I am an archaeologist interested in the broad relationships between history and humanity, materiality and agency, affect and ontology, and religion and urbanism. My focus in on North America, and my concerns range from local historical ones, particularly in the central Mississippi valley, to pan-American and big-historical ones, especially as they involve Mesoamerican-Southwestern-Mississippi valley connections. I have conducted most of my field research at and around the American Indian city of Cahokia or related complexes, having held posts at the University of Oklahoma, the State University of New York (Buffalo) and the University of Illinois.

Department of Anthropology
123 Davenport Hall
607 S Mathews Ave
Urbana, IL 61801
M/C 148
Urbana, IL 61801

(217)244-8818

Materiality, affect and agency; Religion and ontologies; Cities and landscapes; Global medievalism; Climate change; North American archaeology; Woodland and Mississippian cultures; Indigenous Prairie-Plains history; Pottery.

Ph.D. 1991, Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (UM). M.A. 1986, Anthropology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (SIU-C). B.S. 1983, Anthropology and Earth Science, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville (SIU-E).