If you didn't know, I officially launched my Cultural Heritage Informatics (CHI) project at the end of April. While I wasn't sure what I wanted to do at first, I quickly decided to do a project focusing on the archaeological site that I work at - Marco Gonzalez. Marco Gonzalez is the largest archaeological site on Ambergris Caye, and was a Maya trading center and salt production site. Through the years, archaeologists have uncovered several artifacts that traveled far and wide to end up at Marco Gonzalez, including from central Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and the Pacific coast. I wanted to create a mobile website that tourists could use to stay up-to-date on ongoing research and excavations, as well as learn more about how Marco Gonzalez fit within Mesoamerica. 

Once I finished my project (which will be on ongoing endeavor as I will update the site with new findings each year), one question still remained - how do I share this website with tourists? After speaking with Dr. Ethan Watrall (the director for the CHI Initiative), he suggested that I 3D print a QR code for my website. I could then post the 3D print at the entrance of the archaeological site. So I did just that! 

Below you can see where we posted the QR code. I love this project, and love that it is available to anyone interested even more. So I want to say thank you to Ethan and my CHI cohort because I couldn't have made this idea into a reality without them!

Just a quick update - a week ago today I successfully passed my dissertation proposal defense. And since I already passed my comprehensive exams in the fall, I am officially a Ph.D. candidate! It was a really long year, but being on the other side of the exams and my proposal is an amazing feeling. After a week of finishing up some end-of-year work (including launching my CHI project!), I'm now gearing up for this year's field work. I will be in Belize during June, where I will be supervising an undergraduate field school. 

Stick around to see updates from this season in July. In the meantime, you can read about last season's work here!

Hi everyone! It has been a few years since I last posted a personal blog, but I wanted to come on here and give a few updates.

First off, I am now a fourth-year Ph.D. student at Michigan State University. I will defend my dissertation proposal this semester, which is the last obstacle to navigate before I officially become a Ph.D. candidate (yay!). My dissertation research, which you can read more about here, will focus on ancient health and diet in the ancient Maya, specifically in Belize. To do this, I will be decalcifying dental calculus (the stuff your dental hygienist scrapes off of your teeth!) to look at the microbotanicals and proteins trapped in the matrix. As dental calculus calcifies during life, the remains found in the dental calculus will be the things that the person would have interacted with in life (think food and medicine!). 

Getting to this point was a journey though. I moved to Michigan right after I graduated from undergrad in 2020. I moved here during a pandemic, not knowing anyone who lived in Michigan. So, as you may imagine, it was a little bit of a tough transition for me as I was not able to meet people in person for awhile. With that said, I was still able to develop a support system relatively quick. This support system has meant the world to me. They have been there for me through the highs and the lows of grad school, and I feel incredibly lucky to have them.

Throughout the last few years, I have had several different opportunities that have allowed me to broaden my skillset. This has included experiences in bioarchaeology, historic archaeology, anatomy, digital humanities, public outreach, community engagement, and so much more. The last four years have been jammed pack of activities and research, which cannot be encompassed fully in a single blogpost. Of course, if you're interested, you can read about what I've gotten into in my interactive CV, or you can always email me.

I've been debating on deleting this blog, or picking it back up. After some consideration and digital humanities education, I have decided to start it back up. I don't plan to post a blog regularly, but hope to use this as a narrative around my experience during my dissertation research and writing. So, if you're interested in learning about what going through the dissertation process is like real-time, then you can come back here periodically to see me desend into chaos (just kidding... hopefully). 

The 2019 Summer Bridge program offered at Radford University provides high school female students an opportunity to experience a STEM field they're interested in for a week over summer break. This year I had the chance to be the teaching assistant for the forensic anthropology section of the camp. This offered me a chance to share my knowledge of the field with the future "STEMinists", and it was one of the most incredible experiences that I have had. I could geek out with these girls and they seemed to geek out as much as I did, and that created such a wonderful, nerdy environment for everyone involved. 
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During this week, we taught the girls about what a forensic anthropologist does, what the bones in the body were called, how to create a biological profile, how bones react to both trauma and disease, and how to collect remains from a site like a forensic archaeologist. The girls were truly the best of the best. I hope to have the chance to be a teaching assistant again next summer to teach more students like them.

I had the opportunity to travel to the northern ice field of Patagonia, Chile this past wintermester. On this trip I met many amazing people and had the chance to continue my research project from RARE, all while experiencing the most physically exhausting hike I have ever done. I will be analyzing the data collected in the next few weeks to see how traveling to Chile compares to traveling to Peru. 
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While in Chile, we hiked just over 50 miles across all types of environments, from desert-like plains to glaciers and ice moraines. This trip opened my eyes to how our world works, and it made me more interested then ever in learning about how we can protect the last of these almost untouched environments. 

From July 29th to August 5th, I had the chance to go to Bryce Canyon, one of the National Parks located in Utah. I had the chance to explore and learn about the geological formations, ecosystem, tourism, astronomy, and so much more.

On this trip, I was able to help dig up an invasive species in the area named bull thistle. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  I have been involved in invasive species removal along the Appalachian Trail, so this project meant a little more than just learning about the new environment that I was in. I had the chance to help protect native plant species, which is sometimes looked over because of the need to protect our animals. We have to keep in mind that our plants are just as important to protect.