Lab group

At the moment, I amĀ  supervising two postdoctoral research fellows, Mana Dembo and Kim Plomp. Mana is using Bayesian phylogenetic techniques to investigate hominin phylogenetic relationships, while Kim is using 3D geometric morphometric techniques to analyze skeletal samples from Viking period sites in the British Isles.

I am also supervising three PhD students: Alan Cross, Brea McCauley, and Don White. Alan is investigating the impact of body segment size variation and movement on heat balance estimates. Brea is interested in the evolutionary significance of body modification practices, such as finger amputation and tattooing. Don is examining the debate about the relevance of current fitness in the evolutionary social sciences.

In addition, I am supervising two MA students: Jon Harding and Amalea Ruffett. Jon is examining variation in the complexity of the clothing produced and worn by small-scale societies in the early ethnographic period. Amalea is working on cross-cultural variation in diet quality.

Lastly, I am on the supervisory committee of Rob Rondeau, who’s an MA student in the SFU Department of Archaeology. Rob is combining a recently developed method of predicting archaeological site location with advanced underwater archaeological techniques to investigate the coastal hypothesis for the peopling of the New World.

In the past, I have supervised >50 honours students, graduate students, and postdocs. Several of these individuals have secured positions in academia, including Briggs Buchanan, Chris Carleton, Marina Elliott, Ben Raffield, Victoria Herridge, Luseadra McKerracher, John Stewart, Jamie Tehrani, and Stephen Lycett. Briggs (postdoc: 2005-2013) is now an associate professor at the University of Tulsa, USA. Currently, Chris (PhD student: 2011-2017; postdoc 2017-2019) is a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany. At the moment, Marina (MA student: 2006-2008; PhD student: 2008-2015) is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of the Witswatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Luseadra (MA student: 2007- 2009; PhD student: 2009-2016, postdoc: 2016) is now a postdoctoral research fellow at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Ben Raffield (postdoc: 2014-2016) is now a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. Victoria (undergrad honours student: 2001-2002) is a palaeobiologist at the Natural History Museum in London, UK. John (postdoc: 2000-2002) is currently an associate professor at Bournemouth University, UK. Jamie (MSc student: 2000-2001; PhD student: 2001-2005; postdoc: 2006-2007) is an associate professor in anthropology at Durham University, UK. Stephen (MSc student: 2002-2003) is an associate professor of anthropology at the Buffalo University, USA.