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
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
Audra Darcy
Education: Current MA student; BA Anthropology, Minor: Earth Science (2013) University of Maine
Orono; Management Certificate (2016) Harvard Extension School
Research interests: Geoarchaeology, hunter-gatherers, human-environment interaction, climate change,
peopling of the Americas
Email: ajdarcy@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
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
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
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
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