Field Voices invites all Spartan anthropology students to share details about the projects and activities they have participated in while here at MSU. This is an opportunity to highlight your experiences, explore the diverse opportunities within your major, and understand how your work can support your academic and professional goals.
STUDENT EXPERIENCE
Melissa Teja
Year: Junior
Major: Anthropolgy
Minor: Environmental Social Science
Hometown: Johns Creek, Georgia
What inspired you to choose anthropology as your major?
I was drawn to anthropology because I saw an opportunity to develop my love of science alongside my passion for investigating the human experience.
Describe your anthropological experience.
In June 2023, I participated in the MSU Education Abroad program, working under Dr. Gabriel Wrobel at the Marco Gonzalez Maya Site in San Pedro, Belize. During this field school, I conducted archaeological surveys and excavations alongside other students, while gaining hands-on experience in photogrammetry, stratigraphic analysis, epigraphic analysis, cataloging, and curating osteological material. This field school was one of the best experiences of my life, furthering my passion for archaeology and field work.
Following the field school, I conducted research in the MSU Bioarchaeology Lab. My first project involved creating an osteobiography of an individual from Marco Gonzalez, using a standard biological profile to evaluate life history. This year, I received a PURI award for my current project, which is a discriminant function analysis to determine skeletal sex, that will be presented as a poster at the 2025 UURAF and the Society for American Archaeology’s 90th Annual Meeting.
Since 2023, I have served as Vice President of the Undergraduate Anthropology Club, where some of my favorite events have been guest speakers and trips to the Field Museum. My involvement in the Anthropology department has helped me grow in my research skills and my love for the field. The best part has been connecting with amazing people who share my passion, and getting to learn from incredible professors. I’m excited to hear back from the internships I’ve applied for the summer 2025 season and plan to apply to graduate programs in biological anthropology this fall.
STUDENT VOICE
Ryn Van Winkle
Year: Senior
Majors: Anthropology & Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Minor: Quantitative Data Analytics
Hometown: Medford, Massachusetts
What inspired you to choose anthropology as your major?
I initially majored in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, but my plans changed after taking courses in biological anthropology, paleopathology, and bioarchaeology. I wanted to expand my knowledge beyond the biochemistry textbook and apply the work I put into the four major macromolecules to archaeological material to better understand people. This approach helps me thoroughly understand the lives and circumstances of past populations, both as communities and as individuals, beyond just contextual clues.
Ryn’s Viewpoint
My focus is on the biological and biomedical aspects of anthropology. By expanding our study of osteopathic diseases beyond current sufferers, we can gain valuable insights into how these diseases develop across different ages, body types, genders, occupations, and more. Small communities engaged in manual labor will exhibit different disease patterns compared to those in larger cities. By considering past populations that resemble our small communities or past sufferers from these areas, we can improve the care provided to these people.
Despite being primarily white, I am Sioux on my mom’s side and Seminole on the dad’s side. I constantly struggled with what that meant for me in science and research as it tends to benefit developed areas and communities. I did not know how to honor that heritage but my work in anthropology changed how I viewed myself, science, and research. I realized that the work I initially planned wouldn’t benefit many communities, and I wanted to change that. My goal is to work in the biomedical field to better understand disease markers and apply this knowledge to various communities and archaeological burial sites. By doing so, I aim to catalog and track the development of bone diseases and make this information publicly accessible for the benefit of others.
Owen Kozdron
Year: Senior
Major: Anthropology
Minor: Environmental Social Science
Hometown: Williamston, Michigan
What inspired you to choose anthropology as your major?
During my second anthropology class, Introduction to Physical Anthropology, I was inspired. The class covered many topics that excited me. I was enthralled by the anthropological tendency to consider and care for those struggling in different places worldwide. I also loved learning about human and hominid ancestor evolution.
How has studying anthropology changed the way you understand different cultures and perspectives?
Studying anthropology has made me eager to explore different cultures and perspectives. Many of our fundamental beliefs and values are conditioned into us by our social and physical contexts. Gaining the awareness to question these is important to me and I believe it gives me a more holistic understanding of people, societies, and the world.
Can you share an example of how anthropology has helped you critically analyze social issues? You can use examples from class or other academic experience.
Anthropology has helped me understand how interconnected societal issues are. For example, the degradation of trust in each other and institutions, the internet, neoliberal ideology, and the inciting of distrust by elites. To create effective solutions for these issues, it is critical to trace the chain of impacts to the primary causes. This includes acknowledging where our own understanding reaches its limits and not hesitating to gain insights from other perspectives and people to create a more accurate and encompassing picture of the situation.