Areas of interest
Paleopathology; Molecular paleopathology; human osteology; biological anthropology; bioarchaeology; trauma; dental anthropology; Egypt
Education
- BA (Hons.), University of Western Ontario
- MA, Swansea University
- PhD, University of Western Ontario
Introduction
I am a bioarchaeologist/biological anthropologist with a regional focus on Egypt and research interests in paleopathology, molecular paleopathology, trauma, human osteology, and dental anthropology. My multidisciplinary work includes methodological studies and biocultural approaches to understanding ancient health and disease. Some of my studies have focused on the global history of cancers, diagnostic criteria and sociocultural perceptions of dwarfism in ancient Egypt, sacral spina bifida occulta as a morphogenetic indicator of kinship, and photogrammetric methods for dental age estimation. I have also studied trauma in the Jebel Sahaba skeletal collection, which is considered to be the world鈥檚 earliest evidence of mass violence, and contributed to the resolution of the debate on the origins of syphilis through a study of ancient pathogen DNA. I also launched the Preserving Theban Archaeological Heritage (PTAH) Project, through which my team and I will excavate, document, conserve, and study a tomb complex and its contents in Egypt鈥檚 famed Theban Necropolis. Through multidisciplinary methods, this project will investigate the circumstances that led to the decline of the pharaonic empire and determine how living conditions changed over this period of time.
Publications
Courses
Fall 2025
Future courses may be subject to change.