SoS 195: Season 6 Premiere - Dr. Saige Kelmelis explains demographic methods in paleoepidemiology

Season 6 premiere. Cara’s back! Chris and Cara chat with Dr. Saige Kelmelis, a biological anthropologist specializing in bioarchaeology, paleodemography, paleoepidemiology, and forensic anthropology. Her research involves the study of human skeletal and dental remains to reconstruct aspects of life, health, disease, identity, and demography. She integrates methods and theory in osteology, paleodemography, epidemiology, and hazard analyses to explore the interplay between human biocultural behavior and infectious disease. She also uses methods from bioarchaeology to reconstruct life histories and health outcomes in modern and past populations through cementochronology. Kelmelis is also a primary investigator on a collaborative project with other professionals, students, and tattoo artists in South Dakota to understand how this ancient practice of body modification affects health outcomes in modern people. Current and ongoing research includes the exploration of mortality risk and disease in monastic, urban, and rural medieval Denmark, the application of cementochronology to reconstruct modern human life histories in Bangladesh, paleodemographic and life history reconstruction of the ancient Maya in the Upper Belize Valley, advancing statistical models in paleodemography, and the short- and long-term impacts of tattooing and body modification on health in past and present populations. Find the publications discussed in today’s episode here: Kelmelis, S., & DeWitte, S. N. (2021). Urban and rural survivorship in Pre- and Post-Black Death Denmark. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 38, 103089. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103089 van Doren, T. P., & Kelmelis, S. (2023). Contextualizing pandemics: Respiratory survivorship before, during, and after the 1918 influenza pandemic in Newfoundland. American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 181(1), 70–84. https://doi-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/10.1002/ajpa.24678 ------------------------------ Saige’s email: Saige.Kelmelis@usd.edu ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation Website: humbio.org/, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Cara Ocobock, Website: sites.nd.edu/cara-ocobock/, Email:cocobock@nd.edu, Twitter: @CaraOcobock Chris Lynn, HBA Public Relations Committee Chair, Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, email: cdlynn@ua.edu, Twitter: @Chris_Ly Cristina Gildee, HBA Junior Fellow, SoS producer: E-mail: cgildee@uw.edu Twitter: @CristinaGildee