Research Methods in Human Skeletal Biology

Research Methods in Human Skeletal Biology serves as the one location readers can go to not only learn how to conduct research in general, but how research is specifically conducted within human skeletal biology. It outlines the current types of research being conducted within each sub-specialty of skeletal biology, and gives the reader the tools to set up a research project in skeletal biology. It also suggests several ideas for potential projects. Each chapter has an inclusive bibliography, which can serve as a good jumpstart for project references.

Dr. Elizabeth A. DiGangi received her bachelor’s degree in anthropology and history, magna cum laude, from the State University of New York at Buffalo. While working on her bachelor’s degree, she was one of the recipients of the Howard Hughes Undergraduate Fellowship in Biology where she received her first scientific research experience. She went on to earn a Master’s of Arts degree from the same institution in physical anthropology where she was an Arthur Schomburg Graduate Fellow. Following her Master’s, she moved to Knoxville, Tennessee to earn her doctorate from The University of Tennessee. She has taught extensively, either as an assistant or full instructor of several courses including Human Anatomy and Physiology, Primate Dissections, Human Origins, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Introduction to Physical Anthropology, Prehistoric Archaeology, and of a historical archaeological field school course. While at UT, she was awarded with several consecutive graduate teaching assistantships from both the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She is a member of several honor societies, recipient of several merit-based travel awards, and recipient of the Tennessee Valley Authority Graduate Scholar in Archaeology award. She became tenure-track instructor of Anthropology at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville before completing her doctorate degree. Dr. DiGangi currently lives and works in Bogotá, Colombia, where she is contracted as a consultant for the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP). In this capacity, she is charged with providing advisement, training, and equipment for the country’s professional forensic anthropologists and other scientists who work on exhuming and identifying the remains of victims of the Colombian conflict. Since 2008, she has coordinated, taught, and/or developed 23 courses in forensic archaeology, osteology, skeletal trauma analysis, and research methods, training over 450 professionals. Her research interests include age-at-death estimation in skeletal remains, health of prehistoric populations, and challenges and ethical considerations of work in anthropology outside of academia. She has presented her original research at annual professional conferences including the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Paleopathology Association, and Asociación Latina de Antropología Forense. Her publications have appeared in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. She is currently organizing a multi-faceted research program using Colombian anthropologists as primary researchers to create skeletal standards of the biological profile for the Colombian population.

Dr. Megan K. Moore graduated from the Ohio State University with honors distinction in Anthropology. She received two scholarships to conduct her honors thesis research in Athienou, Cyprus on population distance using adult odontometrics of individuals from a Medieval cemetery. Dr. Moore completed a Masters of Science degree at the University of Oregon, Eugene, in Anthropology. She received a Graduate Teaching Fellowship in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oregon. From 1999-2000, she worked as a Forensic Anthropologist with the Physicians for Human Rights in Cyprus to exhume and repatriate the remains of approximately two hundred soldiers killed during the war between Turkey and Greek Cyprus in 1974. Dr. Moore received her Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2008. During her doctoral program in Tennessee, she worked as a Graduate Research Assistant for the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering, the Department of Anthropology, and as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Her dissertation, "Body Mass Estimation from the Human Skeleton" was funded by a dissertation fellowship from the National Institute of Justice and examined the adaptations of the modern human skeleton to the body mass extremes of obesity and emaciation using computed tomography, densitometry and analysis of skeletal pathology. She spent several months in Bogotá, Colombia training Colombian forensic scientists; these courses include Forensic Archaeology; Advanced Forensic Archaeology; Skeletal Trauma Analysis; and Research Methods in Human Skeletal Biology. She has taught a wide variety of lectures and labs in US institutions including: Introduction to Biological Anthropology; Human Adaptation; Anatomy and Physiology; Evolution of Monkeys and Apes; Nutritional Anthropology; Human Genetics; and Human Growth and Development. She has authored and co-authored articles appearing in Forensic Science International, the Journal of Forensic Sciences and the Journal of Forensic Identification. In addition, she has presented papers at professional meetings and conferences including International Congress on Obesity, American Academy of Forensic Sciences, American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering and the International Association for Identification. Dr. Moore currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. She pursues research on the effects of obesity on the growing adolescent skeleton in collaboration with the Bone and Joint Injury, Prevention and Rehabilitation Center in Ann Arbor. Dr. Moore is the faculty advisor of the Anthropology Club and Amnesty International and an active member of the Institutional Review Board at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.