Twelve anthropology students presented a wide range of papers and posters at the IUP Scholars Forum on April 10. Topics ranged from AI to shipwrecks and from equality to animal bones. The faculty, staff, and alumni judges recognized six anthropology students with awards.
The IUP Scholars Forum brings students from across campus together for a day to share and celebrate research. It was excellent to see so much top-notch research and to feel the excitement as students explained the new knowledge they are working hard to develop.
Five Applied Archaeology and Anthropology Program students won awards:
Emma Lashley won Judge’s Choice in the Three-Minute Thesis competition (3MT) for “Ground Penetrating Radar and Photogrammetry Survey of Laurel Hill Cemetery, an African American Cemetery in Western ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø.”
Elena Frye and Heather Alvarado won the Graduate Dean’s Award for “Analysis and Comparison of Fire-cracked Rock at the Mary Rinn and Squirrel Hill Archaeological Sites.” Elena and Heather also tied for third place in the Sigma Xi Society competition.
Elizabeth McCreary tied for third place (graduate division) in the Sigma Xi Society competition for “A Geophysical Survey of a Possible Mass Burial at Fort Ligonier.”
Emily Sykora won the Women in STEM Outstanding Poster Award (graduate) for “Ritual Animal Use at a Mississippian Platform Mound Complex in South Carolina.”
Other anthropology presentations included:
- Lily Carone, mentored by Anthropology Professor Francis Allard on her paper “AI and the Future of Humanity: An Anthropological Perspective.” She won the Women in STEM Outstanding Oral Presentation in the undergraduate division.
- Laura Broughton - “Pittsburgh’s Chinatown: A Study of Chinese Immigrants in Western ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø.”
- Wesley Clark – “The Use of Geophysical Survey Versus Random Sampling in Archaeological Survey of a Euro-American site in Western ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø.”
- Emma Lashley - “A Demography of the Dead: A Survey of Laurel Hill Cemetery, a Rural African American Cemetery in Western ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø.”
- Cassidy Tech - “Indigenous Clan Animal Representation at the Late Archaic Pockoy Shell Ring #1.”
- Kahlan Tripp - “A Ceramic Analysis of the Mary Rinn site (36IN29), a Late Woodland Site in Indiana County, PA.”
- Brittany Williams-Smith - “There's Just Magic in Movies.”
- Ella Zhou (along with Joseph Madia, Carlos Chimal Rodriguez, Rachel Kopicko, and Noah Gentle) - “Barriers to Recreational Park Access and Usage.”
Much of this research is part of students’ undergraduate and graduate thesis research and has also been presented at regional and national conferences.