Current Graduate Students
Tom 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
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
Chris Cannon
Education: Current PhD Candidate in Cultural Anthropology; MA Northern Studies (2014) University
of Alaska Fairbanks (Thesis: Alaska Athabascan Stellar Astronomy); BS Wildlife Biology
(2007) University of Alaska Fairbanks
Dissertation Topic: Northern Dene Astronomical and Sky-Related Knowledge: A Comparative Anthropological
Study
Research Interests: Northern Dene (Athabascan) language and culture with a focus on astronomical and sky-related
knowledge within and across ethnolinguistic groups
Email: cmcannon2@alaska.edu
Sierra Cotrona
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
Allison 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” Dewey
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
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
Daniel 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
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
Amelia 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 Jian
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
Casey 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 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
Erin Laughlin
Education: Current PhD student
Research interests: TBD
Email: eelaughlin@alaska.edu
Varpu 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
Haley 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 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
Tara 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
Erica 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 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
Kelsey 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
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
Mary Ashley Stough
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
Lynn 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
Jonah 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
Eduard 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