Sara Juengst

Sara Juengst

Associate Professor
Barnard 247

PROFILE:

Dr. Sara Juengst is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at UNC Charlotte and specializes in bioarchaeology and mortuary archaeology. She has worked on (bio)archaeological projects in Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Kenya, Nigeria, and North Carolina and is broadly interested in past peoples’ lived experiences of power and social organization as they are reflected through skeletal evidence of disease, trauma, diet, and identity. She has also worked with cemetery preservation groups in the Charlotte area since 2022, with a particular focus on documenting and researching African American cemeteries and burial grounds.

Read more about Dr. Juengst’s work on her website.

EDUCATION:

  • PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – Department of Anthropology 2015
  • BA, Vanderbilt University – Department of Anthropology 2008

TEACHING:

  • Introduction to Anthropology
  • Human Osteology
  • Forensic Anthropology
  • Race and Anthropology
  • Bioarchaeology methods and topics courses

RESEARCH TOPICS/AREAS OF EXPERTISE:

  • Bioarchaeology
  • Paleopathology
  • Andean archaeology
  • Archaeology of community and identity

AWARDS/HONORS/GRANTS:

  • National Science Foundation Collaborative Senior Grant
  • NC Humanities Planning Grant
  • Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research
  • National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration 

SELECT PUBLICATIONS:


  • Juengst, S. L. 2023. Cooperation and Hierarchy in Bolivia: Building Community with the Body. Routledge.



  • Juengst, S.L. and Becker, S.K. 2017 The Bioarchaeology of Community. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association (AP3A), Volume 28.



  • Juengst, S.L. & Ordoñez Alvarez, M.P. 2025. Establishing an Ecuadorian Isoscape: The Importance of Baseline Strontium Data in a Volcanic Landscape. American Journal of Biological Anthropology 187(2):             e70074. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.70074.



  • Juengst, S.L., Rowe, S.R., Duke, G., Stumpf, M., Bowers, M., & Cruz, Y.Z. 2025. An Enigmatic Manteño Burial from Buen Suceso, Ecuador, AD 771–953. Latin American Antiquity. 36(3), 904-912 DOI:             10.1017/laq.2024.20



  • Juengst, S.L., Lunniss, R., Cruz, Y.Z., Cobb, E., & Bythell, A. 2024. An Investigation of Identity and Ontology at Salango, Ecuador (BCE 100–300 CE): Combining paleopathological, mortuary, and stable isotopic analyses. Bioarchaeology International 8(1-2): 23-44 DOI: 10.5744/bi.2023.0010



  • Bowers, M.L. & Juengst, S.L. 2023 Niños en el Corazón del Buen Suceso: análisis bioarqueológico de restos subadultos. STRATA: Revista Ecuatoriana de Arqueología y Paleontología 1(2):e10.                 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10056101



  • Juengst, S.L., Hundman, B.L., Krigbaum, J., & Kamenov, G. 2021. Exploring Dental Modification from Coastal Ecuador from an Unprovenienced Museum Collection. Bioarchaeology International 5(3-4): 99-123. DOI:10.5744/bi.2020.0012



  • Juengst, S.L., Hutchinson, D.L., Chávez, K.M., Chávez, S.J., Chávez, S.R., Krigbaum, J., Schober, T. & Norr, L. 2021. The Resiliency of Diet on the Copacabana Peninsula, Bolivia. Journal of Anthropological  Archaeology 61: 101260.



  • Juengst, S.L. 2020. The Bioarchaeology of Cooperation and Non-Hierarchical Power. American Anthropologist 122(4): 891-896. DOI: 10.1111/aman.13497.



  • Juengst, S.L., Lunniss, R.M., Bythell, A., & Ortiz Aguilu, J.J. 2019. A Unique Infant Mortuary Ritual from Salango, Ecuador, 100B.C. Latin American Antiquity 30(4): 851-856. DOI: 10.1017/laq.2019.79.



  • Juengst, S.L., Chávez, S.J., Hutchinson, D.L. & Chávez, S.K. 2016. Late Preceramic Forager-Herders from the Copacabana Peninsula in the Titicaca Basin of Bolivia: a Bioarchaeological Analysis. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. doi: 10.1002/oa.2566



  • Juengst, S.L., Chávez, S.J., Hutchinson, D.L. & Mohr Chávez, K. 2015. Trauma in the Titicaca Basin, Bolivia, during the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000 – 1450). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. doi: 10.1002/oa.2469.