Emily Brennan is currently a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the University of South Carolina. Her dissertation will explore the changes in population health from late medieval to early modern Berlin in the context of increased urban growth and climate change. She has excavated in Romania, England, and Wales and currently teaches anatomy at the U of SC School of Medicine. When not explaining the importance of understanding evolution or why archaeologists don’t dig up dinosaurs, she enjoys hiking, drinking craft beer, and catching up on all the media she misses during the semester.
About the Blog
Grave Thoughts: A Bio-Archaeology Blog began as a way for me to further my anthropological scholarship while on a break from school between finishing my MA and beginning my PhD. My time as a student, as well as explaining what it is exactly that I study to family and friends, has demonstrated that educational outreach in anthropology is imperative. Humans understanding humans (past and present) can only serve to our benefit. I hope that this blog will be educational and offer you new perspectives and questions.
About the title
My studies in anthropology have centered around biological anthropology (biological human variation and evolution), archaeology (study of past humans and their material remains), and more recently, bioarchaeology (study of skeletal remains in an archaeological context). My posts will run the range of these areas of research so “Bio-Archaeology” serves as my spectrum of study. Anthropology is a multi-subfield discipline and as a result some posts will also touch on cultural aspects of the topic at hand, often because it is applicable, and separating the biological from the archaeological from the cultural is empirically misleading in my opinion and often times with the study of humans, almost impossible.
Disclaimer
The views expressed here are my own and do not reflect those of the University of South Carolina, the Department of Anthropology or the School of Medicine.
GRAVE THOUGHTS 