Anthropology Alumni

What can you do with a degree in anthropology?

Caitlin Stewart (archaeology, bioarchaeology)

Caitlin is the Cultural Resources Program Director at Cornerstone Environmental Consulting, LLC. She runs the day to day of a CRM firm in Flagstaff, AZ that targets Federal contracts over the Southwest. The company specializes in survey and excavation of Hohokam, Central Arizona Tradition, and Ancestral Puebloan archaeological cultures. Caitlin received a B.A. in Anthropology from Western Kentucky University and a M.A. from University of Mississippi and has now worked in CRM for fifteen years. During her graduate career at UM, she focused on methodological approaches to determining minimum number of individuals in complex bioarchaeological contexts. She has conducted archaeological survey, testing, and data recovery efforts primarily in the Southwest including Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Utah, and has also worked in the US Southeast, Marshall Islands, Belize, Guatemala, and Scotland. Areas of technical experience include bioarchaeology, faunal analysis, mortuary practices of the southwest, groundstone analysis, project management, and reporting.

Raychel Durdin (archaeology, bioarchaeology)

Raychel works in Tuscaloosa, AL as a bioarchaeologist and Lab Director at a company called Terraxplorations. Raychel is pictured here at the Craft House excavations in Holly Sprins, MS in her pre-grad school days with fellow anth major Emily Fortier, who also earned an MA after graduation and focuses on health-related work. For a blog about Raychel and her team’s work, click here What is Cultural Resource Management? (terraxplorations.com)

Paul Martin (archaeology, geophysics, K9 search unit)

Forced convict labor in North Carolina left a ‘mass grave’ (usatoday.com)

Paul’s business, Martin Archaeological Consulting, combines specialized detection of human remains with geophysical survey and provides work for the Bureau of Land Management, engineering firms, non-profit research organizations, and developers. Some of his work is featured in news articles and in a Cat Warren book, including  children’s edition inspired by his sone Ronnie.

Nikki Mattson (archaeology, conservation)

Nikki is the Southeast Field Representative for The Archaeological Conservancy, and her thesis played an instrumental role in telling the story of the people who inhabited the Batesville Mounds site. Visit her thesis site just off Hwy 55 north of Batesville Batesville Mounds (ms.gov)

Rachel Smith (history, bioarchaeology) is employed as an archaeologist, historian, and technical report writer at Terraxplorations, Inc. She has an MA in History and in Anthropology, with international research experience in the US south and in Belize, including in bioarchaeology. Rachel’s thesis in 2020 was “Isotopic Analysis of Human Migration among the Ancient Maya of Ambergris Caye, Belize” and she is working on publishing it now.

Josh Shiers (archaeology) is an archaeologist and Field Director at Terraxplorations, Inc. He directs cultural resource surveys in the southeast and other CRM research and research duties. Josh Shiers | TerraX (terraxplorations.com)

Updates coming on our cultural anthropology MA and BA grads (pictured below Grace Vredingburgh, Martha Grace Mize, & Kyara Williams).

Click for a link of some Anthropology M.A. graduates and theses.

We’re busy – updates coming soon!