Graduate students in my lab are working on an exciting range of projects focused broadly on skeletal morphology. Please note that the UWM Anthropology graduate program is not oriented towards PhD-level studies in forensic anthropology, and my own research is focused on paleoanthropology.
Current students:
Sam Mills (Ph.D. candidate): Sam is interested in paleoenvironmental reconstruction and uses small mammal postcranial morphology to infer locomotor behavior. Her research explores how fossil primates and other animals dealt with climate change, with implications for the changing landscapes of today.
Chawki Belhadi (Ph.D. student): Chawki is interested in applying novel androgogical methods to biological anthropology education at the university level, with a focus on the recent hominin fossil record, including Neandertals. In particular, he seeks to develop approaches that better serve the needs of both neurotypical and neurodivergent students.
Joey Lara (Ph.D. student): Joey is interested in improving the welfare of captive primates through quantitative assessments of locomotor behavior and the construction of novel habitat substrates.
Karley Spriggs (Ph.D. student)
Melina Lopez (M.S. student): Melina is interested in decomposition in freshwater environments, particularly rates of decay and the taphonomic effects of submersion on skeletal morphology.
Lizzie Williams (M.S. student)
Past students:
Cody Schumacher (M.S., 2022) "The effects of hybridization on skeletal morphology in two closely-related populations of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta): a geometric morphometric approach."
Joey Lara (M.S., 2023) "Monitoring welfare in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) using individual positional behavior and substrate use profiles."
Ashley Smith (M.S., 2024): "Covariation and modularity in the Rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) thoracolumbar vertebrae transitional region."
Hayley Hintz (M.S., 2026): "A test of Combo-MaMD Analytical and the use of postcranial macromorphoscopic traits to estimate population affinity."