Anthropology

08/21/2025

Small Acts, Big Impact on Student's Futures: The Anthropology Student Research Fund

Funds raised through will be used to support student research projects in: archaeology, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and medical anthropology. Thanks to generous donations to the Rebecca Jeanne Andrew Memorial Research Award, students studying primatology and biological anthropology already have access to funds to conduct life-changing field research in places like Peru and Ecuador. Please help us fund student research in other areas of anthropology!

https://www.givetomiamioh.org/s/916/22/landing-int.aspx?sid=916&gid=1&pgid=20427&cid=40408&ecid=40408&ciid=163601&crid=0

08/20/2025

It's that time of year! Students are moving back and our department mascot, Franz, is ready for Fall!

08/15/2025

Small Acts, Big Impact on Student's Futures: The Anthropology Student Research Fund

Funds raised through will be used to support student research projects in: archaeology, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and medical anthropology. Thanks to generous donations to the Rebecca Jeanne Andrew Memorial Research Award, students studying primatology and biological anthropology already have access to funds to conduct life-changing field research in places like Peru and Ecuador. Please help us fund student research in other areas of anthropology!

At Miami University, tradition runs deep. From kissing under Upham Arch to rubbing the turtle heads for luck, these moments connect generations of RedHawks. ...

07/16/2024

Abby Berhalter (‘24), Sydney Davidson (‘25), Ginny Kirby (‘24), Dylan Falk (‘24), Scott Day (‘24), and Malia Abbott (‘24) presented Rediscovering Oxford: The 2023 Anthropology Department Campus Archaeology Field Season at the Undergraduate Research Forum this Spring. Along with many classmates, the six anthropology majors conducted the department’s 2023 Fall Dig at the McGuffey House. The presentation highlighted findings from the dig including numerous artifacts, a history of the sites, and archival data. Through this research, they were able to better interpret and situate their dig site to the turn of the 20th century. Their research will continue as archaeology students participate in the 2025 Fall Dig.

07/11/2024

Global Health minor Kendal Guagenti (‘24) presented her research project Unpacking Inequity: Choice and Judgement in Food Pantries last Spring at the Undergraduate Research Forum. Guagenti looks at the increasing rates of food insecurity throughout the countryand provides context and causes for the issue. Based on her research, Guagenti proposes better government programs to mitigate food insecurity instead of relying upon food pantries to fill this widening gap across the country.

07/09/2024

Anthropology major Ella Boate ('25) is studying abroad in Salzburg, Austria this summer. In this picture she has hiked to the top of Untersberg Mountain outside Salzburg.

07/08/2024

Global Health minor, Kaitlyn Stamp (‘24) presented her research project "Hidden Hunger: Confronting Stigma and Food Insecurity" at the Undergraduate Research Forum last spring. Kaitlyn seeks to understand stigma around food pantries and the causes of food insecurity throughout the country more generally. She conducted research at the Talawanda Oxford Food Pantry during winter break to get a firsthand look at the struggles people face when visiting food pantries. By looking at factors that contribute to people's failure to use food pantries, Stamp sought to better understand the struggles of food insecurity and how to better mitigate them.

07/03/2024

Billy Browning (‘24) presented his research on “Ripeness of Spondias mombin, influence on feeding behaviour and food processing by Woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagotricha) in the Ecuadorian Amazon” at the Miami University Undergraduate Research Forum last spring. Billy conducted his research on medicinal plant use by Ecuadorian woolly monkeys. Through this research, Browning was able to understand the use of Spondias fruits during childbearing times in terms of contraceptive use and as an aid for childbirth. Browning hopes to relate these observations to better understand how humans in the region use Spondias fruit for their antiviral, antibacterial, and purgative properties. His work was supervised by Dr. Kelsey Ellis

06/28/2024

Last spring, Noah Scruggs (‘24) presented his research on "Intergroup Dynamics of Lowland Woolly Monkeys (Lagothrix Lagotricha Poeppigii) at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station, Ecuador" at Miami's Undergraduate Research Forum. Scruggs traveled to Ecuador where he observed aggressive intergroup encounters among woolly monkeys in the wild. Scruggs analyzed age, s*x, food availability, and distance from home site as a variables for understanding these aggressive encounters. Noah's research was supervised by Dr. Kelsey Ellis.

06/25/2024

Dr. Mark Peterson with Noah Davis’s poster presentation of his research project "Intercultural Research in Multimedia Design with Pokémon" at last Spring's Undergraduate Research Forum. Funded by an Undergraduate Student Scholarship, Noah ('24), a major in Emerging Technologies in Business + Design, used aesthetic elements and motifs drawn from German art and design to create "Germanic" Pokemon. then met with German game players and Pokemon fans to see if they would in fact find these characters to be "German." His goal was to develop an iterative process for designers to create aesthetics that resonate with local cultural actors. His research was supervised by Dr. Peterson. Noah was unable to attend the URF because he was spending the summer abroad at Miami's Luxembourg campus.

06/21/2024

Maya D’souza (‘24) presented her research "Social networks of Colobus guereza in captivity compared to the wild" at Miami's Undergraduate Research Forum last Spring. Maya conducted research at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and compared the differences in behaviors between captive Colobus monkeys compared to their wild counterparts. She found a significant difference in resting behaviors, with captive monkeys spending more time resting than they would in the wild. She finishes her research with a call to action to zoos to enrich monkey enclosures to better simulate the environment that a wild Colobus monkey would face. Maya's work was supervised by Dr. Kelsey Ellis.

06/17/2024

Global Health Studies minor Molly Schneider (‘24) presented her research project "Syphilis on the Rise: Prevalence, Incidence, and Vertical Transmission in Peru and the US" at the undergraduate Research Forum last Spring. Molly looked at the rise of syphilis among people in both the US and Peru, in spite of a global commitment to decrease these rates. Through her research, Scheider explained the factors that contribute to this problem and recommends possible interventions to mitigate them. Schneider’s intervention solutions include at-home STI testing and intercultural strategies to both educate people about their health and away from the causes of untreated STIs.