My interests are focused broadly upon the age, sex and gender-related changes in bone quantity and quality, particularly the application of biocultural and developmental/life course approaches to the study of bone maintenance, fragility, and stress. I am engaged in the application of research in bone maintenance to dialogues of social identity, embodiment, developmental plasticity, and inequality in bioarchaeology. I have examined age- and growth-related changes in cortical bone microstructure, trabecular architecture, bone mineral density, and bone strength in several historic British and Italian archaeological populations, and have examined the long-term effect of growth and reproduction (parity and lactation) on the human and non-human primate maternal skeleton, in prehistoric Turkey and Japan. I recently completed co-directing the study of archaeological human remains from the medieval site of Villa Magna, Italy, and have a current collaborative bioarchaeological project from the archaeological site of Pava, Italy with colleagues from the University of Pisa. My current research is also invested in bioethics of skeletal biology/bioarchaeology, specifically the practice and ethics curation and repatriation of skeletal/ancestral remains. I currently serve as a member of the UC Berkeley NAGPRA Implementation Committee,(link is external) and most recently served on The Commission for the Ethical Treatment of Human Remains (TCETHER)(link is external) of the American Anthropological Association. I am also interested in the philosophies of teaching, and actively involved in the pedagogical training of college instructors, and has been awarded numerous teaching grants and honors, including the Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentorship of GSIs and the Distinguished Teaching Award(link is external), the highest campus award for excellence in teaching. I am co-author with (Liz Soluri) of the leading active learning based-lab manual for introductory courses in bioanthropology “Laboratory Manual and Workbook for Biological Anthropology, 2nd edition”, 2019, Norton). I am founder of the Western Bioarchaeology Group (WeBiG)(link is external), co-founder and former co-chair of the Bioarchaeology Interest Group in the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), and Founding Co-Editor-In-Chief of Bioarchaeology International, (link is external)and I currently (link is external)serve on the Editorial Board of (link is external)the Yearbook of Biological Anthropology.
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Interim Dean, Undergraduate Studies
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