The Department of Anthropology conducts research in archaeology, biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, and museum studies. Faculty members in archaeology have active excavations ongoing in southern Kansas and eastern Texas, as well as experimental and artifactual studies in the Great Plains Archaeological Laboratory and the Archaeology of Food Laboratory. Faculty members in biological anthropology engage in forensic, paleodemographic, and human evolutionary research, utilizing the Skeleton Acres Research Facility and research partners such as the Exotic Feline Rescue Center. Faculty members in cultural anthropology engage with the local community and communities abroad to better understand universal trends in the human experience, through themes such as ritual, aesthetics, racialization, and political economy.
The Department of Anthropology engages undergraduate and graduate students with high
impact research opportunities. Over 20 undergraduate students over the last year engaged
with anthropological research, resulting in presentations at local, regional, and
national conferences. In AY 2021-2022, 14 Masters students held graduate research
assistant positions; all MA students in Anthropology must conduct an independent research
experience. See the highlighted publication section for just a few co-authored papers
with student authors.Research Opportunities for Students
Faculty Member in Bold Blakeslee, Donald J. 2021. Eyewitnesses to History: Participant Accounts of the Onate Expedition to Quivira.
The Mennonite Press, Newton, Kansas. Dozier, Crystal A., Doyong Kim, and David H. Russell. 2020. Chemical Evidence in Leon Plain pottery
from the Toyah phase (1300-1650 CE) in the American Southern Plains. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 32: 102450. Dozier, Crystal A., Jennifer Banks*, Savannah A. Gann*, Elayne V. Howard*, and John G. Jones. 2021.
“Phytolith Analysis and Ceramic Microfossil and Residue Analysis.” In Pueblo on the Plains: The Second Season of Investigations at the Merchant Site in
Southeastern New Mexico, by Myles R. Miller, Tim B. Graves, Charles D. Frederick, Mark Willis, John D. Speth,
J Philip Dering, Susan J. Smith, et al., 335–58. Versar Cultural Resources Report
872-EP. El Paso, Texas: Versar. Dumouchel, Laurence , René Bobe, Jonathan G. Wynn, W. Andrew Barr. 2021. The environments of Australopithecus
anamensis at Allia Bay, Kenya: A multiproxy analysis of early Pliocene Bovidae. Journal of Human Evolution 151: 102928. Dumouchel, Laurence and René Bobe. 2020. Paleoecological implications of dental mesowear and hypsodonty
in fossil ungulates from Kanapoi. Journal of Human Evolution 140: 102548. Sue Abdinnour, Rachelle Meinecke, Lisa Parcell, Jay M. Price. 2022. Serving up a Slice of Entrepreneurship on Campus:
The New Pizza Hut Museum. The Public Historian 44(2): 51-77. Lissette M. Varela*, Benjamin H. Moss* and Peer Moore-Jansen. 2022. Morphological variation in the mandible of white males and females from the
East Texas region for potential applications for skeletal identification. Canadian Society of Forensic Science Journal. DOI: 10.1080/00085030.2022.204352 Johannsen, Dirk, Anja Kirsch, and Jens Kreinath, eds. 2020. Narrative Cultures and the Aesthetics of Religion, Supplements to Method & Theory in the Study of Religion Vol. 14. Leiden and Boston: Brill. Kreinath, Jens. 2019. "Tombs and Trees as Indexes of Agency in Saint Veneration Rituals: Bruno Latour’s
Actor-Network Theory and the Hıdırellez Festival in Hatay, Turkey." Journal of Ritual Studies 33 (1):52–73. Kreinath, Jens. 2021. "Infrastructures of Interrituality and the Aesthetics of Saint Veneration
Rituals among Orthodox Christians and Arab Alawites in Hatay." In Palgrave Handbook for Anthropological Ritual Studies, edited by Pamela Stewart and Andrew Strathern, 345–371. London and New York: Palgrave.Highlighted Publications Last 3 Years
* student co-author
Conference Presentations: 18 External Research Funding: ~$175,500 External Research Funding Awards: 10 Peer-reviewed Journal Articles: 16 Book chapters: 11 Edited volumes and books: 2 Reports, Encyclopedia Entries, and Reviews: 15 Faculty members: Donald Blakeslee, Crystal Dozier, Laurence Dumouchel, Jens Kreinath,
Rachelle Meinecke, Peer Moore-Jansen, Kartikeya SabooBy the Numbers Last 3 Years