CSU Department of Anthropology and Geography

08/21/2026

Welcome aboard to our new class of Anthropology and Geography students! We’re ready to launch into the new school year with our incoming and returning students next week!

08/11/2026

APPLY NOW! Don't miss out on Fermentation, Culture, and History in Belgium, a two-week winter break course in Belgium that will introduce students to beer, brewing, and culture in Belgium.

In Winter 2027, students will have the opportunity to tour and learn about significant cultural and religious sites, while they also learn about local beer, brewing, and related culture. This education abroad experience, led by instructor Keri Canada, is paired with a six-week online course, which encourages students to actively analyze and reflect upon the relationship between Belgian culture and their own, fostering a deeper understanding of both the host country and their own cultural framework.

More information and application link: https://myedabroad.colostate.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgramAngular&id=12433

07/31/2026

Michael Charney "loved a good story and telling a good story. And he wanted to tell the story of (the Big Thompson flood victims), to give them a voice and identity.” Professor Jason LaBelle speaks to Fox31 about the late professor Michael Charney and his legacy with the 1976 Big Thompson Flood.

Charney and his team spent a staggering two months working to identify those swept away in the floodwaters that night. Many of the victims were unrecognizable, making them hard to ID.

07/31/2026

On the night of July 31, 1976, a violent thunderstorm over the Big Thompson Canyon produced a raging, 20-foot-tall wall of water that killed more than 140 residents, tourists, and campers in the canyon and destroyed hundreds of homes and properties. In the aftermath, emergency managers faced a daunting task trying to identify recovered bodies. They turned to CSU professor of forensic anthropology, the late Michael Charney, to lead the effort.

Read about Charney, the Big Thompson Flood, and his legacy at CSU

With the approach of the 50th anniversary of the Big Thompson Flood near Loveland, Colorado State University is remembering the role of the late forensic anthropologist Michael Charney, who led the successful identification of 139 recovered bodies – and, in the process, helped advance the field of...

07/17/2026

CSU anthropologist Michael Pante and colleagues are challenging long-held assumptions about the hunting habits and fire use of Homo floresiensis—the famous "hobbits" of Indonesia. Read how new evidence is reshaping the story of one of our closest relatives, including whether they dined on komodo dragons and dwarf elephants.

The research, led by CSU and Germany’s University of Tübingen, offers new insights into how Homo floresiensis survived in part due to an unlikely ally, the Komodo dragon.

07/02/2026

Dr. Edward Henry is again completing archaeological surveys at Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park using ground-penetrating radar to understand the cities and lives of mound-building cultures without disturbing historical and cultural earthworks.

WBBJ (ABC/CBS affiliate) in Tennessee reported on Henry's work following a presentation at the park.

Henry has studied at Pinson Mounds for many field seasons, bringing graduate and undergraduate students to support and pursue their own research, including past Archaeology Field Schools.

Saturday, Dr. Edward R. Henry of Colorado State University spoke during “Unearthing Pinson: New Discoveries From the Field.”

06/20/2026

More on recent research, from Prof. Jeff Snodgrass and the Ethnographic Research and Teaching Lab, into role-playing games’ therapeutic value

06/17/2026

Late nights in the middle of June…

Ann Gill Hall is coming! From its former days as the elevated Clark B bridge to its future as a five-story, state-of-the-art hub for learning and gathering… Anthropology and Geography is excited to be at home in the heart of the Clark Building and for the classrooms, offices, and lounges that await us and the College of Liberal Arts!

06/11/2026

This summer, undergraduate student Olivia Sheley (ANTH: Archaeology) ducked out of the classroom and into the highland forests of western Mexico and Angamuco, a Purépecha archaeological site in the Pátzcuaro Lake Basin, under the direction of Professor Chris Fisher. Through excavation and LiDAR mapping since 2007, Fisher, a National Geographic Explorer, and his team have shown that Angamuco was a vast Purépecha city where more than 100,000 people may have lived during its peak 800-1,100 years ago.

Sheley and others on the team of CSU, University of Illinois, Chicago, and Mexican partners are investigating a ceremonial plaza featuring two altars and a yacata, a distinctive keyhole-shaped pyramid unique to the Purépecha. Sheley is excavating one of the altars to better understand how the structure was used, how it relates to the yacata, and what its architecture can reveal about life and ritual at Angamuco. Along the way, she is also learning some Spanish and how to collaborate across languages.

Classes including Archaeology of Mesoamerica (ANTH 452), Human Osteology (ANTH 372), and Archaeology of Death (ANTH 467) helped prepare Sheley to contribute to research involving ritual burials and human remains. "It's incredibly rewarding to apply what I've learned in the classroom to real-world research,” said Sheley who came to CSU as a transfer student after completing her Anthropology associate’s degree at Front Range Community College.

Sheley said the best moment of the field season so far was discovering a bezote—a lip plug worn as a permanent body adornment and an elite status marker reserved for office holders. "Being able to see and hold things that I've read about and talked about in classes is so amazing," Sheley said. "It was incredible."

06/08/2026

Need to move 13,000 years of archaeological history in a week? We’ve got a crew for that!

This past week, an eager and capable group of ANTH/GR students loaded, transported, unloaded, and rehoused the complete CSU Archaeological Repository - hundreds of boxes of artifacts and items, including heavy, fragile, and culturally relevant items and stone, fossil, and bone material - from a temporary space in Morgan Library to its prior home in the renovated Clark Hall basement. Over four days, the students moved and reshelved the complete repository collection, supporting a smaller hired moving team.

A HEFTY THANK YOU to Annabelle Storey, Emily Davis, Travis Hallmark, Sarah Schiewe, AJ Thomas, CJ Kalter, and JoJo Cummings for the lifting and shifting, and ensuring boxes and items were safely and securely packed and organized throughout the project. You are rockstars! Many, many thanks to department administrator Valeria Meza Alba who coordinated and supervised the complicated project - and who continues to oversee and support all of ANTH/GR’s moves and shuffles amid the Clark Building revitalization since 2023. Gratitude to the movers and partners in Facilities Management as well as college administrators Emma Cleveringa, Emily Martin, and Alie Wise who volunteered their time and help too. ❤️💪🏼

The CSU Archaeological Repository, directed by Prof. Jason LaBelle, is an important collection and learning space that includes artifacts from over 1,200 archaeological sites, including past CSU field schools and research, and chronicles our region’s rich human and archaeological history. The renovated repository will have moveable shelves for expanded and more secure storage for collections and is scheduled to be open to students this fall.