(April 24, 2024)—Spring is traditionally a time for celebrating new beginnings, and many of our former field school students and staff members are doing just that! I’ve been happy to catch up with some of them recently, and I am thrilled to share some of their good news with you. Please join me in congratulating everyone on their accomplishments and on some exciting new beginnings!
Rebecca Harkness won some prestigious awards this spring: the PEO Scholar Award and the SAA’s Fred Plog Memorial Fellowship and Matthew Tobin Cappetta Archaeological Scholarship. Rebecca’s work uses the ways corrugated ceramic vessels were made and decorated to understand ancient community identities in the Mogollon region of New Mexico and Arizona.
Jonah Bullen won an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and will be starting his MA at the University of Tennessee in the fall. His research uses ancient plant remains to examine past diets, food security, and food sovereignty.
Maxwell Forton received a PhD Student Research Award from the American Rock Art Research Association, and has a forthcoming article in the interdisciplinary journal Lithodendron.
Lots of good news from our alumni at the University of Arizona! Stephen Uzzle defended his MA thesis in Applied Archaeology in April, and will be returning to work at Statistical Research, Inc. His thesis uses tree rings to understand historic period logging in New Mexico. Chris LaRoche is set to defend his MA thesis in Applied Archaeology in April, and will be returning to work at Desert Archaeology, Inc. Chris’s thesis uses data from our 2016–2022 Preservation Archaeology Field School to examine group identity and mobility at the Gila River Farm site. Kelsey Hanson will be defending her doctoral dissertation in Anthropology in June, and starting her new position as an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Arlington in the fall.
More former students are finishing graduate programs and starting new ones, all over the world! Alex Cullison earned his MA in Anthropology at Iowa State University in December, and Emily Marturano will earn her MA in Museum Studies from New York University in April. Sarah Hinton earned her MA from the University of Edinburgh, and will begin her PhD coursework at Texas State University in the fall. Deianira Morris will begin the PhD program in Anthropology at the University of Arizona this fall (continuing our streak with the University of Arizona).
In addition to finishing and starting new positions, many of our alumni are currently working in archaeology or in graduate programs (or both!), and I’ve been pleased to hear from some of them recently. Ashley Huntley is thriving at ESI Environmental, Johnny Schaefer is working all over the Southwest with Tetra Tech, and Stephan Wallace is also traveling the Southwest with Epsilon Systems. Kaelyn Olson is working at the Minnesota Historical Society after earning her MA at Mississippi State University. Lewis Dolmas is finishing the first year of his MA program at the University of Oklahoma, and Chris Fuchs is working on his MA at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Jonathan Alperstein is working on his PhD at Dartmouth University, and Ruijie Yao is in the PhD program at the University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly Oriental Institute). Here in southern Arizona, Gabby Pfleger is studying ceramics from recent Mesa Community College excavations, and Jorge Barcelo has been working for Desert Archaeology.
One last note of congratulations: Dr. Danielle Romero defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Nevada Las Vegas earlier this month. Danni is the Director of the Western New Mexico University Museum, and the co-director of our new Preservation Archaeology Field School focused on museum collections management and research, archaeological survey, and experimental archaeology.
Well done, everyone! So proud of you!