I am an archaeologist interested in human-environmental interactions throughout the Holocene. My dissertation research is focused on fire histories and the role of Native American populations in creating anthropogenic environments such as the Big Barrens grasslands in the Sinkhole Plain in south-central Kentucky. To do this, I utilize geoarchaeological and soil geomorphological methods such as magnetic susceptibility, loss-on-ignition, and soil micromorphology, and consider these data in conjunction with the archaeological and environmental record. I utilize a number of anthropological and economic theoretical approaches to model how hunter-gatherers may have organized such activities and how ecological knowledge and approaches to the environment changed over time.
M.A. in Anthropology, University of Kentucky 2015
BS in Anthropology & BA in History, Minor in Archaeology, College of Charleston 2011
- Anthropology