Part-time Instructor of Anthropology
 Research Interests
Archaeology; ethnohistory; comparative religion; mythology; ritual; North American archaeology; North American Indians (especially Coeur d'Alene); cultural resource management; teaching on the web.
Current Research
I am interested in how people use mythology, ritual, and other aspects of religious life to bring meaning to their world. My current research focuses on the Woodland Period in the Ohio Valley. During this time, people were becoming increasingly involved with relatively new technologies, such as horticulture and ceramics, while the sizes of the territories that they had available to them decreased. Concurrently, local groups became involved in increasingly elaborate ritual and mortuary practices, including the construction of circular enclosure and large burial mounds. My research involves documenting local and regional variation in ritual practices in the hopes of understanding how local groups constituted themselves and differentiated themselves from their neighbors.
 Academic Degrees
- A.B.D. University of Kentucky
- M.A. University of Idaho
- B.A. Michigan State University
Courses
- ANT 100 Cultural Anthropology
- ANT 594 Topics: Native Americans
Accolades
- 2005-2006 Kentucky Opportunity Fellowship
- 2005-6 Daniel R. Reedy Quality Achievement Award
Selected Publications
- 2008 The Adena Mound as Axis Mundi and Implications for Early Woodland Settlement Patterns and Social Organization. Current Archaeological Research in Kentcuky, Volume 10, edited by Charles Hockensmith and Ken Carstens. Kentucky Heritage Council, Frankfort.
- 2007 Toward a Descriptive and Functional Classification of Historical Artifacts for Use in Cultural Resource Management Settings. Ohio Valley Historic Archaeology.
- 2007 Some Aspects of Adena Cosmology. Currents of Change 5(2).
Associated Websites
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