Teaching Awards

2022    Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University, Certificate of Teaching Excellence.
2021    Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University, Certificate of Teaching Excellence.
2015    Rackham Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, University of Michigan.
​2015    Outstanding Teaching Award, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan.
2012    Innovative Teaching Award, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS & SYLLABI FOR ​CLASSES TAUGHT AS INSTRUCTOR OF RECORD

In addition to acting as Module Coordinator (Instructor of of Record) for the UCD modules listed below,  I have also contributed teaching to: 
  • ARCH10100 Exploring Archaeology
  • ​ARCH10160 The Human Past
  • ARCH20600 Archaeological Science
  • ARCH206300 Archaeological Field Skills 
  • ARCH30720 Archaeology of Food
  • ARCH41330 Hunter-Gatherers 2
  • CAHA10200 Museums & Collections
  • DSCY1040 The Human Body

ARCH50030 Professionalisation (University College Dublin, Autumn 2024)

Course Type: PhD seminar
Course Description: This module has been developed to help prepare School of Archaeology PhD students for their professional careers post-PhD through exploring potential career trajectories, articulating academic and transferable skillsets, honing professional skills, and developing key academic job market materials. The module is also designed to foster community amongst the postgraduates through a collaborative approach to peer review and mentorship. Students may begin the module with a set of materials already drafted or at the start of their preparations for the job search. The module will cover topics including conferences and networking, grant applications, academic publishing and peer review, public speaking and presentation of research, developing a sense of the range of career possibilities within and beyond academic archaeology, assembling core academic job documents, preparing for professional interviews, and developing good writing practices.

ARCH31010 Human Osteoarchaeology (University College Dublin, Autumn 2024)

Course Type: Undergraduate lecture and lab.
Course Description: Knowledge of human osteology is key for fields such as archaeology, biological anthropology, forensic anthropology, anatomy, and medicine. This course introduces students to human skeletal anatomy and the field of osteoarchaeology, the study of human skeletal remains from archaeological sites. The first half of the course introduces skeletal anatomy for anthropologists and archaeologists and covers the entire human skeleton, with sections on growth, development, and pathology. The skeletal anatomy of select fauna will be used to demonstrate the functional morphology of each bone. This second half of the course introduces students to the basic methods of human skeletal analysis, including assessing the age, sex, health, and stature of an individual using their bones. Overall, the module will highlight how osteoarchaeology can aid archaeologists in reconstructing key aspects of past lives—including identity and lived experiences of diet, trauma, and mobility—and contribute to our understanding of what it means to be human, in both the past and the present.

ARCH41460 Master's Dissertation (Taught) (University College Dublin, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026)

Course Type: Master's research design module.
Course Description: During this module MSc students develop independent master's dissertation research projects, progressing through key stages of research design, including identifying a clear research question, selecting an appropriate dataset and methodology, and drafting a proposal. The course addresses topics that are foundational for conducting academic research, including constructing research questions, developing strategies for time management, identifying and planning for potential obstacles, understanding research ethics, and summarising key work in a presentation to an academic audience. The module structure incorporates lectures, small group discussion, and interactive activities. Spring Trimester assignments are designed to scaffold the process of research design, including the development of a project abstract, presentation, and proposal. Final proposals are approved by the School of Archaeology in time to allow students to work on their projects in Summer Trimester. The overall aim of the two-trimester module is to provide the research skills necessary to design and develop a master's dissertation which will be submitted during the summer trimester.

ARCH10150 Anthropology: An Introduction (University College Dublin, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026)

Course Type: Undergraduate lecture.
Course Description: This module provides an introduction to the discipline of anthropology--the study of humans and human diversity in the present and the past. Anthropology examines the diversity of human societies and cultures across space and time. Anthropology is an interdisciplinary subject, sometimes divided into ‘four fields’: cultural/social anthropology, physical anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology. This module will provide students with an overview of anthropology, with an especial focus on cultural/social anthropology. We will examine how kinship, gift exchange, and the household/home are understood in different societies and how they act to give shape to those societies. We will explore different ways of understanding the world and how to make comparisons between these, and ask what it means to think anthropologically. Lectures contributed by Graeme Warren and Jo Bruck.

ANTHRO 1201 Human Osteology & Bioarchaeology (​Harvard University, Spring 2022)

Course Type: Undergraduate lecture and lab.
​Course Description: Knowledge of human osteology is key for fields such as archaeology, biological anthropology, forensic anthropology, anatomy, and medicine. This course introduces students to human skeletal anatomy and the field of bioarchaeology, the study of human skeletal remains from archaeological sites. The first half of the course provides an introduction to skeletal anatomy for anthropologists and biologists and covers the entire human skeleton, with sections on growth, development, and pathology. The skeletal anatomy of select non-human mammals is used to demonstrate the functional morphology of each bone. This second half of the course introduces students to the basic methods of human skeletal analysis, including assessing the age, sex, health, and stature of an individual using their bones. The grade for this course will be based on a combination of participation, quizzes, larger assessments, and the maintenance of a “bone notebook” in which students sketch and describe individual skeletal elements. Students taking the course at the graduate level will also submit a final research paper that examines a topic of bioarchaeological significance in a region and/or period pertinent to their own academic research.  

ANTHRO 1058/2058 Bias in Archaeology (​Harvard University, Spring 2022)

Co-Taught with Rowan Flad
​Course Type: Graduate seminar.
​Course Description: This seminar will focus broadly on bias in archaeology, covering issues of bias in authorship, citations, accessibility, popular media coverage, fieldwork, training and education, hiring and promotion, and other related topics. We will also address recent research that focuses on disrupting patterns of bias in some of these areas. Class meetings will involve discussion of published papers in the various course themes in order to both understand and interrogate the implications of previous studies and examine the methods used to empirically investigate topics of bias in the field. For their final project, students will engage in original research or synthesize research topics in one or more of these areas for their final project.

ANTHRO 1033 Archaeology of Inequality (​Harvard University, Fall 2021)

Course Type: Undergraduate lecture.
​Course Description: In 2018, Oxfam reported that the 26 richest people on the planet had the same net worth as half of the global population. The rampant wealth disparities in the modern world lead us to ask whether inequality is an inescapable component of all societies. Through its unique access to the deep time of human prehistory, archaeology allows us to question myths and just-so stories about the origins and inevitability of inequality. In this course, we will examine how different ways of making a living, from food procurement to economic and political organization, have worked to either amplify or diminish inequalities in human communities. This course will cover topics that resonate in the past and present: How do elites justify their monopolization of power and resources? Are there alternatives to hierarchy in large-scale communities? What strategies have past people used to evade the inequitable demands of states and empires? This course will explore how archaeologists draw upon multiple lines of evidence—including material culture, architecture, and the remains of ancient plants, animals, and people—to develop a holistic understanding of inequality in past societies.

ANTH 239 Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology (​Vassar College, Spring 2021)

Course Type: Six-week undergraduate lecture and lab.
Course description: Forensic anthropologists analyze human skeletal remains from medico-legal contexts and bioarchaeologists analyze human skeletal remains from archaeological sites. Both fields use methods derived from biological anthropology. This course introduces students to the basic methods of these disciplines, including assessing the age, sex, ancestry, and stature of an individual using their bones. Recognition of skeletal anomalies can also reveal past health conditions and the cause and manner of death. This course will also introduce the ongoing disciplinary debate concerning the ethical implications of using skeletal remains to assess ancestry within forensic anthropology. The final project for this course will involve reconstructing the biological profile for an individual of unknown origin. 

ANTH 239 Skeletal Anatomy (​Vassar College, Spring 2021)

Course Type: Six-week undergraduate lecture and lab.
Course Description: Knowledge of human osteology is key for fields such as archaeology, biological anthropology, forensic anthropology, anatomy, and medicine. This six-week course provides an introduction to skeletal anatomy for anthropologists and biologists, and covers the entire human skeleton, with sections on growth, development, and pathology. The skeletal anatomy of select non-human mammals is used to demonstrate the functional morphology of each bone. At the end of this course, students are able to identify individual bones (complete and fragmentary), recognize bone landmarks, describe normal and abnormal growth processes (including common mutations), and assess bones for signs of pathology. 

ANTH 130 Archaeology: Lessons from the Past (Vassar College, Fall 2020)

Course Type: Undergraduate lecture.
Course Description: In US popular culture, the word “archaeology” often conjures up images of buried treasure, ancient ruins, daring adventurers, and perhaps even dinosaurs or aliens. In reality, the discipline of archaeology is the study of the material traces of the human past. These traces include everything from human-made objects such as pottery, stone tools, and architecture, to animal bones, plant remains, and human skeletons. Rather than seeking out individual artifacts because of their aesthetic or monetary value (*cough, cough* Indiana Jones, *cough, cough*), archaeologists excavate and analyze artifacts and remains because they provide evidence of how past people lived and how ancient societies were organized. Archaeology is important because it allows us to access the entire scope of human history, from the Paleolithic to the present day, providing us with an understanding of what it means to be human across space and over time. This does not, however, mean that archaeology is a value-free discipline; instead, archaeological questions are shaped by history and culture. In this course, we will critically examine how archaeologists ask and answer questions about the human past, while exploring how their research is received in popular culture. ­­

ANTH 170-52: From Artifacts to Arguments: Introduction to the Archaeology of Prehistoric Europe
​(Vassar College, Spring 2020)

Course Type: First-year undergraduate writing seminar.
Course Description: How did humans survive during the last Ice Age? Who is responsible for the cave paintings of Lascaux? What exactly is a henge? In this course, we will explore the answers to these questions and more, covering topics ranging from ancient subsistence systems to exchange networks, mortuary practices, and technology. The class is divided into four units: (1) Introduction to Archaeological Theory and History; (2) The Paleolithic; (3) The Neolithic; (4) The Copper Age–Bronze Age. Students will learn to evaluate archaeological evidence, assess the importance of theory in reconstructing prehistoric lifeways, and identify key sites, archaeologists, and artifacts in European prehistory. In addition to painting a portrait of the economies, exchange networks, social organization and ritual practices of early European communities, this course also emphasizes the utility of different archaeological lines of evidence, describing the complementary information that can be recovered from lithics, ceramics, animal bones, human bones and ancient plant remains. Over the course of the seminar, students will learn how to formulate clear arguments, draw upon scientific evidence, and develop strategies for writing and revising research papers. Class time will also be devoted to developing key writing and research skills, such as structuring academic papers, identifying appropriate sources, interpreting and responding to feedback.

ANTH 170-03 Written in Bone: Using Human Skeletons to Understand the Ancient Past
​(Vassar College, Fall 2019)

Course Type: First-year undergraduate writing seminar.
​Course Description: Since the earliest days of archaeology, scholars and the general public have been fascinated by skeletons recovered from ancient sites. However, human remains are more than a physical bridge between the present and a romanticized past—they also encode valuable information about the identities and daily lives of past peoples. Bioarchaeology is the study of human skeletal remains from archaeological sites. This course will draw upon bioarchaeological case studies from multiple regions and time periods to explore the ways in which researchers use skeletal data to deepen our understanding of ancient lives, while also critically evaluating how such discoveries are portrayed by the popular media. In class discussions and written assignments, students will engage with debates about how past peoples treated their dead, conceived of personhood, experienced violence and disease, and organized their communities. Over the course of the seminar, students will learn how to formulate clear arguments, draw upon scientific evidence, and develop strategies for writing and revising academic papers. Class time will also be devoted to developing key writing and research skills, such as structuring academic papers, identifying appropriate sources, and interpreting and responding to feedback. Overall, this course will introduce students to the ways in which bioarchaeologists collect evidence from human skeletons to better understand the lived experiences of past individuals and communities.

ANTH 2536–2537 Inequality and the Body in Archaeology and Bioarchaeology
​(University of Pittsburgh, Fall 2016–Spring 2017)

Co-taught with Elizabeth Arkush
Course Type: Graduate seminar.
Course Description: This seminar uses a bioarchaeological lens to explore the ways in which social inequalities manifest in the human body, weaving together contributions from ethnography, material culture studies, and mortuary archaeology to ‘flesh out’ studies of human remains. We will examine how particular aspects of social identity (e.g. gender, childhood) amplify or diminish inequalities in different contexts. We will also read a range of case studies that illustrate how trajectories of increasing social inequality vary over time and space, examining how large-scale social processes (e.g. aggregation, warfare, colonialism) impact human bodies. Overall, the course will analyze how social inequalities become embodied in human skeletal remains while also being shaped by social, ecological, and economic factors.

ANTHRARC 296 The Science of Skeletons ​(University of Michigan, Summer 2015)

Course Type: Undergraduate lecture.
Course Description: Since the earliest days of archaeology, people have been fascinated by human skeletons recovered from ancient sites. However, skeletal remains are more than a physical bridge between the present and a romanticized past – they also encode valuable information about demography, gender differences, social identities and the daily lives of past peoples. Bioarchaeology is the study of human skeletal material from archaeological sites, and in this course students will identify the ways that bioarchaeologists use data collected from skeletal remains to estimate age and sex, diagnose ancient diseases, and examine activity levels and movement across prehistoric landscapes. Students will also critically evaluate how bioarchaeological discoveries are used in non-academic contexts, particularly focusing on their presence in museums and in the popular media.