Current Graduate Students

TomTom Allen

Education: Current MA student; BS Anthropology (2011) University of Alaska Fairbanks
Thesis: Early Holocene Lithic Procurement, Technological Organization, and Mobility: Insights from XBD-167 (Little Delta #3)
Research interests: I primarily work on questions of technological adaptations during the Early Holocene especially on toolstone procurement behavior and the insight these behaviors have on understanding mobility during this ecologically dynamic time period. As an extension, my research includes the ways material quality and material availability affect technological organization and degree of tool production and intensification at procurement sites.
Email: tcallen@alaska.edu


Lia AmundsenLia Amundsen

Education: Current MA student; BA Anthropology (2013) University of Alaska Fairbanks
Research interests: Archaeology, cultural anthropology, and Alaska Native studies with a focus on the important role of Alaskan Native women both in the past and present
Email: ladigrappa@alaska.edu

 


Nell Bishop

Eleanor “Nell” Bishop

Education: Current MA student; BA Anthropology (2016) University of Alaska Anchorage
Thesis Topic: The relationship between Inland Dena’ina place names and foodways
Research interests: Four field approach; Food anthropology; Arctic and subarctic archaeology;
Traditional place names studies; Political Ecology; Human Behavioral Ecology; Decolonizing anthropology
Email: ebishop9@alaska.edu 

 


Sam CoffmanSam C

Education: Current PhD student; MA (2011) Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks (Thesis: Archaeology at Teklanika West (HEA-0 01): A n Upland Archaeological Site, Central Alaska); BA (2007) Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno
Dissertation Topic: Exploring possible changes in lithic procurement strategy and use through time in Eastern Interior Alaska.
Research interests: Lithic procurement and raw material sourcing, coastal adaptation and use during the Holocene, hunter-gatherer landscape-use and change, and GIS modeling and analysis.
Email: sccoffman@alaska.edu

 


Sierra Cotrona

Sierra

Education: Current PhD student, BA (2016) Geological Sciences and Anthropology, University of Rochester; MS (2018) Biomedical Anthropology, Binghamton University; M.Re (2019) Bioarchaeology, Wrexham University. Master's Thesis: Skeletal Markers as Indicators of Labor in a Nineteenth Century New York Cemetery
Dissertation Topic: Dental Patterns in Understanding Origins of South Asian Populations
Research Interests: Dental morphology, forensic anthropology, bioarchaeology, skeletal biology
Email: sscotrona@alaska.edu

 

AllisonAllison K. Cruz

Education: Current MA student; BA History (2017) University of Alaska Fairbanks; Associates of Art (2010) Marymount California University
Thesis Topic: Animal-Human Relationships in Alaskan Dog Mushing
Research interests: Anthropology of Religion, Spiritual Bonds and Dependency, Victorian Spiritualism, History and Cultures of Death, Ritual Movements
Email: akcruz@alaska.edu

 

 

Kathryn “Allie” DeweyDewey

Education: Current PhD student
Dissertation Topic: Tracing the residential mobility of the ancient Tochak McGrath individuals via via strontium and oxygen isotope analyses of their tooth enamel
Research interests: Forces driving past human migration in Interior Alaska (subsistence, environment, culture), isotope analysis (human and faunal remains)
Email: kdewey1@alaska.edu 


Christina Edwin

Education: Current MA student
Research interests: TBD
Email: cmedwin@alaska.edu


Ellis

Korovin Ellis

Education: Current MA student; BA Anthropology (2016) University of Alaska FairbanksThesis Topic: Debitage Analysis of Northern Archaic Materials from the Hollenbeck Site
Research interests: Lithics, Zooarchaeology, Human Adaptation & Risk Management
Email: kjellis@alaska.edu 

 

 


GonzalezDaniel Gonzalez

Education: A.A. in Liberal Studies (2010), Montgomery County Community College; B.A. in anthropology with minor in history (2012), Pennsylvania State University
Research interests: Mixed cash and subsistence economies, anthropology of food, political anthropology, identity, and ethnographic field methods.
Email: dgonzalez5@alaska.edu 

 

 


Grillo

Robert Grillo

Education: Current PhD student; MA (2021) and BA (2019) in Anthropology, Florida Atlantic University. Master's Thesis: Bone Tools of the Hutchinson Site (8PB17041), Palm Beach County, Florida.
Research interests: Organic Technology, Stable Isotopes, Zooarchaeology, Human Ecology, Museum Studies, Aleutian Islands
Email: rgrillo@alaska.edu 

 

 


JansenAmelia Jansen

Education: Current MA student; BA Anthropology (2016) University of Tennessee 
Research interests: Zooarchaeology, Foodways, Circumpolar Archaeology, Public Outreach, Field Studies
Email: ajansen4@alaska.edu

 


Zhao JianZhao

Education: Current PhD student; MA Archaeology (2018) Zhengzhou University. Master's Thesis: Analysis of Starch Grains on Stone Tools Excavated from GouWan Site.
Dissertation Topic: Ancient Starch Grains; C and N stable isotopes; Geographic Information Systems.
Research interests: Environmental Archaeology, Archaeological Sciences; Agriculture.
Email: zjian@alaska.edu

 

CaseyCasey Jobe

Education: Current MA student; BA Anthropology (2017) University of Alaska Fairbanks
Thesis Topic: Understanding technological organization of mid- to late-Holocene occupation of the Mead site through lithic analysis.
Research interests: Lithic Analysis; GIS and Spatial Patterning; Technological Organization; Hunter-Gatherers; Prehistoric Transitional Phases; Human Behavioral Ecology
Email: pcjobe@alaska.edu

 

Roman K.

Roman Kitaysky

Education: Current MA student; BA Russian Studies, University of Alaska Fairbanks (2011)
Subfield: Cultural Anthropology
Research interests: southern Alaska and Kodiak; historical Euro-aboriginal interactions
Email: rakitaysky@alaska.edu 

 


 

LaughlinErin Laughlin

Education: Current PhD student
Research interests: TBD
Email: eelaughlin@alaska.edu 

 

 

 


VarpuVarpu Lotvonen

Education: Current PhD student; MA and BA in Folklore Studies (2012) University of Helsinki
Dissertation topic: Colonial encounters of the Sámi reindeer herders in Alaska and the making of Alaskan pastoral traditions
Research interests: Cultural and visual anthropology, circumpolar North, reindeer herding, colonialism, post-humanistic anthropology, folklore and oral history
Email: vmlotvonen@alaska.edu

 


McCaigHaley McCaig

Education: Current MA Student; BA Anthropology (2007) State University of New York at Geneseo
Research interests: Archaeology of the Arctic and Subarctic; Bone Tool Technology of the Aleutian Archipelago; Ethnobotany; Decolonizing Academia
Email: hkmccaig@alaska.edu 

 



Gabriela OlmosG. Olmos

Education: Current, PhD student; Master in Critical Theory, 17 Instituto de Estudios Críticos
Thesis Topic: Mexicans in Anchorage and their corn culture
Research Interests: Hispanics in the United States, Diaspora, Food, Ritual, Immigration, Globalization, Art
Email: gaolmosrosas@alaska.edu

 


TaraTara Palmer

Education: M.Ed. Adult Education, University of Alaska Anchorage; BA French Language & Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language, Portland State University
Dissertation Topic: Adult ESL Teachers' Language Ideologies, Policies, & Practices
Research interests: Language ideologies, language policies, language & identity
Email: tmsmith@alaska.edu

 

SellyErica Selly

Education: Current MA student; Bioarchaeology, forensic archaeology, Middle Age and Medieval History
Research interests: Bioarchaeology, forensic archaeology, Middle Age and Medieval History
Email: eselly@alaska.edu 

 

 

 


Dougless

Dougless Skinner

Education: Current PhD student; MA Anthropology (2019) University of Alaska Fairbanks; BA Anthropology (2016) University of Montana
Dissertation Topic: Indigenous archaeologies and community research in Interior Alaska
Research interests: Indigenous Theories and Methodologies; Archaeology of the Arctic and Subarctic; Subsistence Practices; Human/Environmental Relationships; Gender Relationships; Decolonizing Academia
Email: dskinner2@alaska.edu

 

SiskKelsey Sisk

Education: Current MA student; BA Linguistics and Classics, Minors: Anthropology and Greek Studies (2019) University of Florida
Research interests: Linguistic Anthropology; Discourse Analysis; Ethnomethodology;
Sociolinguistics; Gender, Language, and Identity
Email: kasisk@alaska.edu 

 

 


Staponski

Connor Staponski

Education: Current MA student; BS in Social Studies Education (2018) University of Central Missouri
Research interests: Gender, family structures, political structures, and equity in education
Email: cmstaponski@alaska.edu 

 

 


Daniel StrongDan S.

Education: Current MA student; BS in Marine Biology (2007) University of Alaska Southeast
Research interests: Southeast Alaska and Tlingit ethnohistory, relational well-being, Indigenous connections with place.
Email: dstronggaston@alaska.edu

 

 


Mary Ashley StoughMary

Education: Current MA student; BA Anthropology and Psychology (2019) Tulane University
Thesis topic: Evolution of Dentition in South Asia and the Linguistic Implications
Research interests: skeletal biology, forensic anthropology, bioarchaeology, paleopathology, dental anthropology, and trauma
Email: mastough@alaska.edu

 

LynnLynn Walker

Education: BA Anthropology (2013) Alma College; MRes Social Anthropology (2014) University of Aberdeen; Museum Studies Certificate (2016) Tufts University; PhD student
Research Interests: museum anthropology; material culture; colonialism; Alutiiq/Sugpiaq weaving/basketry; museum discourse and experience
Email: lawalker5 @ alaska.edu

 

JonahJonah Yakunin

Education: Current MA student; BA Fisheries (2018) University of Alaska Fairbanks
Thesis Topic: The changes in the culture of the Russian Old Believers in Alaska from involvement with Alaska's commercial fisheries. How a culture whose primary purpose of escape to Alaska was to avoid assimilation but became entrenched in the fishing industry and thriving because of it. At the present, the Russian Old Believer community in the Kenai Peninsula has become synonymous with fishing.
Research interests: Ethnohistory; fisheries; folklore; history; Russian culture; and theology
Email: jnyakunin2@alaska.edu

 

EduardEduard Zdor

Education: Current PhD student; Diploma Degree (History), Moscow University for the Humanities
Dissertation Topic: A hundred years after Bogoras: an indigenous Marxist perspective on the post-Soviet Chukchi
Research interests: The history and culture of the Bering Strait Region indigenous people; subsistence-oriented knowledge of the Arctic indigenous people; the correlation between traditional subsistence, language, and the identity of the Arctic indigenous people
Email: ezdor@alaska.edu