Bilby Research Center

The Social Science Community-engagement Lab (SSCL)

Director: Dr. Lisa J. Hardy

Key faculty partner: Dr. Leah Mundell

Location: Room 131

The SSCL serves as a central location for learning and best practices for community-engaged research in northern Arizona. Faculty, students, and community partners develop and implement interdisciplinary projects through the SSCL. With a focus on medical anthropology, partners develop projects and conduct training sessions on ethics, primary data collection, mixed-methods analysis, and dissemination of findings through professional presentations and publications. The lab also… Read more

Medical Anthropology Practice Collective (MAPC)

Medical anthropology has served as the foundation for widely used theories and methods used in interdisciplinary health work and continues to provide valuable insights to ongoing health-focused research and practice. Students and partners working with the MAPC engage in theory-driven qualitative and mixed-methods approaches to explore and understand the root causes of health outcomes.

The MAPC has many benefits:

• The collective brings together the expertise and skills of medical anthropologists in the region,
• Students aligned with the… Read more

Social Science Forensic Laboratory

Director: Dr. Sharon Moses

Location: Room 164

The Social Science Forensic Lab houses replica skeletal bones and molds of teeth, joints, and different sections of bone for close up examination and other specific models for examples of homicidal trauma to bones. Students taking the Social Science Forensic minor courses, such as ANT 430 Forensic Archaeology and ANT 444 Forensic Art Methods, use this lab.  Students are able to apply hands-on forensic skills for human versus animal identification and… Read more

Historical Archaeology Laboratory

Director: Dr. Emily Dale

Location: Room 160B

The Historical Archaeology Lab focuses on collaborative research, public archaeology, and student engagement in investigating the 19th- and 20th-century American West and Southwest. For current and past projects, the Lab has partnered with the Kaibab National Forest, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Navajo Nation, the Museum of Northern Arizona, and NAU’s Interns-to-Scholars Programs. Through both collections research and archaeological excavations and surveys, the lab addresses questions of identity, culture contact,… Read more

Mesoamerican Archaeology Laboratory

Director: Dr. Jaime Awe

Location: Room 133

Research in this laboratory focuses on the emergence of social, political and economic complexity among ancient Mesoamerican pre-industrial societies, and the role of the environment in these processes. We study the ancient Maya and their neighbors through site excavation, survey, artifact analysis, iconographic studies, spatial analysis, and archaeometric analyses.

The facility includes:

• wet and dry lab areas;
• computer workstations;
• archaeological materials from western Belize collected by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project (BVAR);
• ceramics, lithics (chert and… Read more

Faunal Analysis Laboratory

Director: Dr. Chrissina Burke

Location: Room 163

Zooarchaeology, the analysis and interpretation of animal bones from archaeology sites, examines human animal interactions through time and space. Not only do humans use animals for subsistence means, we also view them emotionally and spiritually. This is a space for research tied to these pursuits with a focus primarily on faunal assemblages from the American Southwest.

We seek to explore questions tied to site formation processes, human environmental interactions, butchery processes, and animal… Read more