Academic Work
Courses Taught
I worked as an Associate Instructor at Indiana University's Department of Anthropology between August 2018 and July 2022. During this time I have not only assisted in teaching a number of courses but also designed and taught courses of my own.
Courses Taught
The following courses where taught at Indiana University Bloomington
Archaeometallurgy: The Origins of Metals
Course Description
The origin of use of metals by humans takes place gradually over the past 10,000 years, happening independently at multiple points around the globe at different times. All industrial nations today are, among other things, built on the technological innovations of metallurgy. Buildings, automobiles, electronics, weapons, and more are all dependent upon the extraction and manipulation of metals. In order to understand the high importance of metals to human society it is important to first look, not at skyscrapers or smartphones, but at where metals originate. Where do humans first develop the use of metallurgy? What impact does this development have on early human societies? What technological innovations pave the way for industrial societies as we know them today? This course will provide an in-depth introduction to the use and origins of archaeological metals spanning from pre-metallurgical native copper production in North America to industrial steel production during the Industrial Revolution. The global approach taken in this course is designed to allow students to understand the rich cultural and technological history of metals. This course will also provide an overview of the development of mining and metal usage around the world, as well as provide a functional understanding of archeometallurgical methods that archaeologists employ in their analyses. These methods will be applied in a hands-on, activity-based fashion in order to facilitate a practical and engaged approach to studying metals. An important feature of this analysis is the footprint that mining, and metallurgy leave on the environment. This course will cover the environmental impact the mining has had and how this impact can be identified in the past. The lectures for each week are split into three parts. The first will focus on the origin and technical use of different metallurgical materials. The second will focus on the cultural and technological context of the use of metallurgical metals in different geographical locations around the world. The third will focus on archeometallurgical analysis methods.
Courses Taught
Becoming Human
Course Description
What makes us human? The human story is revealed not only in our ideas and cultural behaviors, but also in our bodies and in our genes. This course will introduce you to the quest for human origins. We can make inferences about human evolution by comparing ourselves to our closest living relatives (primates), but we can only know how we became the unique species we are today by looking at ancient evidence and tracing our bio-cultural evolution deep into prehistoric times.
Throughout the semester, we will examine the hypotheses about human origins that researchers test with a variety of methods. We will evaluate the scientific evidence of the evolutionary history of the human species. We will review the ways in which the theory and mechanisms of biological evolution are applied to the fossil record, as well as to contemporary humans. We will study primates to see what they can tell us about our own anatomy and behavior. We will explore how the interplay of biology and culture influenced our past and continues to influence us today. Ultimately, the goal is to help you appreciate how a knowledge of the deep human past is relevant to your own life.
Courses Taught
Introduction to Biological Anthropology
Course Description
Bioanthropology (B200) provides an introduction to the biological diversity and evolutionary history of humans (Homo sapiens), including coverage of evolutionary theory and its relevance for understanding contemporary human biology, genetics and inheritance, description and analysis of human biological variation and adaptation, human-environment biocultural interactions, similarities and differences between humans and non-human primates, and the fossil record for primate and human evolution. Biological anthropology is concerned with the place of humans in the natural world, the evolutionary history of our species, and biological variation within our species. It considers the question of what it means to be a human from a biological and scientific perspective. Diverse approaches and data are needed to answer this question. Biological anthropologists study genetics, the fossil record of human evolution, non-human primates (the order of mammals to which humans are most closely related), and the biology of contemporary human populations. All of these are linked by evolutionary theory, which provides us with a way of understanding how and why our species and ancestors have changed over time and how and why human populations vary today.
Courses Taught
Invention and Technology (Hutton Honors College)
Course Description
This is an archaeology class, so it is about ancient inventions and technologies. We will talk about the beginnings of tools that we take for granted today, about how and why they got started, and what their impact was on early cultures and societies where they appeared. Not all tools are physical implements so we will include discussions of intellectual tools such as mathematics and processes such as brewing. We will also talk about how we know about these early technologies, since all of them came before writing (and we will also talk about some of the earliest writing). You will learn about how archaeologists analyze ancient tools to try to get a clear picture of past cultures and you will have the opportunity to try a little analysis for yourself. We will also place these ancient tools in the context of their current forms with visits to workshops and displays across campus and in Bloomington. There will be lectures, fieldtrips, discussions, group work, and video presentations.
