My greatest interest in archaeology is understanding the behavior of early mobile foraging groups and how they interacted with their surrounding environment. I received my B.A. and M.A. in Archaeology from Boston University in 2021. For my master’s research, I worked with the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project at the Preclassic Maya site of Cahal Pech as a field supervisor and paleoethnobotanist. During the 2019 field season, I constructed and operated the project’s first manual bilge pump flotation machine while assisting with daily excavations. The macrobotanical samples collected with the flotation machine and the soil samples collected for phytolith analysis were sent back to the Boston University Environmental Archaeology Laboratory where I spent the remainder of my graduate program analyzing each sample. At its core, my master’s research sought to elicit the methodological techniques necessary to utilize paleoethnobotanical markers as indicators for early and transitioning subsistence economies.
Upon graduating, I began working in the field of cultural resource management as a field archaeologist in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. I currently work as a crew chief and project archaeologist for a local heritage management firm. My doctoral research at Rutgers will focus on a comparative phytolith analysis between the Middle Paleolithic sites of El Salt and Abric del Pastor in Alcoi, Spain. My dissertation will engage the question of whether phytolith assemblages can be used as a proxy for the use and accessibility of certain plant species between different Middle Paleolithic sites in the same environmental region.
My doctoral dissertation, A Microarchaeological Approach to Paleolithic Fire and Bedding Technology, examines the social and technological development of early human groups by exploring how they organized and maintained domestic living areas. Focusing on two critical elements, fire use and the placement of bedding materials, this research offers insight into cognitive complexity, changing social structures, and survival strategies in our evolutionary past. By incorporating ethnoarchaeology, experimental archaeology, and microarchaeology, this study presents a novel approach to understanding domestic behavior in ancient human societies.
Current Awards:
Anthropology Bigel Award
CHES Small Grant Research Award
Center for African Studies (CAS) Graduate Student Enhancement Grant
CHES Zelnick Award
CHES Albert Fellows Dissertation Research Grant
Lewis and Clark Fund for Exploration and Field Research
NSF Archaeology Program - DDRIG
Upcoming awards:
CHES Zelnick Award