A Florida State University anthropologist is part of a team that has found that ancient migration routes used by Indigenous peoples are relevant to today’s policy and planning surrounding coastal living in rapidly changing environments. Their findings were recently published in the journal Nature Sustainability in the study “Climate-driven depopulation and adaptation realities in America’s coastal ground zero.”

The research team, including Jayur Mehta, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, sought to generate frameworks about how to live in ecologically dynamic landscapes like coastal Louisiana, and how to manage relocation from these areas, as life-threatening issues like sea-level rise and extreme weather events increase erosion of the land.

“While we’re looking at one specific delta region, this publication offers a big picture perspective of the issues coastal communities face,” said Mehta, who specializes in the archaeological study of human-environment relationships and also serves as the anthropology undergraduate program director. “Coastal Louisiana is one of the lowest-lying regions in the world because much of the land is a river delta formed by tons of sediments deposited by the Mississippi River over 7,000 years. Due to rising sea levels and the absence of bedrock, the land — a massive wedge of sediment — is just sinking into the Gulf.”

The team, led by Vokes Geology Professor Torbjörn Törnqvist of Tulane University in New Orleans, also includes sociology, architecture and marine science researchers from Tulane, Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, nearly 40% of the world’s population lives less than 100 miles from a coast. Additionally, coastal counties in the U.S. are home to 40% of the nation’s population, per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Researchers like Mehta use this legacy of coastal living, spanning approximately 5,000 years in this delta region, to help inform present-day and future thinking on adapting to ecologically dynamic environments to mediate coastal hazards for those living there.

In analyzing pre-contact settlement patterns of the Mississippi River Delta, archaeological evidence shows that migration was an adaptive response to the changing environment as shorelines receded and landscapes changed across generations.

“The way that present-day communities live in these coastal settings is driven by our contemporary way of life, including where infrastructure is placed and what architecture and engineering codes are in place for buildings and living spaces,” Mehta said. “Adapting to the changing environment of coastal areas starts by recognizing that there are other ways that people live, and have lived, in coastal settings that we might consider unorthodox. Some of those ideas might hold solutions to our problems, and this archaeological perspective shows us that it’s possible to live in an ecologically dynamic environment even spanning long periods of time, as long as there’s an awareness of mobility and migration when necessary.”

Migration is already happening in coastal Louisiana, largely due to climate-driven population loss and disaster-driven displacement, such as the New Orleans population being halved in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina. These events, according to the researchers, often exacerbate pre-existing vulnerabilities that continue to push populations to leave, including poverty and rising costs of housing and insurance. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, New Orleans’ population has decreased by about 20,000 in the past six years alone.

“The archaeological record provides unique insights into how humans lived in highly dynamic, rapidly changing landscapes in the past,” Törnqvist said. “Given the size of the Mississippi River Delta, it’s plausible that Native American communities moved their villages over distances as large as 50-100 kilometers to relocate from portions experiencing land loss to areas that enjoyed land gain. What matters here is the mindset of these Indigenous peoples and their nimbleness with respect to life in a rapidly changing environment — this is something we need to rediscover.”

While profound differences exist between pre-contact Native American societies and present-day coastal communities, including extensive, permanent infrastructure and technological adaptations to life in a floodplain, researchers argue that investigating ancient patterns of migration is a crucial first step in adapting for understanding resilience and long-term adaptation strategies on a rapidly evolving coast.

“We need to make some big decisions about where and how we live on coasts as environments continue changing, and Jayur’s work is that rare combination of impactful on a local level and to the larger global issues facing us,” said Mark D. McCoy, Department of Anthropology chair. “This research provides an evidence-based reconstruction of the decisions our ancestors made, and what the consequences of those decisions were, so we can go into this massive problem armed with all the information we can muster.”

To learn more about Mehta’s work and research conducted in the Department of Anthropology, visit anthro.fsu.edu.

The post New collaborative research by FSU anthropologist reveals historical migration is key to planning for sea-level rise resilience appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University researchers say the best way to protect coastal landscapes from extreme weather and rising seas is to manage natural and cultural resources together. 

In a new study, FSU archaeologists Jayur Madhusudan Mehta and Mark D. McCoy in the Department of Anthropology argue that current coastal management efforts overlook key cultural sites, putting both ecosystems and heritage at risk. Their research shows that historic Indigenous sites, especially shell mounds and middens, are deeply tied to coastal landscapes yet are often left out of planning and funding decisions.

“We found that in Florida’s Big Bend region, 11 Indigenous sites are already at or below sea level, and 142 mound and midden sites — heaps of various discarded materials indicating past human activity like shells and bones — are at risk of being submerged in the next century,” said Mehta, the paper’s first author. “In the Mississippi Delta, 11 Indigenous cultural sites are at or below sea level, and 107 mound and midden sites are at risk of being submerged in the next century, which will harm biodiversity, local resilience and cultural sovereignty.” 

The study, “Preserving coastal environments requires an integrated natural and cultural resources management approach,” was published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nexus this spring. 

Today, U.S. coastal counties are home to 40 percent of the nation’s population, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, continuing a legacy of coastal living that dates back approximately 15,000 years. Cultural heritage sites, like earthen mounds, shell mounds and shell-bearing landscapes, are also integral components of coastal ecosystems, as these sites enhance biodiversity by creating microhabitats for animals and fauna while preserving valuable historical remains. 

“Preserving coastal environments is urgent because the effects of rising sea levels and the gradual caving in or sinking of land threaten both ecological stability and irreplaceable cultural heritage.”

— Jayur Madhusudan Mehta,
associate professor and undergraduate program director, Department of Anthropology

“Preserving coastal environments is urgent because the effects of rising sea levels and the gradual caving in or sinking of land threaten both ecological stability and irreplaceable cultural heritage,” Mehta said. “Coastal degradation not only erases history; it also reduces the natural buffering capacity of marshes and deltas, which play a crucial role in stabilizing coastlines, reducing soil erosion and protecting against extreme weather.” 

The team analyzed data collected from remote sensing and state repositories, including light detection and ranging digital elevation models, site location data and sea level rise models from NOAA, in order to define natural and cultural impacts and highlight risk factors in the U.S. Gulf Coast regions of Florida’s Big Bend and Louisiana’s Mississippi Delta. 

To apply their findings outside of the U.S., researchers compared site vulnerabilities and risk frameworks to analyze differences and similarities in extreme weather and environmental impact vulnerability across the Netherlands, Peru and Oceania, a region encompassing the islands of the Pacific Ocean, including Australia and New Zealand. The variables considered through these comparisons underline the need for place-specific strategies that combine heritage conservation and climate adaptation to protect different coastlines around the world. 

“In the Netherlands, dense networks of earthen levees and storm barriers reduce risks of sea-level rise, but drought and salinization threaten wetland heritage,” Mehta said. “In Peru, archaeological loss stems more from agro-industrial expansion and El Niño climatic events, an irregularly occurring period of warm water near Peru and Ecuador.” 

Although differences in archaeology and environment across locations may lead to different management tactics, researchers argue that despite location, cultural resources play a key part in the management of coasts. 

“Today, we understand better than at any point in history the factors that disrupt and destroy coastal environments. If we do nothing about it, we’ll lose important biodiversity and human history, the same aspects we try to preserve and display in zoos and museums.”

— Mark D. McCoy, professor and chair, Department of Anthropology

“Today, we understand better than at any point in history the factors that disrupt and destroy coastal environments,” McCoy said. “If we do nothing about it, we’ll lose important biodiversity and human history, the same aspects we try to preserve and display in zoos and museums.” 

Additional authors include Louisiana State University adjunct professor Matt Helmer, Oregon State University professor Haizhong Wang, Texas A&M University assistant professor Siyu Yu, and Dutch colleagues Liz Chamberlain and Roy van Beek –– both assistant professors at Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands. 

To learn more about research conducted in the Department of Anthropology, visit anthro.fsu.edu.

The post FSU archaeologists find preservation of cultural heritage sites plays key role in coastal community resilience appeared first on Florida State University News.

Mark McCoy is a professor of anthropology and archaeologist in the Department of Anthropology at Florida State University whose research focuses on ancient societies of the Pacific Islands — including Hawai’i, New Zealand and Rapa Nui — and the relationship between people and their environments. McCoy is part of an international, multi-institution team analyzing the relationship between war and inequality over the past 10,000 years. Their work was published this month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

What was the motivation behind this paper?

Our team is made up of archaeologists specializing in different areas of the world who are all interested in inequality, especially the emergence and the dynamics of wealth and economic inequality. Archaeological records and evidence of housing date back tens of thousands of years, and so does evidence of inequality. For example, when we look at archaeological records and see a village in which everybody lived in houses of the same size, we understand that there wasn’t much inequality during that time compared to records showing one large house built alongside many smaller houses. We assembled an archaeological database that represents more than 55,000 housing floor area measurements from areas in the world including North America, South America, East Asia, Europe and Oceania from non-industrial societies around 12,000 years ago to the recent past when industrialization began in order to accumulate a long record of inequality.

In addition to the size of the houses, we compiled data about if these settlements were in some way fortified, walled, or guarded due to conflict or warfare. We started to analyze whether these fortifications made a difference in inequality — are we seeing patterns of warfare increasing wealth gaps, or do we see warfare acting as a leveling factor that increases equality during conflict? The answer varies based on what time period we’re analyzing and certain factors of the communities, which emphasizes the dynamics of inequality through time.

In the distant past, was there a link between war or conflict and inequality?

Between 10,000 years ago and about 5,000 years ago, we find a lot of fortifications in settlements and evidence of warfare. However, while these communities were in conflict, warfare served as a leveling tool, and there isn’t much evidence of inequality — houses from these times were similar in size. This tells us that in early, more collectively organized societies, conflict and warfare didn’t increase inequality in these communities.

When do you start to see a link between war and inequality?

We start seeing warfare associated with an increase in inequality under certain community conditions, such as if land is a limited resource or not. Variables that are considered include how people were growing and farming their own food, as the amount of available farmland becomes a limiting factor for agriculture. For example, on the islands I research, adding more people to your community doesn’t mean you can produce more food because there’s simply not enough airable land. That’s when the balance shifts — these are the conditions in which we start to see warfare ramping up inequality. When land becomes a scarce resource that can be monopolized, that’s when inequality really increases.

Another variable we consider is governance. In each settlement we analyzed, were there signs of active governance similar to the collective governance we observe in the modern world, or did the governance look less collective and more authoritarian? We observed warfare increasing inequality in communities in which the governance was less collective and more authoritarian.

How were these records gathered?

Something unique about this work is that we didn’t go out to dig sites — we gathered information from published data and capitalized on the great fieldwork and other research that was done over many decades and compiled all the data together to draw conclusions. In assembling our database, we compiled readily available data from previously conducted excavations and from techniques including remote sensing and LiDAR, which uses light detection and ranging to unveil new understandings of building shapes and orientations. This, to me, is a big part of the future of archaeology: using the quantitative data that we already have, like the square footage of a house and how many fortifications a settlement has, to answer questions about the qualitative side of things and uncover new insights using existing archaeological data.

What is important for people to know about this research?

As archaeologists and anthropologists, we’re interested in why things like inequality occur. This research illustrates key factors that contribute to this, including if land is a scarce resource in a particular community. It also shows us that certain communities were able to govern themselves in a collective way that reduced inequality for them, and it shows the complex relationship between conflict and inequality. We used archaeological records to identify what factors steer inequality, which is a new way of doing archaeology.

To learn more about research conducted in the FSU Department of Anthropology, visit anthro.fsu.edu.

The post 5 Questions with Mark McCoy: War and Inequality appeared first on Florida State University News.

Serving time in prison for a crime he committed at 18, 52-year-old Florida State University student Eddie Fordham may not have imagined he’d one day walk free, enroll in college and present his scholarship on recidivism at an undergraduate research symposium.

Fordham was one of more than 700 student researchers to present at FSU’s 25th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium — the largest one yet — hosted by the Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement (CRE) at the Student Union Ballrooms on April 1. About 100 of those students transferred to FSU from other institutions.

“Our mission is to make research opportunities accessible to all undergraduate students who wish to be involved,” said Latika Young, director of the CRE. “We believe that every student, regardless of their background or major, should have the chance to engage in meaningful research that enhances their academic experience and prepares them for future success.”

Fordham’s research project, “Evaluating Teen Court Success,” examines the diversionary Teen Court program in North Carolina and its influence on juvenile defendant rehabilitation.

His interest in that topic was borne out of his personal life journey, a story that underscores the transformative power of education.

“For me, education meant more than textbooks and long hours of study,” said Fordham, now majoring in public policy. “Education meant redemption.”

Inspired by books such as “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl and “Long Walk to Freedom” by Nelson Mandela, Fordham earned a high school diploma and vocational certificates during his 31-year incarceration. He became a tutor and eventually ran entire education departments within the prison.

Through the “Inside Out Program” at Miami-Dade College, he attended classes with those inside and outside of the prison. Fordham graduated with an associate degree from Miami-Dade College, landing on the dean’s list with a 4.0 GPA.

He worked as the peer mentorship program coordinator for the Alabama Prison Arts and Education Project at Auburn University and is now pursuing a bachelor’s degree at FSU, supported by the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, a selective national award for high achieving transfer students seeking degrees at four-year colleges or universities.

“Education instills a different set of values in a person,” Fordham said. “When people come out of prison, do we want them to come home in the same condition as when they went in, or do we want them to come out better?”

Since enrolling at FSU, Fordham has made the President’s List and joined the Omicron Delta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies.

When students transfer to FSU from other institutions and backgrounds, they bring with them the unique experiences they’ve gained along the way, making the university and its research ecosystem richer and more complex.

Jakyah Hayes came to FSU after graduating with honors from Tallahassee State College, where she participated in the Dr. Lei Wang STEM Program.

“I really excelled through the STEM program at TSC, which is where I found my love for research,” Hayes said.

After graduation, she participated in award-winning summer research funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation at the University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus about how transportation is disproportionately affected by natural disasters in different communities of Tampa Bay.

She jumped into the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) upon arriving at FSU, presenting at the symposium on her work to help create a website for FSU’s Anthropology Department and digitizing its collection of historic ceramics and other artifacts.

Diego Palacios, who transferred to FSU’s Tallahassee campus after receiving an associate degree from FSU’s Republic of Panama campus, presented the research he conducted through UROP that investigated the behavior of high-temperature superconducting tape, which is used in power grids, MRI machines, magnetic levitation trains and many other applications. The research project solidified for him his choice to pursue a degree in electrical engineering.

“I really like the hands-on experience, where I have to think to solve an actual problem,” said Palacios, an international student from Santiago, Panama. “I wanted to do something related to technology and engineering that would help make the world better.”

About one in every four students at FSU transfers from another place, including state and community colleges or other four-year institutions. Students can also transfer through the Seminole Pathways program, including the option to study abroad before coming to the Tallahassee campus, or enrolling in FSU Next, where students attend Tallahassee State College for one semester while attending an introductory course at FSU and then enrolling full time at FSU in the spring.

Pre-med exercise physiology student Brittany Mears enrolled at FSU after receiving an associate degree from Chipola College, near her hometown of Blountstown, Florida.

For her UROP project, she assisted in performing echocardiograms on a mouse model to better understand the role of genetic mutations in a heart disorder called dilated cardiomyopathy.

“I love where I’m from, and one day I hope to be able to give back to my community as a physician,” Mears said. “I came to FSU with the goal of going to medical school here and then going back home to take care of my community like they’ve taken care of me.”

The Undergraduate Research Symposium is one of the largest university-based symposia in the country and FSU’s only interdisciplinary, all-campus undergraduate research showcase. The symposium includes undergraduate students from all majors, representing various initiatives such as Honors in the Major and the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program.

“We want transfer students to engage in every opportunity available to them at FSU, including undergraduate research,” said Heather Bishop, assistant dean in Undergraduate Studies. “Our goal is to provide transfer students with the resources and support they need to make the most of their time at FSU, so they graduate ready for future success.”

For more information about the Undergraduate Research Symposium and Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement, visit cre.fsu.edu.

The post Transfer students present at Florida State University’s Undergraduate Research Symposium appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University researchers are part of a multi-institution team that has received nearly $3.4 million to conduct a five-year investigation into how patients seeking care may be treated differently when providers themselves are under the weather or fearful of becoming sick.

Anastasia Makhanova, FSU psychology alumna and assistant professor of psychology at the University of Arkansas, is the principal investigator for the National Institutes of Health-funded grant that also includes FSU Assistant Professor of Anthropology Eric Shattuck and Professors of Psychology Jon Maner and Ashby Plant. FSU’s share of the grant is $539,479.

The full team, with contributors hailing from six institutions including the University of Texas at San Antonio, University of Arkansas, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, University of New Mexico, and Loma Linda University, will evaluate if adverse situational conditions, or ASC, cause subtle differences in physician behavior, potentially impacting patient outcomes and treatment bias.

“R01 research grants are the top tier of NIH funding,” said Shattuck, whose work explores connections between the immune system and social interaction. “They are highly competitive and fund projects over five years, so our work can be adequately developed. We are at a point in science where many problems we are trying to solve require perspectives from different fields, and I am delighted NIH saw our interdisciplinary team as a strength.”

In this research, ASC for health care providers includes two categories: the provider being sick and the provider’s fear of becoming sick. The former leads to a temporary increase in inflammation as one’s immune system fights off the infection. The latter refers to cues of pathogen threat such as visibly sick patients and rising rates of influenza or COVID-19.

Prior research shows that pathogen threat can affect how individuals relate and interact with others, and inflammation can biologically impact cognition, leading to such symptoms as brain fog. The team will also study stress and burnout as ASC for providers.

“The project is an ideal example of interdisciplinary research, as it takes scientific discovery and translates it into something immediately valuable and useful for health practitioners.”

– Jon Maner, professor psychology

“ASC can increase disparities in the quality of care that racial and ethnic minority patients receive,” said Plant, who specializes in bias regulation and examines the quality of relations among people of different identities. “Unlike projects that focus on reducing bias directly, which often are only modestly effective, we are identifying and targeting the conditions that impact health care providers and their job performance.”

Two studies are planned to test the ways ASC impacts physicians’ treatment of patients. In the first, physicians will be given either the seasonal flu vaccine or a placebo. Those who receive the vaccine will experience mild increases in immune system activity, triggering the feeling of powering through work when sick. When compared with the physicians’ initial survey responses on ASC, the researchers can determine if greater acute inflammation is associated with more biased treatment.

In the second study, another group of physicians will be surveyed on how they are feeling both emotionally and physically, and responses will be compared to patients’ charts from the same day. Using data collected over one year, this study will determine if providers are more vulnerable to bias on days when they experience more versus less ASC.

“I am excited to increase the external validity of our future findings,” Makhanova said. “This research helps us better understand situational pressures that can make health care providers more vulnerable to biased decision-making, especially towards patients from minority groups.”

Makhanova is a two-time FSU alumna who earned her master’s degree in 2016 and doctorate in 2019, both in social psychology. As a student, she conducted research with both Plant and Maner, and also began collaborating with Shattuck shortly after joining UA’s faculty in 2019.

“This project includes researchers in psychology, anthropology, public health and medicine, building bridges between social science and community health clinics,” said Maner, an expert on the connections among motivation, emotion and social cognition. “The project is an ideal example of interdisciplinary research, as it takes scientific discovery and translates it into something immediately valuable and useful for health practitioners.”

Research is an important component of FSU Health, a major university initiative to improve health and health care delivery. Visit fsuhealth.fsu.edu to learn more about how researchers and partners in clinical practice are working together to build healthier communities in North Florida and beyond.

To learn more about psychology research and the FSU Department of Psychology, visit psychology.fsu.edu. For more information on the FSU Department of Anthropology, visit anthro.fsu.edu.

The post FSU researchers part of team awarded nearly $3.4 million by NIH to study disparity of care outcomes related to physician bias appeared first on Florida State University News.

A Florida State University researcher has received $1.5 million in funding to partner with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, to study submerged precontact archaeological sites over the next five years in the Gulf of Mexico.

Jayur Madhusudan Mehta, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and  a faculty affiliate of FSU’s Native American and Indigenous Studies Center, is part of a team to receive the funding, which will help BOEM revise guidelines for managing submerged landscapes found in the federal waters of the Gulf Coast.

“This partnership will allow our team to build better science around the regulatory frameworks surrounding archaeological survey for submerged cultural resources in the Gulf of Mexico,” Mehta said. “In particular, our project uses known sites, known geologic landforms and known ancient human settlement patterns to build models for potential and/or hypothetical site locations in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Researchers estimate that people inhabited the land that is present-day Florida at least 14,550 years ago, when sea levels were approximately 300 feet lower than they are today. At that time, the Florida peninsula spanned an area at least twice as wide as its current form due to the volume of seawater frozen in Ice Age glaciers, and the coastline extended about 100 miles from modern-day shorelines. As the glaciers began to melt and global sea levels started to rise, broad swaths of land these early inhabitants and their descendants lived on became submerged.

Researchers have determined that, in some cases, the archaeological sites these inhabitants left behind have remained intact. Archaeologists have identified several confirmed sites and more than a dozen potential ones off the northeastern Gulf Coast of Florida since the 1980s. These surviving artifacts provide unique information about precontact communities that does not exist on land because these submerged landscapes are the only places where coastal people’s ways of life are preserved.

“Our project notably includes tribal communities at every level of involvement, from project planning, to implementation, to synthesis and analysis. The primary reason we are doing this work is so we can ensure Indigenous and tribal communities have a voice in the study and preservation of their cultural patrimony.”

– Jayur Madhusudan Mehta, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology

Jessi Halligan, former assistant professor of anthropology at FSU, is an associate professor at Texas A&M University and associate director of TAMU’s Center for the Study of the First Americans and is leading the research team.

“This project is important because we know so very little about early people in and around the Gulf Coast, but also because with increasing offshore development, the sites that can tell us about these people are ever more threatened,” Halligan said. “We need to be able to find the sites in order to manage and preserve them.”

Researchers will first compile offshore survey data collected over the past several decades to put it in one place to determine what is currently known about these submerged landscapes. The team will then conduct an offshore survey in high-priority areas using sonar systems and sediment corers to collect data. This data will be used to create models of locations where these submerged landscapes remain preserved and where archaeological sites are likely to be found. The team will use their findings to make recommendations for best practices needed to locate these precontact sites and inform permitting and avoidance mitigation strategies for future offshore development projects.

“With this field-validated model, we’ll propose new guidelines and parameters to BOEM to ensure that future projects in the Gulf of Mexico, like the construction of wind turbines and oil derricks, will not interfere with or have direct or indirect impacts to Native American, Indigenous and submerged cultural resources,” Mehta said.

According to Halligan and Mehta, the project is among the first of its kind to fully involve tribal communities in the planning process so that Indigenous communities can help decide what portions of their ancestral landscapes are most important to examine and preserve.

“Our project notably includes tribal communities at every level of involvement, from project planning, to implementation, to synthesis and analysis,” Mehta said. “The primary reason we are doing this work is so we can ensure Indigenous and tribal communities have a voice in the study and preservation of their cultural patrimony.”

Florida State University’s Native American and Indigenous Studies Center will be involved in project planning, development and implementation. The project team also includes researchers from the Smithsonian Institution, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and the University of Bradford in the U.K.

For more about Mehta’s work and anthropological research at FSU, visit anthro.fsu.edu.

To learn more about BOEM, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, visit boem.gov.

The post FSU researcher receives $1.5M in funding to partner with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to identify submerged landscapes appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University senior Rosalyn Wadsworth grew up thinking archaeology was not a realistic career choice. However, through opportunities at FSU, she realized archaeology was something she could pursue successfully.

“When I toured Florida State University, I was impressed by the programs meant to encourage undergraduate participation in research,” Wadsworth said. “The academic community at FSU not only gave me a strong academic foundation designed to prepare me for graduate education, but also the encouragement to reach my full potential.”

Wadsworth’s minor in Japanese Language and Culture provides a nuanced perspective to her research endeavors. Her IDEA Grant project and Honors in the Major thesis analyze biological variation among Japanese hunter-gatherer populations between 5000 B.P and 2300 B.P, for which she received the Tyler Center for Global Studies Research Award.

“When I was initially awarded the Tyler Center for Global Studies Research Award, I was absolutely ecstatic,” Wadsworth said. I find Japanese culture, history and traditions very interesting, so I was excited to be present at the sites I was researching in my thesis, talk to researchers who specialized in Japanese archaeology and practice speaking with locals.”

Her research involves examining skeletal data to determine if general health factors and specific characteristics, such as stature, vary between coastal and inland sites. These methods include non-metric observations such as caries and pathologies on the skeleton.

To further her skills, Wadsworth completed Assistant Professor of Anthropology Jessi Halligan’s Underwater Field School during the summer of 2023. There, she learned how to excavate units in dark and muddy water. She hopes to take this knowledge overseas to evaluate submerged landscapes in Asia during graduate school.

Wadsworth will attend the University of Hawai’i at Mãnoa’s Anthropology MA program in Fall 2024 and plans to pursue a doctoral degree in anthropology.

Why did you choose a major in anthropology with a minor in Japanese language and culture?

Archaeology is the study of people’s ancestry, and as an archaeologist, I need to show proper respect by learning about the descendants of the people I am studying. I think it’s important to understand how cultural and political contexts frame research topics and how to present them in a respectful manner.

Could you elaborate on how specific Japanese culture(s) relate to your Honors in the Major research?

My Honors in the Major Thesis focuses on the Jomon, a native Japanese hunter-gatherer population that occupied the archipelago from about 40,000-3,000 BCE. The Jomon’s modern descendants are the Ainu people, who reside in Hokkaido. The Ainu are not what normally comes to mind when people think about Japanese culture. My research is important because it helps contextualize this cultural variation within Japanese history and among modern populations.

What was it like to excavate a Roman Bathhouse?

That was a great summer! It was a lot of fun working in the field. I learned how to excavate archaeological materials, which I had only learned about in the classroom. It felt like I was finally doing archaeology and not just learning about it. I traveled around Italy with students from all over the United States and some from England. It was an amazing experience.

Is there anyone at FSU that has made a significant impact on you?

When my previous thesis supervisor left FSU, the timeline for my Honors in the Major thesis was disrupted and I felt very lost. Professor Jessi Halligan immediately agreed to be my new project supervisor and helped me get back on track. She is never too busy for her students and truly cares about them. She is an amazing and knowledgeable archaeologist, and I have learned a lot from her. Her support has been instrumental to my undergraduate success, and I’m very grateful for all she does for me.

The post Rosalyn Wadsworth appeared first on Florida State University News.

The post Lost to the sea: New FSU research highlights importance of including Indigenous cultural perspectives in coastal restoration plans appeared first on Florida State University News.