A Story of Us

This episode Andrew Mitchel sits down with Associate Clinical Professor Dr. Katie Zejdlik. They discuss the joys of reading fiction as a way to decompress, Dr. Zejdlik's work on mortuary contexts in Romania/Transylvania (https://www.archaeological.org/fieldwork/medieval-cemetery-funerary-excavation-living-and-dying-on-the-edge-of-europe-transylvania-romania/) and her approach to teaching archeology and forensics.

This episode Andrew Mitchel sits down with Ohio State PhD Candidate Ben Mertus. They discuss the article Beyond Wiindigo Infrastructure (https://grangehallpress.com/Enbridgeblog/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Beyond_Wiindigo_Infrastructure.pdf); the concept of ecotourism in anthropology; Ben's fieldwork in Manawan, Quebec; the concept of resilience in his research; the hidden costs of fieldwork; and Ben's teaching.

This episode Andrew Mitchel sits down with Ohio State PhD Candidate Harold "Butch" Wright. They discuss readings on commensality (https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/commensality-from-everyday-food-to-feast-9780857857361/), social network analysis (https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Communities+and+Networks%3A+Using+Social+Network+Analysis+to+Rethink+Urban+and+Community+Studies-p-9780745654201), and food insecurity (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajhb.23821). They then cover Butch's fieldwork in Parque das Tribos in Manaus, Brazil; discuss the pros and cons of applying standardized food insecurity measures to this community; and show how food is tied closely to be egocentric networks and urban indigenous identity in Brazil and beyond.

This episode Andrew Mitchel sits down with Ohio State PhD Candidate Madelyn (Madee) Green ([email protected]). They discuss research on isolation in islands, Madee's fieldwork in Japan with prehistoric Jomon populations, the Sannai Maruyama site (https://jomon-japan.jp/en/learn/jomon-sites/sannai-maruyama), and her teaching strategies.

This episode Andrew Mitchel sits down with OSU Anthropology's newest hire in forensic anthropology, Dr. Nicholas Passalacqua. They discuss an article on the legal and social ramifications for wrongdoing (https://doi.org/10.2307/2564673), the definition of forensic anthropology, the process of completing a case analysis, a textbook project Dr. Passalacqua has worked on (https://titles.cognella.com/forensic-anthropology-9798823309363), and an ethics book Dr. Passalacqua is co-writing with OSU alumnae Marin Pilloud (https://shop.elsevier.com/books/ethics-and-professionalism-in-forensic-anthropology/passalacqua/978-0-12-812065-1).

In this interview, Andrew sits down with Maddison Elliott, who is graduating with her MA this semester in anthropology. They discuss The book Buzz (https://nyupress.org/9781479827381/buzz/), Maddison's MA thesis on pollinator protection, hierarchies of insects, roundtable method of teaching introductory anthropology courses, and the Wicked Science program at Ohio State (https://u.osu.edu/wicked/)!

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).