A Story of Us

In this interview, Andrew Mitchel chats with PhD candidate Craig Shapiro to discuss the insights from the text Polynesia, 900-1600 Past Imperfect by Madi Williams (https://www.arc-humanities.org/9781641892148/polynesia-9001600/), the role and importance of epistemology and community archeology, Craig's ongoing fieldwork in Samoa, and conclude with considering the quandary of moving beyond the practice of artifact expatriation.

In this interview, Andrew Mitchel chats with PhD candidate Steven Rhue to discuss the effects of household water insecurity on child health and well-being, a recently systematic review article on the topic by Steven and colleagues (https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wat2.1666), Steven's fieldwork on the subject with children ages 5-10 in Belém, Brazil, and Steven's experience at UN 2023 Water Conference in March 2023 (more here: https://medicalhealthhumanities.com/2023/05/01/what-did-it-all-mean-the-united-nations-first-conference-on-water-in-over-50-years/). You can read more on the topic in Steven's piece Acknowledged but Unheard: The Absence of Children's Voices in Water Insecurity (https://medicalhealthhumanities.com/2021/03/26/acknowledged-but-unheard-the-absence-of-childrens-voices-in-water-insecurity/). The study, “The effects of household water insecurity on child health and well-being” was supported by the Household Water Insecurity Experiences Research Coordination Network (HWISE- RCN) funded by the National Science Foundation (grant BCS-1759972) Steven Rhue’s doctoral dissertation research is supported by the National Science Foundation (grant BCS-2215227) and The Ohio State University Office of International Affairs and its’ Global Gateways.

In this interview, Andrew Mitchel sits down with our lecturer specializing in primatology, Dr. Jeffrey Peterson. They discuss multispecies ethnography, the foundations of primatology, Dr. Peterson's dissertation on Social Traditions and Social Networks among Long-Tailed Macaques in Indonesia (https://curate.nd.edu/show/bv73bz63b34), robbing and bartering among these same long-tailed macaques (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-11776-7), and methods for getting students excited about anthropology.

In this interview, Andrew Mitchel sits down with our new forensic anthropologist Dr. Stephanie Cole. They discuss forensic anthropology's methods and implications, Dr. Cole's PhD research on subadult sex estimation (https://scholarworks.unr.edu/handle/11714/8364), the Morphological Pelvis and Skull Sex Estimation Database (https://www.morphopasse.com/program.html), the Ontogenetic Subadult Sex Estimation System (https://stephanie-j-cole.shinyapps.io/OnSEt-System/) and Ohio State's new B.S. in Forensic Anthropology (https://anthropology.osu.edu/major-forensic-anthropology-bs).

In this interview, Andrew Mitchel sits down with Dr. Elizabeth Holdsworth to discuss her work on the Mother-Infant Microbiomes, Behavior, and Ecology Study (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37556398/), the relationship between maternal stress and infant health caregiving behaviors and infant methylation (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajhb.23876), her PhD research on role of social support on infant health(https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10995-018-02706-z), her future directions for research and teaching at Ohio State, and her upcoming work in press on the impact of cannabinoids on breast milk.

In this interview, Andrew Mitchel sits down with Dr. Anaís Roque to discuss community health, her research on resource insecurity, the case of Puerto Rico, the strengths of interdisciplinary research and the collaborative lab she is developing on campus. Anaís' publications can be found at https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5yt016MAAAAJ&hl=en, and students interested in the Community Health Lab can sign here at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScyXwoxCXjnyZcR8Yz29o7vQS9y0swZbmQS_Ycp0Qz7j4ZvBA/viewform!

In this interview, Andrew Mitchel sits down with Dr. Scott McGraw to discuss primatology, how to teach about primates to undergraduate students, the role and importance of teeth in the study of primates, his role as chair of the Anthropology department and colobus monkey conservation. The referenced teeth article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24592, and the red colobus action plan is at https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/49478.

In this interview, Andrew Mitchel sits down with Dr. Joy McCorriston to discuss archaeobotany, how to teach the Anthropocene to undergraduate students, the role and importance of collaborative research, a project connecting Ohio State to HBCUs and the origins of agriculture as a subject of study.

Dr. Erin Moore, faculty member in the Ohio State University Anthropology Department, discusses her research with women and girls in Uganda and multinational NGOs. They explore the concept of 'gender panic' and the importance of transformative research. Also covered: empowering girls, challenges faced by NGOs, pedagogy of poverty assistance, and engaged research.

In the fifth episode of our Engagement series, Shane interviews Dr. Mandy Agnew, a biological anthropologist who directs the Skeletal Biology Research Laboratory at Ohio State. Dr. Agnew tells us about how her grandparents and mentors helped shape her journey to anthropology. She also discusses her ongoing research with industry partners and the importance of collaborating and communicating with stakeholders at all phases of the research process.