People

I am an environmental archaeologist whose primary research program focuses on human-environment dynamics in Eastern North America by way of paleoenvironmental reconstructions via stable isotopes analyses of marine shell, zooarchaeological analyses of vertebrate and invertebrates, and chronological modelling of anthropogenic exploitations of estuarine and riverine environments. Current projects include investigating (1) Indigenous fisheries and complex socio-ecological systems of the Georgia Coast, (2) Indigenous and Plantation Era socio-ecological systems landscape modifications on the Georgia Coast (3) the manifestation of global cooling and warming events on local landscapes, (4) zooarchaeology as critical components to historical baseline building, (5) early European colonizer resource management strategies, and (6) Indigenous resource management practices and anthropogenic landscape modification as related to urbanization. This work includes both field and laboratory project across eastern North America, primarily in Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana. I have conducted and participated in field and collections-based projects across eastern North America, including Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and South Carolina with over two years of experience as a Research Zooarchaeologist for the Illinois State Archaeological Survey. She is faculty in Penn State’s Dual Title PhD program in Climate Science (link: https://www.met.psu.edu/graduate/current-graduate-students/climate-science-dual-title-phd-program) and Penn State’s Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology (link: https://www.huck.psu.edu/graduate-programs/ecology)

My work explores the long-term Indigenous histories of eastern North America, with particular attention to institutions of governance and social networks. I draw on a range of quantitative tools including social network analysis, Bayesian chronological modeling, archaeological geophysics, GIS, and scientific approaches to ceramic analysis to investigate the emergence, structure, and maintenance of collective institutions,institutional arrangements, and the network foundations of governance. Leveraging interdisciplinary frameworks on governance, institutions, and collective action,my work addresses the tension between emergent forms of sociopolitical/socioeconomic inequality and its mediation by the formation of collective institutions and democratic mechanisms in non-state, non-Western societies.By way of explicit collaboration with descendant communities, my work also aims to link these political histories to the contemporary traditions, practices, and politics of Indigenous Nations who have been historically excluded from the practice and process of archaeological narrative building.

Advisor: Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz

Advisor: Jacob Holland-Lulewicz

I am interested in understanding the relationships between human demography, agriculture, and climate as well as sociopolitical transformations materialized in settlement configurations and monumental construction. Time and temporality are central to understanding these connections, and my work emphasizes Bayesian chronological modeling to revise materially based chronologies to situate archaeological data in absolute time, clarify temporal relationships, and make explicit the limitations and uncertainties of archaeological narratives. My dissertation research explores these themes at Cahokia, the largest Indigenous settlement north of Mexico, by modeling the introduction and intensification of maize agriculture, structural changes in community layout, and demographic histories against long-term climate data to better understand the development and dispersal of this premier North American population center.

Advisor: Jacob Holland-Lulewicz

My work explores pre and post-Civil War era peoples and communities in the southeastern and coastal United States. I specifically look at the significant transitions and lifestyle changes undertaken by formerly enslaved individuals after emancipation and throughout the Reconstruction era southeast. I use a variety of methods and tools to conduct my analysis, including the historical record, archaeological geophysics, GIS, excavation, and artifact analysis to investigate the upkeep, development, and organization of these newfound communities and networks.

Advisor: Jacob Holland-Lulewicz

My research is focused on using the deep time archaeological record of the Indigenous coastal societies of the American Southeast to investigate the ways in which network structures and dynamics facilitated the resilience of socioeconomic systems and lifeways during a period of increased climatic instability. My work centers on the experiences of Indigenous communities in the Late Archaic period along the Georgia Coast, who lived in shell-ring villages and experienced the impacts of climatic fluctuations. My dissertation research addresses how social networks serve as a key tool for these communities to buffer against the local ecological and environmental impacts of climatic instability and uncertainty. As anthropogenically-driven climate change threatens modern human populations and their ways of life, the need to understand past human networks and their role in mediating the impacts of climate change and instability is crucial for future sustainability efforts.

Advisors: Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz and Jacob Holland-Lulewicz

I’m an archaeologist whose research considers how communities have engaged with their environments and structured their subsistence practices overtime. More specifically, I am focusing on African American communities in the American Southeast prior to and post-emancipation. For my dissertation, I am employing a zooarchaeological framework to explore the key fisheries used by the Gullah/Geechee, a cultural group descended from enslaved Africans who remained in the region post-emancipation. My research aims to define what constitutes a Gullah/Geechee fishery, examine how traditional fishing practices were structured, and assess how these practices continue to evolve in response to modern environmental changes and regulatory impacts on these long-standing resources. Email: mvp6195@psu.edu

Advisors: Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz and Jacob Holland-Lulewicz

My interests lie in historical archaeology with an emphasis on enslaved and post-emancipation communities in southeastern North America. My research examines the spatial and social organization of 19^th– Century Black post-emancipation households located at Middle Place on Ossabaw Island, Georgia. The study uses historical maps, new surveys, and geochemical analysis of soil samples to better understand this Gullah-Geechee community’s layout and test new methods for studying historic coastal settlements.

Advisors: Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz and Laura Weyrich

My interests and skills lie mainly within the fields of genomics, ecology, and history. I aim to use sedimentary and ancient DNA techniques to reconstruct past ecologies and investigate human-environment interactions through time. If you have similar research interests or have any questions about my work, please contact me at wcv5029@psu.edu.

Advisor: Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz

I’m an environmental archaeologist with specific interests in zooarchaeology, stable isotope analysis, paleoclimatic reconstructions, and descent community collaboration. My previous experience includes zooarchaeology internships and work, curation/collection management, and NAGPRA compliance. I plan to further establish cervids as local climate proxies in the Southeast to better answer questions regarding human-environment interactions through time.