UAF Department of Anthropology Contact Information
Please Note!
All UAF College of Liberal Arts (CLA) administrative assistants are off contract through the summer and will not return until Monday, August 11th, 2025.If you need any assistance this summer, please contact Isabel Norris in the CLA Dean's Office by phone at (907) 474-7231 or via email at uaf-cla@alaska.edu.
Faculty
Petra Banks
Term Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
BUN 401
PhD, Texas State University, 2024.
Forensic Anthropology, Skeletal Trauma, Blast Trauma, Mass Disasters, Disaster Victim
Identification, Forensic Archaeology, Bioarchaeology, Historic Cemeteries, 3D Imaging
Tammy Buonasera
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
BUN 307C
PhD, University of Arizona, 2013.
Biomolecular archaeology (proteomics, lipid analysis, and stable isotopes), past diets
and health, economic and social aspects of food processing technologies, hunter-gatherer
archaeology, experimental archaeology, gender, human behavioral ecology, California,
northern ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ, Anatolia.
Justin Cramb
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
BUN 305B
PhD, University of Georgia, 2020.
Zooarchaeology, Cultures of Island Oceania, the ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Gold Rush, Historical Archaeology,
Radiocarbon Dating, Environmental Archaeology, Historical Ecology, Animal Translocation.
Elaine Drew
Department Chair, Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology, WGSS
BUN 407
PhD, University of Kentucky, 2004.
Culturally-based health promotion and intervention research with AI/AN, Latino, and
African-American communities; mixed methods research; research ethics review processes
(institutional & community-based).
Sveta Yamin-Pasternak
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology, WGSS
BUN 305B
PhD, University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks, 2007.
Food and culture, ethnomycology, aesthetics, Circumpolar North, contemporary art, gender, post-Soviet studies
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Patrick Plattet
Professor
Department of Anthropology
BUN 307D
PhD, University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland), 2005.
Ritual, anthropology of festive events, cultural resources documentation, ethnohistory,
online teaching of ethnographic methods, ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ/Kamchatka.
Ben A. Potter
Professor
Department of Anthropology
BUN 308A
PhD, University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks, 2005.
Subarctic and Arctic archaeology, intersite variability, site structure and organization,
spatial analysis, geographic information systems, human-environmental interactions,
field survey and excavation, cultural resource management, multivariate statistical
analyses, lithic analysis, faunal analysis.
Joshua D. Reuther
Curator of Archaeology, University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Museum of the North; Professor
Department of Anthropology, UA Museum of the North
042 Museum of the North
PhD, University of Arizona, 2013.
Subarctic and arctic archaeology; geoarchaeology; geochronology; hunter-gatherer ecology;
archaeological science; museum studies; cultural resources management.
Robin A. Shoaps
Associate Professor; Linguistics Program Coordinator
Department of Anthropology, Linguistics Program, WGSS
BUN 312
PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2004.
Linguistic anthropology, ritual language, discourse, power, semiotics, ethnography
of morality, stance, human-animal relations, political media; Mesoamerica and the
United States.
Adjunct Faculty
Julie Esdale
Ph.D. (anthropology), Brown University.
Arctic archaeology, geoarchaeology, and lithic analysis.
Howard Maxwell
M.A. (anthropology), University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks, 1987.
Instructor, Rural ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Honors Institute, UAF.
David Lukaszek
M.A. (Anthropology) University of Montana, 2004.
Evolutionary Theory, Fossil Hominins, Osteology, Biomechanics, and Bipedalism, Taxonomy
and Epistemology.
Howard Smith
M.A. (anthropology), University of Utah, 1975.
Field Office Archaeologist (retired), Bureau of Land Management. Cultural resource
management, Arctic and northwest ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ, ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ mining history.
Affiliated Faculty
Nancy Bigelow
Affiliate Research Professor; Ph.D. (paleoecology) University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks,1997.
Research Associate, ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Quaternary Center, University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks. Quaternary
paleoecology, palynology, Beringian environments
Holly J. McKinney
Affiliate Research Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology) University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks,
2013; ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF)
Cultural Resource Specialist; Faunal, Taphonomic, Lithic, and Stable Isotopic Analyses;
Fisheries; Subarctic, Arctic, and Pacific Northwest Coast Archaeology; Excavation
Methods; Multivariate Statistical Analyses; Human Behavioral Ecology; NHPA (Section
106), AHPA, and NEPA Compliance.
Courtney Carothers
Assistant Professor of Fisheries; Ph.D. (anthropology) University of Washington, 2008.
Environmental anthropology, political ecology, marine policy, fishing communities
Robin O. Mills
Affiliate Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology), University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks,
1998.
Fairbanks District Archaeologist, Bureau of Land Management. Historical archaeology,
mining history, cultural resource management.
Jamie Clark
Affiliate Professor of Anthropology; Ph.D. (paleoecology) University of Michigan,
2009.
Paleolithic archaeology, modern human origins, hunter-gatherer lifeways, zooarchaeology.
Southern Africa and the Near East
Richard Nelson
Affiliate Research Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology), University of California, Santa
Barbara.
Indigenous cultures of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ, author and natural historian.
David Fazzino
Affiliate Assistant Professor; Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Anthropology
Department, Faculty Member.
Medical Anthropology, and Food Systems.
Diane O’Brien
Assistant Associate Professor, Institute for Arctic Biology/Department of Biology
and Wildlife. Ph.D. (ecology and evolutionary biology), Princeton University, 1998.
Stable isotope ecology, nutritional physiology of insects; understanding patterns
of stable isotope variation among biological compounds.
Patty A. Gray
Affiliate Associate Professor; Ph.D. (cultural anthropology), University of Wisconsin
at Madison, 1998.
Political and economic anthropology, social movements, transformation in post-Soviet
rural communities, reindeer herding systems; rural European Russia, Russian Far North,
ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ.
Rosemarie Plaetke
Affiliate Associate Professor; Ph.D. (statistical genetics), Free University Berlin,
Germany 1986.
Human genetics - focus on type 2 diabetes and complications, genetic epidemiology
- focus on statistics and bioinformatics , genetics of behavior - focus on development
of phenotypes for genetic studies, biostatistics.
Carrin Halffman
Affiliate Research Assistant Professor, Ph.D. (anthropology). University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ
Fairbanks, 2009.
Biological anthropology, bone stable isotope analysis, past human diet, archaeological
toxicology, Arctic and sub-Arctic populations
Feng Qu
Affiliate faculty; Feng Qu, the founding Director and Professor of Arctic Studies Center at Liaocheng University, China. He is also a professor in archaeology at Nanjing Normal University. He received PhD in anthropology from University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks. He focuses his research on Arctic prehistory and ethnography, shamanism, ritualism, and animism. He has published three monographs including An Exploration of Prehistoric Ontologies in the Bering Strait Region published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in 2021. He also published numerous research articles, reviews and miscellanea about circumpolar shamanism, eco-cosmologies, and prehistoric religious ideas in both Chinese and English.
Charles E. Holmes
Affiliate Research Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology) Washington State University, 1984.
Beringian archaeology, Subarctic cultural adaptations, Athabascan archaeology, lithic
analysis.
Nicholas Schmuck
Affiliate faculty; PhD. (anthropology) University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks, 2021; Special
Projects Archaeologist, ADNR Office of History and Archaeology (OHA).
Arctic, Subarctic, and Pacific Northwest Coast Archaeology; Human Behavioral Ecology;
Landscape Learning and Coastal Adaptation; Traditional Knowledge; Lithic Analysis;
Geochemical Toolstone Sourcing; Radiocarbon Dating and Marine Reservoir Effects; GIS/LiDAR
Landscape Reconstruction; Cultural Resource Management
Anne M. Jensen
Affiliate Research Assistant Professor. Ph.D. (anthropology), Bryn Mawr College, 2009.
Long-term ecodynamics of socio-natural systems in Arctic and subarctic environments,
coastal adaptations, global change effects on the archaeological and paleoecological
record, zooarchaeology, community archaeology
Gerad M. Smith
Affiliate Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology) University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks,
2020; Project Archaeologist, Brice Environmental Services Corporation.
Traditional Dene Place Name analysis, Lithic Analysis, Taphonomy, Subarctic and Arctic
archaeology, Non-linear Complexity Modeling, Human Behavioral Ecology, Site Structure
and Intersite Variability, GIS, Ichnological analysis, Photomodeling, Traditional
Ecological Knowledge, NHPA (Section 106), AHPA, and NEPA Compliance
Michael Koskey
Associate Professor of Cross-Cultural and Indigenous Studies; Ph.D. (anthropology)
University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks, 2003.
Oral history, traditional and local knowledge, ethnohistory, culture change, food
sovereignty, decolonization, political economy, resource use and allocation, community-based
research, Indigenous cosmology/mythology.
William Schneider
Emeritus Professor of Library Science; Ph.D. (anthropology) Bryn Mawr College, 1976.
Amber Lincoln
Collections Manager, LA County Natural History Museum. Ph.D. (Anthropology), University
of Aberdeen, 2011.
Northern anthropology, material culture, ethnohistory and phenomenology.
Kerrie-Ann Shannon
Affiliate Assistant Research Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology), University of Aberdeen.
Northern anthropology.
David Alexander Lukaszek
Affiliate Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Ph.D. (Anthropology) University of
ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks, 2017.
Biological Anthropology, Osteology, Biomechanics, Evolutionary Theory, Fossil Hominins,
Taxonomy, and Epistemology.
Anne D. Shinkwin
Affiliate Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology), University of Wisconsin, 1975.
Northern anthropology.
Nancy Bigelow
Affiliate Research Professor; Ph.D. (paleoecology) University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks,1997. Research Associate, ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Quaternary Center, University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks. Quaternary paleoecology, palynology, Beringian environments
Courtney Carothers
Assistant Professor of Fisheries; Ph.D. (anthropology) University of Washington, 2008. Environmental anthropology, political ecology, marine policy, fishing communities
Jamie Clark
Affiliate Professor of Anthropology; Ph.D. (paleoecology) University of Michigan, 2009. Paleolithic archaeology, modern human origins, hunter-gatherer lifeways, zooarchaeology. Southern Africa and the Near East
David Fazzino
Affiliate Assistant Professor; Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Anthropology Department, Faculty Member. Medical Anthropology, and Food Systems.
Patty A. Gray
Affiliate Associate Professor; Ph.D. (cultural anthropology), University of Wisconsin at Madison, 1998. Political and economic anthropology, social movements, transformation in post-Soviet rural communities, reindeer herding systems; rural European Russia, Russian Far North, ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ.
Carrin Halffman
Affiliate Research Assistant Professor, Ph.D. (anthropology). University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks, 2009. Biological anthropology, bone stable isotope analysis, past human diet, archaeological toxicology, Arctic and sub-Arctic populations
Charles E. Holmes
Affiliate Research Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology) Washington State University, 1984. Beringian archaeology, Subarctic cultural adaptations, Athabascan archaeology, lithic analysis.
Anne M. Jensen
Affiliate Research Assistant Professor. Ph.D. (anthropology), Bryn Mawr College, 2009. Long-term ecodynamics of socio-natural systems in Arctic and subarctic environments, coastal adaptations, global change effects on the archaeological and paleoecological record, zooarchaeology, community archaeology
Michael Koskey
Associate Professor of Cross-Cultural and Indigenous Studies; Ph.D. (anthropology) University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks, 2003. Oral history, traditional and local knowledge, ethnohistory, culture change, food sovereignty, decolonization, political economy, resource use and allocation, community-based research, Indigenous cosmology/mythology.
Amber Lincoln
Collections Manager, LA County Natural History Museum. Ph.D. (Anthropology), University of Aberdeen, 2011. Northern anthropology, material culture, ethnohistory and phenomenology.
David Alexander Lukaszek
Affiliate Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Ph.D. (Anthropology) University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks, 2017. Biological Anthropology, Osteology, Biomechanics, Evolutionary Theory, Fossil Hominins, Taxonomy, and Epistemology.
Holly J. McKinney
Affiliate Research Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology) University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks, 2013; ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF) Cultural Resource Specialist; Faunal, Taphonomic, Lithic, and Stable Isotopic Analyses; Fisheries; Subarctic, Arctic, and Pacific Northwest Coast Archaeology; Excavation Methods; Multivariate Statistical Analyses; Human Behavioral Ecology; NHPA (Section 106), AHPA, and NEPA Compliance.
Robin O. Mills
Affiliate Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology), University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks, 1998. Fairbanks District Archaeologist, Bureau of Land Management. Historical archaeology, mining history, cultural resource management.
Richard Nelson
Affiliate Research Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology), University of California, Santa Barbara. Indigenous cultures of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ, author and natural historian.
Diane O’Brien
Assistant Associate Professor, Institute for Arctic Biology/Department of Biology and Wildlife. Ph.D. (ecology and evolutionary biology), Princeton University, 1998. Stable isotope ecology, nutritional physiology of insects; understanding patterns of stable isotope variation among biological compounds.
Rosemarie Plaetke
Affiliate Associate Professor; Ph.D. (statistical genetics), Free University Berlin, Germany 1986. Human genetics - focus on type 2 diabetes and complications, genetic epidemiology - focus on statistics and bioinformatics , genetics of behavior - focus on development of phenotypes for genetic studies, biostatistics.
Feng Qu
Affiliate faculty; Feng Qu, the founding Director and Professor of Arctic Studies Center at Liaocheng University, China. He is also a professor in archaeology at Nanjing Normal University. He received PhD in anthropology from University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks. He focuses his research on Arctic prehistory and ethnography, shamanism, ritualism, and animism. He has published three monographs including An Exploration of Prehistoric Ontologies in the Bering Strait Region published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in 2021. He also published numerous research articles, reviews and miscellanea about circumpolar shamanism, eco-cosmologies, and prehistoric religious ideas in both Chinese and English.
Nicholas Schmuck
Gerad M. Smith
Affiliate Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology) University of ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ Fairbanks, 2020; Project Archaeologist, Brice Environmental Services Corporation;Traditional Dene Place Name analysis, Lithic Analysis, Taphonomy, Subarctic and Arctic archaeology, Non-linear Complexity Modeling, Human Behavioral Ecology, Site Structure and Intersite Variability, GIS, Ichnological analysis, Photomodeling, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, NHPA (Section 106), AHPA, and NEPA Compliance
William Schneider
Emeritus Professor of Library Science; Ph.D. (anthropology) Bryn Mawr College, 1976.
Kerrie-Ann Shannon
Affiliate Assistant Research Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology), University of Aberdeen, Northern anthropology.
Anne D. Shinkwin
Affiliate Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology), University of Wisconsin, 1975. Northern anthropology.
Emeritus Faculty
Charlotte Basham
Associate Professor; PhD (linguistics), University of Michigan, 1986. Discourse analysis,
second language acquisition, and contrastive rhetoric.
Phone: 907-474-6884;
Email: ffcsb @ uaf.edu
Joel D. Irish
Professor, Curator of Biological Anthropology at the UA Museum; Ph.D. (biological
anthropology), Arizona State University, 1993. Dental anthropology, paleopathology,
human osteology, human variation, bioarchaeology; Africa, Southeast ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ.
Phone: 907-474-6755
Email: jdirish @ alaska.edu
David C. Koester
Professor; PhD, University of Chicago, 1990. Culture and history, historical and national
consciousness; anthropological study of insult and discursive manipulation of status;
early history of ethnography; energy concepts and discourse; Iceland, Russian Far
East, North Pacific, circumpolar.
Phone: 907-474-6188
Email: syamin@alaska.edu
Molly Lee
Professor, Curator of Ethnology at the UA Museum; Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley, 1992. Sociocultural anthropology, Native ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æn, Eskimo and Inuit art of the historical and contemporary periods.
Phyllis Morrow
(Former Dean of the College of Liberal Arts), Professor; Ph.D. (social and cultural anthropology), Cornell University, 1987. Linguistic anthropology, socio-legal studies, folklore, Inuit/Yup'ik ethnography, and ritual and symbolism.
Peter P. Schweitzer
Professor; Ph.D. (anthropology), University of Vienna, 1990. Kinship, Social Organization
and Identity Politics; Global Climate Change and Northern Indigenous Communities;
Contemporary Hunting and Gathering Societies; History of Anthropological Theory; Methods
of Historical Anthropology; Siberia, ÐÓ°ÉÔ°æ, Circumpolar North.
Phone: 907-474-5015;
Email: ppschweitzer @ alaska.edu
In Memoriam
Brian Hemphill
Professor PhD, University of Oregon, 1991. Dental Morphology, Odontometrics, Dental Pathology, Skeletal Biology, Biological Distance Analysis, Bioarchaeology, Human Evolution, South Asia, Central Asia, Great Basin, Northwest Coast.
Patricia B. Kwachka
Professor; Ph.D. (linguistics), University of Florida Gainesville, 1981. Sociolinguistics, language acquisition, language shift, and medical communication. (Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts)
Staff
Jamie Bennett
Department Administrator
Department of Anthropology
BUN 405A