Research Laboratories of Archaeology

Profiles of RLA Staff and Research Associates

Director:

C. Margaret Scarry (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1986; Professor of Anthropology). Paleoethnobotany, archaeological theory and method, development and operation of chiefdoms, archaeology of contact period in southeastern United States; eastern United States.


Staff:

R. P. Stephen Davis, Jr. (Ph.D., University of Tennessee, 1986; Research Archaeologist, Associate Director, Adjunct Prof of Anthropology). Archaeology, quantitative methods, computer applications, ceramic analysis, settlement systems, contact period; southeastern United States.

Heather A. Lapham (Ph.D., University of Virginia; Research Archaeologist). Zooarchaeology, subsistence, subsistence and intercultural exchange in the Colonial South, urban animal economies; eastern United States. .


Research Associates:

Anna Agbe-Davies (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 2004; Associate Professor of Anthropology). Historical archaeology, archaeology of the African diaspora; North America.

Benjamin S. Arbuckle (PhD, Harvard University, 2006; Assistant Professor of Anthropology). Zooarchaeology, Neolithic transition, animal domestication, provisioning systems, pastoralism, symbolic uses of animals, animals as comodities; SW Asia, Turkey.

Brian Billman (Ph.D., University of California at Santa Barbara, 1996; Associate Professor of Anthropology). Archaeology, origins and development of complex societies, warfare, settlement pattern analysis, cultural resource management; Central Andes, southwestern North America.

M. Jean Black (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1973; Research Associate). Ethnohistory; North America.

Drew S. Coleman (Ph.D., University of Kansas, 1991; Professor of Geological Sciences). Isotope geochemistry, petrology, crustal growth and deformation, archaeological geology.

Carole L. Crumley (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1972; Professor Emerita of Anthropology). European (especially Iron Age/Celtic) archaeology; archaeological theories of complex societies; ethnohistory; historical ecology; regional archaeology.

Eric Deetz (M.A., University of Leicester, 2002; Visiting Scholar, Archaeology). Historical archaeology, material culture of western Europe; North America.

Kathleen DuVal (Ph.D., University of California, Davis, 2001; Professor of History). Ethnohistory, American Indians, gender; North America.

Jennifer E. Gates-Foster (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2005; Assistant Professor of Classics). Hellenistic and Roman Egypt and the Near East, Achaemenid Empire, archaeological ceramics, regional survey, ancient seals and gemstones, ancient imperialism, frontier and border studies; northern Africa, southwestern Asia.

Donald C. Haggis (Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1992; Professor of Classics). Bronze Age and Early Iron Age archaeology, ceramic studies, regional survey, early states; eastern Mediterranean, Aegean.

Dale L. Hutchinson (Ph.D., University of Illinois, 1991; Professor of Anthropology). Physical anthropology, skeletal anthropology, forensic anthropology, disease and nutrition, transition to agriculture, coastal adaptations; southeastern United States, Bolivia.

Elizabeth Jones (Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006; Adjunct Assistant Professor of Anthropology). Historical Anthropology of European Medieval through Post-medieval periods and 17th-19th century America; Methods of Ethnohistory, Historical Demography, Historical Ecology and GIS landscape studies, Archaeology (ceramics)and Material Culture studies (clothing); research especially related to historic farms and land use, as well as farm families and gender constructions.

Bennie C. Keel (Ph.D., Washington State University, 1972; Director, Southeast Archeological Center [retired]; Research Associate). Prehistoric archaeology, historic archaeology, public archaeology; southeastern United States.

Valerie L. Lambert (Ph.D., Harvard University, 1999; Associate Professor of Anthropology). Cultural anthropology, American Indians; United States.

Anselmo Lastra (Ph.D., Duke University, 1988; Professor of Computer Science). Computer graphics, image-based rendering, 3-D architectural modeling.

Wayne Lee (Ph.D., Duke University, 1999; Professor of History). Early modern military history, with a particular focus on North America and the Atlantic World. History of violence as well as the early English exploration of the Atlantic, archaeology projects. Currently participating in a regional project in the mountains of northern Albania.

Malinda Maynor Lowery (Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2005; Associate Professor of History; Director, Southern Oral History Program). Native American history, oral history, Southern history; southeastern United States.

Scott Madry (Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1986; Research Associate Professor of Anthropology). Regional archaeological research, settlement pattern analysis, predictive modeling; applications of GIS, GPS, remote sensing; visualization and simulation in archaeology; western Europe, southeastern United States.

Jodi Magness (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1989; Kenan Professor of Religious Studies). Classical and Syro-Palestinian archaeology, ancient pottery, ancient synagogues, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Roman army in the East, early Islamic settlement; Palestine.

Patricia McAnany (Ph.D., University of New Mexico, 1986; Kenan Eminent Professor of Anthropology). Cultural Heritage and Descendant Communities; Ancestor Veneration; Cultural Logic of Noncapitalist Economies; Identity and Gender Constructs; Cacao Production and Use; Social Reproduction of Technology; Maya Studies; Mesoamerica.

David Mora-Marín (Ph.D., SUNY-Albany, 2001; Associate Professor of Linguistics, Archaeology, and Latin American Studies). Linguistic anthropology; historical linguistics, discourse structure, language and power; linguistic formalism vs. relativism; Weber, Wallerstein, interaction and civilization studies; Mesoamerican (specially Mayan) linguistics and epigraphy; prehispanic Costa Rican and Chibchan traditions, jade and gold exchange networks.

Theda Perdue (Ph.D., University of Georgia, 1976; Professor Emerita of History). Ethnohistory, Cherokees, Native American women; southeastern United States.

John G. Pleasants, Jr. (Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009; Visiting Scholar, Archaeology). Archaeology, archaeological theories of complex societies, architecture and culture, the Central Andes, GIS systems.

G. Kenneth Sams (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, 1971; Professor of Classics). Classical archaeology, architecture, pottery, architectural conservation; Greece, Anatolia.

John F. Scarry (Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University, 1984; Lecturer in Anthropology). Archaeological theory, cultural ecology, development and operation of hierarchical societies, prehistory, quantitative methods, Spanish colonial period archaeology; eastern United States.

C. Margaret Scarry (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1986; Professor of Anthropology). Paleoethnobotany, archaeological theory and method, development and operation of chiefdoms, archaeology of contact period in southeastern United States; eastern United States.

Theresa McReynolds Shebalin (Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2011; Research Associate). Archaeology, spatial analysis and GIS, multi-elemental soil chemistry analysis, geological provenance, public outreach, K-12 curriculum development; southeastern United States.

Laurie Cameron Steponaitis (Ph.D., State University of New York at Binghamton, 1987; Lecturer in Anthropology). Archaeology, hunter-gatherers, settlement systems, coastal adaptations; eastern North America.

Vincas P. Steponaitis (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1980; Professor of Anthropology). Archaeology, complex societies, ceramic analysis, quantitative methods, Mississippian iconography; North America.

Mary C. Sturgeon (Ph.D., Bryn Mawr College, 1971; Professor Emerita of Art History). Classical archaeology, Greek and Roman sculpture, Greek Painting; Greece, Italy.

Donna Surge (PhD, U of Michigan, 2001; Associate Professor of Geological Sciences). Paleoclimatology, paleoecology of shellfish and finfish, low-temperature geochemistry; archaeological geology of coastal marine, estuarine, and freshwater habitats.

Richard J. A. Talbert (Ph.D., Cambridge University, 1972; Kenan Professor of History and Classics). History of the classical world; Greek and Roman spatial perceptions; ancient mapping.

Silvia Tomášková (Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley, 1995; Professor of Women's and Gender Studies and Anthropology). Paleolithic archaeology, human evolution, gender and science, women in science, lithic technology, microscopic use wear; Eurasia, central and eastern Europe.