News & Events

Graduate student Gabrielle Perry received an Alice Hamilton Scholarship. She will use the funds in January 2024 for a pilot study focused on the role of climate change in the Classic-period collapse in the lower Rio Verde Valley on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico with funding request for submersible...

Graduate student Erik Jurado received an Alice Hamilton Scholarship. He will use the funds travel, lodging and food expenses for a three month excavation of three elite residential mounds at San Ignacio, a Classic Period (300- 600CE) regional center in the central highlands of Mexico. The research will indicate how...

Dr. Marnie Thomson (PhD in cultural anthropology 2017) co-authored a new essay in Sapiens, “Why I Ask My Students to Swear in Class.” The essay discusses how an anthropologist uses explicit insults to get students thinking about gender and power in everyday language. Plus, a brief explainer on the slang...

Sanggay Tashi awarded an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant. The Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement grant supports doctoral research aimed at understanding patterns, causes and consequences of human social and cultural variation, including research that has implications for confronting anthropogenic problems. Sanggay will use the funds for his research in...

Katie McGuire featured on KGNU's radio show "How On Earth" as part of their graduation specials. These specials are for students who have or will soon receive their Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in a STEM-related field. On the show, Katie talks about her thesis research, grad school experiences,...

Graduate student Kevin Darcy named a 2023 NAEd Spencer Dissertation Fellow. This fellowship which is offered by the Spencer Foundation and the National Academy of Education supports innovative dissertation research on ways to improve education. Kevin will receive a year-long stipend to support his dissertation research on ways that universities...

Ph.D. student Katie McGuire successfully defended her dissertation entitled, "Navigating the Needs of the Many and the Few: Examining the Relationship between Ring-tailed Lemur ( Lemur catta ) Group Function and Individual Variation on St. Catherines Island." Congratulations, Dr. Kathleen "Katie" McGuire

Congratulations to Kelsey Hoppes who successfully defended her prospectus, "Identification of a Multicultural Settlement Though Ceramic Material Culture.” Her committee included Professors Doug Bamforth, Samantha Fladd, Scott Ortman, Sarah Kurnick and Jen Birch. She now advances to Phd candidacy.

Professor Doug Bamforth received the first Distinguished Alumnus in Archaeology award from the UCSB Anthropology Department. Professor Bamforth travelled to Santa Barbara to meet with current graduate students and receive the inaugural award.

Professor Fernando Villanea's co-authored article: “Demographic history and genetic structure in pre-Hispanic Central Mexico” published in Science. The article is a study of the demographic history of pre-Hispanic central Mexico through ancient genomes. Abstract Aridoamerica and Mesoamerica are two distinct cultural areas in northern and central Mexico, respectively, that hosted...