incomplete. I also worked in the laboratory, cataloguing artifacts, etc. I spent some time working at the Horner Museum, which had an enormous collection of Native American artifacts through to historical times. We were working on fulfilling the NAGPRA Act and repatriating sourced artifacts to the proper tribes. This included handling and identifying artifacts, as well as meeting with tribal officials to conduct tours.

I also spent last summer working for a CRM (cultural resource management) firm based in Billings, MT. I spent 6 weeks doing survey in NE Wyoming and S Central Montana. I then transferred to Beulah, North Dakota to help with the ongoing excavations of tipi rings, and spent the rest of the summer doing excavation and preservation.

Currently I'm most interested in bioarchaeology, mainly studying paleopathologies in the Mediterranean region of Europe and Africa.

HEIDI NEWELL

I grew-up between Clay Center and Morganville, Kansas on a farm. I recieved my bachelor's degree from North Park University, which is in Chicago. I studied Anthropology as an undergraduate student and mostly concentrated on cultural anthropology, although I did get a background in archaeology, physical and linguistic anthropology.

After graduating I went to Denmark to work as an au pair and to attend language school at Copenhagen's Intensive Language School. It was my second time living in Denmark, as I had been a student there during highschool for one year.

I then came to Cincinnati and a year later entered the Anthropology graduate program here. I am concentrating in linguistics and my major interest is in gender systems. My thesis research is a comparison of the gender systems of Welsh, Mohawk, and Maasai, a Maa language. All three of these languages have some form of a default feminine gender and I am investigating similarities and differences of the languages and cultures.

NICOLE OSSWALD

I am originally from Cincinnati Ohio. I received my undergrad degrees from the University of Cincinnati as a BS in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Medical Botany and Virology, and BA in Anthropology with a concentration in Biological Anthropology. My current concentration is Biological Anthropology. Although I lean heavily into Archaeology and Cultural many times.

I'm currently investigating the evidence that the criteria given for exclusion of individuals from culturally deemed normal funerary rites based on their cause of death from disease have not been static or unique but changing. I'm examining the deviancy patterns of these burials and how they have changed through the lifetime of each disease, through time in general and across cultures.

I spent two seasons on burial excavation and analysis in Belize on Ancient Maya remains while in the University of Cincinnati graduate program.

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