Previous MI Anthropology Undergraduate Research Funding Recipients

This summer I traveled to the Philippines to carry out anthropological fieldwork to investigate a new government sponsored transportation program called the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP). The program seeks to replace traditional Jeepneys, the most common form of public transportation, with a new “modern” Jeepney that will decongest traffic and reduce pollution in urban areas. While the modern Jeepney is equipped with environmentally friendly engines, air conditioning, and security cameras, their high prices are expected to be a large burden on the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who depend on the traditional Jeepneys to secure their livelihoods. Traditional Jeepneys also serve as an important cultural symbol, elaborately decorated to reflect the aspirations and personalities of the working class Filipinos who own and drive them. 

My fieldwork consisted largely of interviews in both English and Tagalog and public observation in the National Capital Region of Manila and on the island of Panay. During my time in the Philippines I had the opportunity to interview several Jeepney drivers, a Jeepney conductor, a Jeepney dispatcher, community organizers, and members of my family on the topic of the PUVMP. Towards the end of my trip, Typhoon Carina caused extreme flooding in Metro Manila.Thankfully, my family and I were safe during this time. I was able to participate in assembling relief packages with the local chapter of a Jeepney drivers’ union and shadow one of their survey teams as they collected data on the impacts of the typhoon on the union’s members.

Overall, my experience in the Philippines was challenging, rewarding, and stimulating. I was pushed far outside of my comfort zone as I navigated through the unfamiliar megacity of Manila and practiced Tagalog outside of the classroom. I was also confronted with challenges to my ideas of class privilege, scholarship, family, and Filipino identity, and considered their interconnectedness in new ways.

I am extremely grateful for the Undergraduate Anthropology Department and the donors for the Julie Childress Stroh Endowment for Student Support in Anthropology for making this trip possible. I would like to thank Dr. Alyssa Paredes for encouraging me to my aspirations and apply for this grant, as well as Ate Irene Gonzaga for teaching the Filipino language course that gave me the skills to participate more fully in the Philippines. This was my first fieldwork experience and I have decided that it will be far from my last.

Thanks to the generosity of the Daniel Carl Maier fund and the Department of Anthropology, I had the opportunity to work at Hohle Fels with the University of Tübingen this past summer. Hohle Fels is a paleolithic cave site in the Swabian Jura that has yielded significant upper paleolithic finds, including ivory figurines such as the Venus of Hohle Fels, a “Lion Man,” and a water bird. During my time on this excavation, I was able to excavate, water screen, and work in the lab.

During my time in the cave, a typical day would follow the routine of leaving the dig house by 7:45 am in order to begin work by 8. The day included a coffee break at 10 am and lunch at 1 pm, during which times I was able to learn from other students on the crew and the wonderful field technician through discussing European archaeology, our work and research at our respective universities, and Swabian Jura cave sites. Every day in the cave was exciting, and being able to learn about all of the different work that would be done on everything coming out of the cave was fascinating. From two of the four sub-squares that we excavated in each abtrag (a three-centimeter layer) of each unit, we took soil samples with special, clean tools to send to a paleogenomics team for aDNA extraction. We would also take gipslings of certain layers. We also kept all of the sediment that we excavated from each sub-square in a bucket to water screen and sort.

Working in the lab was equally exciting and provided ample opportunity to learn about the paleolithic and all of the opportunities for research. The lab included many moving parts, such as sorting the bags of water-screened sediment coming out of the cave, washing and labeling single finds, and even preparing old bags to be reused in the cave to mitigate the plastic waste and environmental impact of our research. One aspect of the lab that I particularly enjoyed was meticulously washing and labelling single finds. Being able to gently remove dirt from lithics and bones allowed me time to see the details of what we were taking out of the cave, like a not yet erupted molar in a cave bear mandible.

Sorting the sediment meant taking out anything that someone could need in the future, which meant everything including the tiniest fragment of burnt bone. Minimizing waste in an inherently destructive field and maximizing the scientific output of every three-centimeter layer by taking absolutely everything from the sediment was inspiring to me. Learning just how useful the seemingly trivial microfauna was made me passionate about putting on my glasses, turning on my lamp, and sorting out every last frog radio-ulna. Furthermore, this provided an exciting opportunity for me to think about the statistical analysis of microfauna for palaeoecological and paleoclimatic reconstructions. As a Statistics and Human Origins, Biology, and Behavior double major, the opportunity for me to think in an interdisciplinary manner about the application of math, statistics, and computer programming to paleolithic archaeology was invaluable.

I would once again like to thank the Daniel Carl Maier fund for making this experience possible. Spending the summer working with researchers at the University of Tübingen and students from across the globe has been an incredibly rewarding experience. The Hohle Fels excavation has provided me with invaluable anthropological insight as well as opportunities for personal and professional growth, which I am incredibly grateful for.

This semester, funds from the anthropology department made possible my attendance at the annual  American Society of Overseas Research conference in Boston, MA. Here, I was able to present the preliminary preliminary results of my honors thesis, focused on pathologies of these animal remains. My research centers on Tell el-Hesi and Lahav, both archaeological tell sites in the southern Levant, nestled along a coastal plain on the northern edge of the Negev Desert. Both of these sites were early, fortified urban locales during the Early Bronze Age III period (2900-2500 B.C.E.), with Lahav having a longer occupational history leading up to its urban period. This preliminary analysis aims to explore animal health and the role of care for domesticates between two early urban locales, a topic crucial to reconstructing early urban diet and the complexities of feeding a growing population. More broadly, this project investigates what animal care techniques and strategies can tell us about interactions between humans and animals in early urban settlements during the
transition from foraging to farming. 

As this research is the base of what will become my honors thesis, presenting the preliminary stages at this conference was an invaluable
opportunity, both in my education and as a formative step in my career. Not
only was I able to receive input from top scholars in my chosen field and
region of study on this project, but l also had the opportunity to show my
academic prowess in a professional setting. ASOR is focused on archaeological research from the Near East and wider Mediterranean world, exactly where my doctoral studies will focus. Thanks to the funding from this award, I was able to this conference as a networking opportunity. The fall semester for me was characterized by crafting PhD applications, and I was able to connect with potential advisors and other graduate students at the conference. 

I am extremely grateful for my experience at this conference, and to the donors of the Anthropology department.

I was a lucky recipient of funding for archaeological research presentation this year. I am writing to thank all contributors to these funds for their  support. It really means a lot that people are so invested in supporting undergraduate research, and these contributions have allowed me to gain invaluable and unforgettable experiences that directly contribute to my
long-term academic goals.

The money I received contributed to my entrance fee and food budget for the annual conference of the Society for American Archaeology in New Orleans, LA in April. The SAA conference is the largest gathering of archaeologists and archaeology students in North America. Attending this conference was a fantastic opportunity for me to explore my research interests, as well as gain exposure to the latest work and advancements in my field of study, and expand and reinforce my professional network. Further, I was able to present the results of my honors thesis research with colleagues. After nearly a full year of work on my thesis, it was very exciting for me to share my research with the wider archaeological community.

I am so grateful for having this opportunity, which was largely made possible by the funding I received from the Anthropology Department. Donations from people like you who believe in the pursuit of knowledge, and who want to support the researchers of the future, mean the world to students like me. Thank you.

My honors thesis research is investigating the development of herd management strategies during the fourth millennium BCE at the site of Tepe Farukhabad, located in modern-day southwest Iran in what was formerly the fringes of Mesopotamia. Coinciding with the spread of urbanism and Uruk material culture, excavations at Tepe Farukhabad in the 1960s discovered a decline in hunted faunal remains compared to domesticates in the Uruk period, indicating the development of alternate subsistence strategies to support a growing population (Wright 1981). One such method observed in Mesopotamia during this period was the standardization of herd management strategies in order to maximize the productivity of herds. These standardizations included foddering, altered landscape use, and manipulation of natural reproductive cycles in order to make milk available throughout the year. Presently, little is known about how these standardizations were practiced at Tepe Farukhabad, if at all. To investigate to what extent herding standardizations were implemented at Tepe Farukhabad, my thesis will use sequential carbon and oxygen stable isotope values of sheep and goat molars to reconstruct the diet and landscape use of herded ruminants. Variation in sequential isotopic values between the Early and Late Uruk periods will reveal the extent to which an increased reliance on domesticates for subsistence manifested in standardizations of herd management at Tepe Farukhabad.

Nineteen caprine mandibular molars were selected from the archaeological layers dating to the Early, Middle, and Late Uruk periods. Of the nineteen, fifteen were identified to be from the sheep and the remaining four were from goats. As enamel develops over the lifespan, the teeth were sampled sequentially in order to investigate changes in environment and diet over the period of a year. Sample preparation was conducted at the Ancient Protein and Isotope Laboratory at the University of Michigan. Prior to sampling, the surfaces of the teeth were cleaned with a hand drill for removal of surface contaminants. Tooth enamel carbonate samples were then prepared following the sequential sampling protocol outlined in Ventresca Miller et al.(2018). Using a Dremel drill equipped with a diamond-coated drill bit, a series of 1-2 mm wide horizontal bands were drilled incrementally along the buccal surface of the tooth from the root to the crown. The resulting powdered enamel was collected on weighing paper, transferred to a 1.5mL Eppendorf tube, and weighed, ideally falling between 5 and 8 mg. Samples were then rinsed with acetic acid and water before being transported to the mass spectrometer.

Though I am anticipating my results to arrive in the next few weeks, this process has so far been very interesting and rewarding. I have enjoyed seeing the research process through from beginning to end, and I look forward to interpreting my results and discussing the implications of my research.

As described in my funding proposal from last fall, I used the funds from the anthropology department in two ways.

First, I used these funds to pay for the materials I needed to perform my research,  which consisted of experimental recreation of ancient pottery (called mortaria) in order to support or refute a specific hypothesis about their construction methods. I purchased clay and  temper, which made up the vessels themselves, as well as plaster of paris in order to create the mold over which I could drape the rolled-out clay. In addition, I rented studio and kiln space so that I could fire my vessels.

Here are some of the photos that I took during this process, showing each step from constructing my mold to attaching pieces to the vessels to when I smashed them so that I couldx-ray the pieces.

In addition, the funds from the Anthropology department were used to fund my travel and attendance at the annual ASOR meeting in Boston. These funds mainly covered my flight from Detroit to Logan International Airport, but the rest of the funds were applied to my membership fee from ASOR.

While there, I connected with many people and attended many presentations of new and exciting research. In addition, I was able to explore and experience Boston while visiting.

Thanks to your donation, I was able to travel and visit archives to do research outside of the classroom and practice and experiment with different research methods in ways I had never tried before. Most importantly, I gained first-hand experience in adjusting research plans to accommodate unexpected situations and discoveries. I am sincerely grateful for your help; it was very important to me.

I went to North Carolina State University to visit its Animal Right Archive and the American Vegan Society to research the formation and development of the American vegan discourse, which was supplementary to a previous ethnographic course project. For the research, I initially focused on news reports and correspondence between animal activist organizations and later turned to vegan recipes, cookbooks, and lifestyle books. I used these materials to understand how different philosophical trends, activist networks, and practical needs co-constituted the American vegan experience. My preliminary findings included how veganism was transmitted from the UK to the US through international migration and material and information exchange across the Atlantic Ocean, how early American veganism was influenced by Gandhi and the philosophy of nonviolence, and how American vegans’ focus on promoting vegan lifestyles and life-philosophies met the surging animal right concerns in the 1980s, which increased American veganism’s publicity and redirected towards the mainstream of today’s cultural and political landscape. The central thematic issues in my research are transnational cultural exchange and culture-making, relationships between activist groups, and cookbooks as important cultural media.

Christian Berends

Alexis Fine

Kuo Guang

Caitlin Hoyng

Abdul Kizito

Georgia Mies

Cassandra Payne

Patrick Potoczak

Thomas Proffitt

India Pruette

Abigail Rieck

Josephine Schmidt

Armando Otero

Josephine Schmidt

Macy Afsari

Jordan Brady

Alexis Fine

Patrick Potoczak

Daniel Wong

Zoe Boudart

Jordan Brady

Autumn Schmitz

Nicole Smith

Hannah Thoms

Trey Smith

Kevin Wang

Allegra Ward

Rachele Willard

Faith Williams

Alex Cashman

Arianna Cerqueira

Rachel Hurwitz

Aliya Khan

Christine Rysenga

Nicole Smith

Kinsey Vear

Allegra Ward

Zachary Arrington

Kelly Garland

Megan Harrison

Lauren Heinonen

Andrew Mitchel

Nolan Powers

Bianca Winward

Brianne Yeskey

Sarah Burke

Anna Forringer-Beal

Polina Hristova

Connor Liskey

Hannah Marcovitch

Lillian Shipp

Sarah Cunninham

Darci Curwen-Garber

Andrew Fiasco

Anna Forringer-Beal

Briana Gladhill

Nabiha Hashmi

Polina Hristova

Christina Johnson

Ingrid Lundeen

Alexandra Newton

Ann Soliman

Jennifer Washabaugh

Andrea Dantus

Julia Hickey

Polina Hristova

Jenna Isherwood

Laura Jessmore

Katherine Kinkopf

Ingrid Lundeen

Ann Soliman

Jennifer Washabaugh

Colton Babladelis

Colleen Breslin

Alie Rae Cohen

Julia Field

Anna Forringer-Beal

Erika Loveland

Jillian McConville

Samantha Patterson

Anna Schwiebert

Rachel Stokes

Murphy Van Sparrentak

Kendall Arslanian

Nicole Carbone

Megan Cole

Katherine Globerson

Sarah Hodin

Clare Toeniskoetter

Cynthia Kazanis

Shayna Liberman