PhD programs in environment and bioarchaeology?

[Bones 'n Stones]

I'm currently working on narrowing down my list for the Fall 2016 app cycle as I finish prepping for the GRE at the end of the month. I had a solid list, and then my interests shifted slightly so now I'm adjusting as necessary and contacting new POIs. I'd love any help or recommendations any of you can offer in terms of programs that fit my interests.

My interests are in bioarchaeology, more specifically environmental bioarchaeology. I'm particularly interested in the human reaction to past episodes of climate change and other periods of environmental stress. In that endeavor, I'm interested in looking at changing ritual patterns (esp. mortuary ritual and body treatment), mobility and population movement in terms of Str isotope analysis, large scale abandonment of space and drastic landscape alterations, and skeletal indicators of malnutrition, increased workload and stress, violence, etc. I also have strong methodological interests in GIS and 3D.

That said, I am currently looking at ASU, UNLV, Brown, Penn State, Tulane, and Vanderbilt. Any others I am not aware of and should look at? 

Thanks for any suggestions!

Edited September 8, 2015 by Bones 'n Stones

[bioarch_fan]

A word of advice about two of those schools:

Tulane- I talked to Dr. Verano down there and he's not accepting grad students to start fall 2016.  Unless you talked to him and he said differently recently.  I talked to him a couple weeks ago and he told me he wouldn't be taking on anymore grad students right now.

UNLV- I met Dr. Martin at the AAA conference in Chicago 2 years ago.  She's an amazing woman to talk to.  But she told me that she won't accept bioarch students that don't make their main focus on evidence of violence.  My interests only partially move into violence, so I decided to nix the program even though it's an amazing program.  So when you do your statement of purpose for UNLV make sure that you talk about violence primarily in it and how you would like to do that kind of research and how UNLV will help you achieve your goals.

That's just my 2 cents on those two schools.  But overall, you sound like you have a good list going so far.  Have you thought about looking at University of Alaska-Anchorage?  They only have a MA program, but Dr. Ryan Harrod graduated from UNLV under Dr. Martin and he co-authored a book with her titled "Bioarchaeology of Climate Change and Violence."  So I'm pretty sure that would match up with your interests pretty well.    What I would do is find the book and look at who contributed to the book.  See what they study and where they study.

Maybe also look at University of Alaska-Fairbanks.  They do have a PhD program and they have a bioarchaeologist on staff.  I'm not sure what exactly he researches though, as my search through the page was quick, but I think anywhere in Alaska would be great to do research on the bioarchaeology of climate change.  You could team up with an archaeologist on staff there that does arctic or subarctic archaeology as they could teach you a lot too.

I'll keep thinking of others to send your way.  Do you not have a specific region that you want to study?  I have gone through every single department's website in the United States and parts of Canada looking for bioarchaeologists to study under and I've finally narrowed mine down to 10 schools.  So I love helping others.

[Bones 'n Stones]

Thanks for the reply bioarch_fan!

Thanks for the heads up on the two schools. I hadn't contacted Verano yet, so that is good to know, but I did see another post of yours somewhere about Dr. Martin and the need of violence-centered research. Luckily, one of my big interests is population-level skeletal indicators of environmental stress (i.e. violence, workload, and malnutrition), so I'll definitely take that angle with that application!

I have looked at Dr. Ryan Harrod, as I've seen his book, but the thought of grad school in Alaska is so very depressing. I've been trying to escape Michigan's winters for 21 years!

As far as a region, I would love to keep my research in the Maya region, although I'm open to others. I absolutely love the people down there (the modern ones that is!), I'm fascinated with the culture, and all of my fieldwork and lab research has focused on the Maya (I did my fieldschool in Belize this summer). I can definitely see the avenue and need for research like this down there. Strontium isotope analysis and mobility are big down there right now, and a huge interest of mine, not to mention the multitude of endemic warfare and collapse theories revolving around environmental stress and/or climate change.

I'd love any other suggestions you end up thinking of. My interests are pretty broad, so I'm not 100% focused on the bioarchaeology of climate change, on the widest scale I'm just interested in the human-environment interaction as seen in the skeletal record.

My top choice right now is Brown, with Dr. Andrew Scherer. He does a lot of work with the intersection of landscape archaeology and bioarchaeology, and recently on mortuary landscapes. I think bringing an environmental aspect to his approaches would be very revealing.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Bones 'n Stones

[bioarch_fan]

UNLV was top on my list of schools before I talked to Dr. Martin.  I'm interested in studying violence in my specific regions (Ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt) but that's a secondary interest of mine.  I'm more interested in isotopic analysis to understand their diets, how they differed from each other, how they differed from their provinces, and how they changed diachronically.  But understanding violence might also help me to understand the changes in their diet and migration too.  So I have no clue where I'm going to take it yet.  Lol.  Another tip that I've been told numerous times is to have an idea of what you might want your thesis to be on.  That's why I'm narrowing mine down right now too.  It's just good to show that you have an idea in mind that you want to study.

And yeah, I understand completely about wanting to get away from the cold.  I live in Ohio and was actually looking at MSU, but I don't want to go anywhere colder than here really.  I actually looked at University of Alaska at one point, but then I read that they can have winters where it's -30 regularly and I definitely do not want that.  :/  Maybe after I get my PhD and if they offer me a tenure track job I'll go there, but not while I'm finishing my degree.    Most of my schools are in nice warm places (FL, NV, NC, SC) and only a couple in cold climates (McMaster ONLY because they have 2 professors there that are literally perfect for me to study under).  So finding schools in locations that you'd want to live in for the next 5+ years is very important.  

Again, I know you want to get out of the cold but maybe you could look at Dr. Ventura Perez from University of Massachusetts-Amherst.  Even if you don't want to go there because of the cold, you could look at articles he has written and see who he cites and follow that trail.  Another tip that I received from people was to talk to professors at your program and see if they recommend anyone in particular and to even sometimes talk to professors at other schools.  Most of them understand the idea that you need to cast a wide net for grad school.

[Ajtz'ihb]

I'm a Mayanist doing my Ph.D. at Tulane currently. Your list looks good to me; the only (possible) addition I would suggest off the top of my head isthe University of Arizona (Tucson).

Brown does indeed sound like a good choice given your interests, although I suggest you spend a couple days in Providence before you commit (assuming you get in) to see how you like it. Some people love it, but the city isn't really my cup of tea. I've met Scherer a few times though and he seems like a nice guy, and his work is excellent (of course). 

Penn State is a very large program and one that puts a lot of emphasis on human-environment interactions and Mesoamerica. One thing to be aware of, however, is that the general theoretical stance on human-environment issues there (well, at least among the Mayanists) is pretty old-school, and still fits pretty squarely within Steward's cultural ecology. Not a dealbreaker by any means, but just be aware that the spirit of Bill Sanders continues to loom large over the Mesoamerica program there (see Webster and Murtha's chapter in Tikal: Paleoecology of an Ancient Maya City (2015) for an example).

Tulane is a great match for your interests so I suggest being in touch with Verano and other relevant members of the faculty (Canuto, Balee, Nesbitt, Rodning, Murakami...) to see how interested they might be in your application. Verano and Canuto both have a lot of students presently so it's conceivable that they'll pass on bringing anyone new on until they've moved a few of their current students through. Nevertheless, it never hurts to inquire.

 

Edited September 13, 2015 by Ajtz'ihb