Name: Elizabeth Johnson

Advisor: Dr. Sara Juengst

Education:

B.A. Anthropology and Psychology, North Carolina State University, 2015

Research Interests:

Skeletal biology as an indicator of health; Trauma analysis; Human-environment interactions; Sociocultural responses to marginal environments; stable isotope analysis; climate change

Current Position:

I am currently a Youth Specialist with the NCWorks NextGen Youth Program at Gaston College. This is a federally funded grant program operating under the Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act of 2014 that aids young adults in overcoming various barriers to employment. This is accomplished by offering basic & intense career services, as well as educational and career sponsorships and training. As a Youth Specialist I meet with individuals to develop a personalized career plan best suited for them to achieve their goals, and then aid them in doing so.

Name: Ashley McDermott

Advisor: Dr. Elise Berman

Education:

BA Applied Anthropology and Political Science, UNC Charlotte 2015
MA Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, UNC Chapel Hill 2017

Research Interests:

Language socialization and language shift, language planning and policy, language and identity, anthropology of childhood

Current Research:

My current work examines how the use of Russian and Kyrgyz in an urban Kyrgyz family sheds light on changing conceptions of child-rearing, kinship, and cultural identity in the post-Soviet era.

Name: Ashley Shults

Advisor: Dr. Sara Juengst

Education:

A.A. The Arts and Sciences Division, Gaston College, 2016

B.A. Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, 2017

Research Interests:

Bioarchaeology, the Andes, migration, mobility, human environment interaction, paleopathology

Current Research:

My current research utilizes isotopic and bioarchaeological lines of evidence to investigate migration and mobility during the Archaic period in the Eastern Andes.

Name: Abigail Bythell

Advisor: Dr. Sara Juengst

Education:

B.A. Archaeology and Biology, The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, 2017

Research Interests:

Paleopathology, social bioarchaeology, lifestyle embodiment, archaeology

Current Research:

My thesis research focuses on the paleopathology of skeletal remains from a prehistoric (100 BCE) ritual site on the southern coast of Ecuador.

Name: Carita Westbrook

Advisor: Dr. Sara Juengst

Education:

A.S. Biology, Northwest Vista College, San Antonio, TX, 2012

B.A. Anthropology, Magna Cum Laude, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2015

Research Interests:

Paleo-oncology; Paleopathology; Skeletal biology as an indicator of health; Andean Population Health; Pre-historic medical interventions; Gene/Environment interactions and associated health implications; Public Health; Role of socio-cultural beliefs in healing.

Current Research:

My thesis research focuses on the bioarchaeological analysis of Pre-hispanic Andeans of the coastal and highland regions during the Late Intermediate Period. My research investigates altitude as the contributing factor of cancer incidence.

Name: Daniel Fogal

Advisor: Dr. Elise Berman

Education:

B.A. English Language and Literature, Queens University of Charlotte, 2013

Research Interests:

Language and identity; Family language policy in multinational households; Human-computer interaction

Current Research:

My thesis is centered around how family language policy differs in planning and in praxis amongst Taiwanese-American families in the United States and how this relates to identity.

Name: Autumn Hudock

Advisor: Dr. Jonathan Marks

Education:

Early Entry Graduate Student with an expected graduation date of Spring 2019

Research Interests:

Ancient DNA, human biology, molecular anthropology, paleopathology, paleoanthropology, bioarchaeology, osteology, and primate evolution

Current Research:

Name: Maggie Sobaszek

Advisor: Dr. Lydia Light

Education:

B.A. Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2017

Research Interests:

Primate behavioral ecology, spatial ecology, conservation

Current Research:

My thesis research focuses on the ranging behaviors of wild white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) living in a challenging environment in western Thailand.

Advisor: Dr. Lydia Light

Education:

BA Anthropology, University of North Carolina Charlotte, Spring 2019

Research Interests:

Primate behavior and conservation, zoonotic disease, nocturnality

Current Research:

Zoonotic disease within urban non-human primates

Name: Julia Mileski

Advisor: Dr. Dennis Ogburn

Education:

BA in Anthropology with a minor in Music, Wake Forest University

Research Interests:

Museum anthropology, artifact management and curation, place and belonging/ownership, socio-cultural impacts of museums in rural communities

Current Research:

How museums in small communities connect residents of their community to a collective historic and current identity; how collections, displays, exhibits, and the building itself assist in the creation of identity bonds and personal attachment/belonging