BA in Anthropology & Archaeology, current MPH candidate
Network:
SITE CONTEXT AND ADVISORY
This website contains images of human skeletal remains. All photographs were taken by myself or colleagues in professional settings. The individuals pictured are all modern medical specimens, meaning their remains were donated to science, or are archaeological remains with documented provenance. These materials are presented for educational and research purposes, as well as personal record-keeping, with care and respect for the deceased.
Questions to ask regarding the use of images of human remains
- Were the human remains under consideration excavated in a responsible and culturally sensitive way?
- If the material under consideration was not excavated in a responsible and culturally sensitive way, is it possible to use the circumstances to educate the reader/audience about the importance of doing so?
- Do the images of human remains under consideration show proper respect to appropriate descendent communities, and not violate the wishes of those modern communities?
- Are the images of human remains under consideration necessary for academic or educational purposes in order to illustrate the archaeological evidence in context?
- Is there an intellectual rationale for the use of images of human remains, and does this use avoid any sensationalism?
- Are there alternatives (illustrations, line drawings, archaeological plan maps, or photo-negative formats) that could be used effectively instead of photographs of human remains?
- Images of human remains have the potential to be offensive and unsettling to some members of the communities with whom we work and to whom we present. How can you provide advanced warning of sensitive content for those who might be offended or troubled by images of human remains?
Source: Arcaeological Institute of America,
AIA Guidelines on the Use of Images of Human Remains
FIELDWORK
B.
GENEAOLOGY AND RECORD-TRACING
2020-ongoing
TBE
- Dapibus Ut
-
Morbi Varius Euismod
-
Lacinia Intege
-
Congue Tincidunt
-
Rhoncus
FIELDWORK in forensic and settlement archaeology, 1100 BCE - 1300 CE
2018-2022
Over the past several years, I’ve had the chance to participate in archaeological fieldwork across Europe and the Middle East, working with both human remains and material culture in complex, high-pressure environments.
My first formal bioarchaeological experience was in Poland, where we excavated a 13th-century cemetery and recorded child mortality data from medieval graves. I helped complete skeletal profiles, document pathology, and prepare over 200 individuals for reburial.
Most recently, I contributed to a long-running excavation of a mass grave site associated with the Napoleonic period in northern Spain. The site is closely tied to a series of 18th and 19th-century military conflicts, including the wars with revolutionary France (1793–1795) and the later Napoleonic campaigns. Many of the individuals recovered show signs of direct connection to these events: some were found in anatomical position, others comingled in what appears to be a hasty wartime burial. Uniform buttons, boots, and ammunition suggest that one dense grouping of remains belonged to French soldiers. Other graves included a Spanish combatant, buried in uniform, and a young individual with a cranial trepanation - possibly a patient from when the site served as a military hospital.
NAGPRA COMPLIANCE AND REPATRIATION
2019-2021
- Museums are full of voices, though most of them don't speak aloud. You walk past a case of obsidian blades, shell pendants, woven baskets. Lots of clay pots. There’s quiet, but it’s not complete silence. Everything in those cases is saying something.
The real question is: who gets to interpret it? Who gets to decide what the story is, and when it’s time to give it back?
- Compliance is rarely just paperwork, although I wish it were that straightforward. It’s history, grief, and bureaucracy all braided together.
It’s standing in front of a cabinet full of funerary objects and asking, why are these here? Who is missing from the conversation?
E.
OSTEOLOGY COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT
2022-present
How do we treat human remains with both scientific care and basic decency? Museums haven’t always had the best answer. Sometimes, the way we preserve things ends up damaging them, or the dignity of the person they once were.
I currently advise on how human remains should be stored, documented, and handled - not just as specimens, but as individuals. That often meant asking uncomfortable questions. It sometimes meant saying, “we shouldn’t display this at all.”
In 2022, I developed a new method for articulating medical specimens: a way to stabilize skeletons for display without drilling into them or running wires through fragile joints, which has been the industry standard for longer than I’ve been alive. It was small, technical work, but to me it felt like a quiet course correction, a shift toward preservation that didn’t require harm.