NAU anthropology graduate students
Specializing in a variety of research
Our graduate program invites energetic students from a diverse range of interests. Guided by accomplished faculty and able to use lab space dedicated to important research questions from the Southwest and around the world, our master’s candidates are poised to make a difference.
Fall 2019 cohort
Jesse Alexander: BA, Northern Arizona University
- Current Advisor: Corina Kellner, PhD
Azzam Almouai: BA, Arizona State University
- Current Advisor: Miguel Vasquez, PhD
Aliyah Balsiger: BA, Northern Arizona University
- Thesis Title: Education in Isolation: How students with disabilities are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic
- Thesis Committee Chairs: Leila Monaghan, PhD & Clinton Humphrey, PhD
Antonio Beardall: Ray A. Madden Scholar (2019), BA, Tamkang, Taipei
- Thesis Title: Public Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Management in Belize: Successes and Shortcomings
- Thesis Committee Chair: Jaime Awe, PhD
Emma Behling: BA, Augustana University
- Thesis Title: GIS Analysis of Agricultural Strategies and Landscape Use on Ancient Black Mesa, Northern Arizona
- Thesis Committee Chair: Francis Smiley, PhD
Megan Caveney: BA, Michigan State University
- Thesis Title: Archaeological Preservation and Interpretation with ArcGIS StoryMaps at the Flagstaff Area National Monuments
- Thesis Committee Chair: Francis Smiley, PhD
Katrina Gillespie: BA, Northern Arizona University
- Current Advisor: Francis Smiley, PhD
Kelsey Gruntorad: BA, Northern Arizona University
- Thesis Title: Recreating and Rethinking Pot Polish: An Experimental Analysis and Zooarchaeological Approach to the Taphonomy of Cooking Fauna
- Thesis Committee Chair: Chrissina Burke, PhD
Emma Holm: BA, Pacific Lutheran University
- Thesis Title: Managing Multiple Heritages: A Case Study of Ohanapecosh Hot Springs, Mount Rainier National Park
- Thesis Committee Chair: Nicholas Laluk, PhD
Gabriella Huff: BA, Brigham Young University
- Thesis Title: Biocommunicability and Superstition in Notions of Mental Unwellness in Belize
- Thesis Committee Chair: Emery Eaves, PhD
Jordy King: BA, Fort Lewis College
- Current Advisor: Emery Eaves, PhD
Megan Laurich: BA, Northern Arizona University
- Thesis Title: Archaeological Pets: An Examination of the Human-Dog Relationship in the American Southwest
- Thesis Committee Chair: Chrissina Burke, PhD
Mowana Lomaomvaya: BA, Northern Arizona University
- Thesis Title: Conducting NAGPRA Compliance in the National Park Service: An Indigenous Perspective
- Thesis Committee Chair: Kerry Thompson, PhD
David “Kofi” Mensah: BA, University of Cape Coast
- Thesis Title: “What do you produce to the government?”: Perspectives of Psychiatric Nurses on the Stigmatization of Care in Ghana
- Thesis Committee Chair: Michelle Parsons, PhD
Vince Pruis: BA, Seattle Pacific University
- Current Advisor: Lisa Hardy, PhD & Alder Keleman-Saxena, PhD
Sonja Michal Smith: BA, Boise State
- Thesis Title: Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s Representation in Northern Arizona: Inquiring about settler colonialism in print
- Thesis Committee Chairs: Leila Monaghan, PhD & Lisa Hardy, PhD
Erik Stanfield: BA, Northern Arizona University
- Current Advisor: Frederick Lampe, PhD
Denise Stoner: BA, Northern Arizona University
- Current Advisor: Leila Monaghan, PhD
Carly Thompson-Campitor: Ray A. Madden Scholar (2019), BA, CUNY/Art Institute
- Thesis Title: “Everything was painted black”: Enduring Contested Illness in the Context of Chronic Lyme Disease
- Thesis Committee Chair: Lisa Hardy, PhD
Pegge Vissicaro: BA, Arizona State University
- Current Advisor: Frederick Lampe, PhD
Fall 2018 cohort
Elena But: Fulbright Scholar, BA, Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University
- Thesis title: Ancient Maya Iconography & Epigraphy.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Jaime J. Awe, PhD
Cala Castleberry: Ray A. Madden Scholar (2018), BA, Appalachian State
- Thesis title: The Place & People: Tribal Perspectives on Traditional Cultural Places, Nomination Methods & Other Cultural Resources.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Kerry Thompson, PhD
Amanda Ekdahl: BA, Northern Arizona University
- Thesis title: Identity and the Unidentifiable: How Identity Informs Processes of CUHR Repatriation in three Arizona Universities.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Corina M. Kellner, PhD
Daniel Hargrave: BA, Western Washington University
- Thesis title: Oh You’re Homeless? I’m Sorry: The Suffrage of Homeless Shelters and The Homeless.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Leila Monaghan, PhD
Michael Kellett: BA, Western Washington University
- Thesis title: Prehistoric Obsidian Exchange in Northern Arizona.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Kerry F. Thompson, PhD
Ryan Leopold: BA, Florida State University
- Thesis title: Kung fu in Taiwan: Bodily Strategies and Lived Realities.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Clinton D. Humphrey, PhD
Bonnie McCormick: BA, Northern Arizona University
- Thesis title: The Significance of Prenatal Care: Development of an Integrative Prenatal Program.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Emery R. Eaves, PhD
James (Jack) McGee: BA, Northern Arizona University
- Thesis title: Construction Phases of Pre-classic Ritual Architecture at Cahal Pech.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Jaime J. Awe, PhD
Darby McNutt: BA, Oregon State University
- Thesis title: Developing Predictive Modeling for Paleoindian Site Detection in the Southern Colorado Plateau: Human Behavioral Ecology and Geographic Information Systems Theory.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Francis E. Smiley, IV, PhD
Heather Morrison: BA, Dickinson College
- Thesis title: X-Ray Fluorescence Pictograph Analysis at Skeletal Man of Canyon de Chelly National Monument.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Kerry F. Thompson, PhD
Sheryl Nelson: Ray A. Madden Scholar (2018), BA, Northern Arizona University
- Thesis title: Using Navajo Philosophy to Build Health and Wellness to Drug Use on the Navajo Nation.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Michelle A. Parsons, PhD
Mark Porter: BA, University of California, Riverside
- Thesis title: Caching Aggrandizers: An Analysis of Maya Dedication Caches.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Jaime J. Awe, PhD
Hannah Skalleberg: BA, Northern Arizona University
- Thesis title: On-Going Pain in England: Performing a Face of Toughness.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Emery R. Eaves, PhD
Katie Tappan: BA, Northern Arizona University
- Thesis title: Animal Significance and the Ancient Maya: A Zooarchaeological Analysis of the Symbolic use of Animals in the Belize Valley.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Chrissina C. Burke, PhD
Kayla Torres-Morales: BA, University of Texas, San Antonio
- Thesis title: Throwing Paper Towels: Health and Access among Puerto Ricans Experiencing Chronic Illnesses Post-Hurricane Maria.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Melissa Liebert, PhD
Shannon Turnbull: BA, University of Kansas
- Thesis title: Making the ‘Ideal’; Marine: Acculturation and Socialization of US Marines.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Natasa Garic-Humphrey, PhD
Crispin Wilson: BA, St. Mary’s College, MD
- Thesis title: Digital Rerecording of the Northern Arizona Ballcourt Phenomenon.
- Thesis Committee Chair: Chris E. Downum, PhD