The onset and continuing impacts of global climate change has had a marked impact on the discovery of archaeological sites worldwide, including in Michigan.  Professor Emeritus Dr. William Lovis explores this issue through a discussion of the discovery of the mid-19^th century Saints’ Rest dormitory on the MSU Campus, recently published in The Michigan Archaeologist in an article titled “Extreme Regional Drought and the Rediscovery of The Agricultural College of the State of Michigan’s First Men’s Dormitory, Saints’ Rest”.  Saints’ Rest dormitory, the first men’s dormitory at MSU, originally stood just east of the current MSU Museum.  The building burned in an early morning conflagration during Christmas break on December 9, 1876. The NE corner of the dormitory was and still is marked by a concrete marker.  It was thought that the remains of the dormitory had been demolished and that nothing remained.  

During a late 1980s drought episode, however, Dr. Lovis noticed that the parched north campus lawn displayed well saturated green grass in right angle lines emanating from the concrete NE corner marker.  Subsequent exploration by Lovis and MSU historical archaeologist Dr. Kenneth Lewis verified that the building foundation was still present below the green grass, and that remains of the dormitory were present and could be recovered archaeologically.  Ultimately, the MSU Anthropology Department excavated Saints’ Rest dormitory as a Sesquicentennial Field School Project.  While this story does not demonstrate that global climate change is desirable, it does demonstrate that its consequences can at times be unexpected, interesting and even beneficial!  Please contact Dr. Lovis for article access at lovis@msu.edu.  

Donald Weir, a 1974 Anthropology master’s graduate, has been presented with the national Society of Historical Archaeology’s Award of Merit for his lifetime of work in archaeology at this year’s national conference.

The SHA Awards of Merit were established in 1988 to recognize the specific achievements of individuals and organizations who have furthered the cause of historical archaeology.

“Donald J. Weir (was selected) for his outstanding leadership and mentorship in Midwest archaeology, pioneering professional practice in cultural resource management, and advancing diversity and education within the field,” the SHA 59^th Annual Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology program proclaimed.

The award ceremony took place Jan. 10 in Detroit.

“The SHA award given to me in Detroit is very special to me,” Weir said. “My dad was an avocational archaeologist and I spent much of my youth going to archaeological meetings at Wayne State University. Early in my professional career with the late Steve Demeter, I worked on several Detroit archaeological projects including the People Mover. My last large project before retirement was the Gordie Howe International Bridge to Canada.”

Weir, who also earned a bachelor of science degree in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences from MSU, is the founder and former CEO of the Commonwealth Cultural Resources Group.

He has set up the Commonwealth Heritage Group Diversity Scholarship Award in Archaeology at MSU for undergraduate and graduate students who are or who have been enrolled in archaeology courses offered by the Department of Anthropology.

“Diversity is a big issue in archaeology and anthropology, especially in archaeology,” he said. “When I went into the profession, it was 90% white male, and it’s now probably 60% female, 40% male, but still 90% white. So I want to encourage diversity in the profession, and I think the profession lacks that, and it will be to the betterment of society, and it’s important to have diversity in archaeology especially with indigenous archaeologists.”

In October 2021, Weir received the Distinguished Career Award from the Michigan Archaeological Conference (MAC) which recognizes archaeologists who have demonstrated excellence and contributed significantly and regularly to the advancement of Midwestern archaeology.  He was awarded the 2010 McGimsey-Davis Distinguished Service Award by the Register of Professional Archaeologists, the 2017 ACRA Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Cultural Resources Association, and the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Michigan Historic Preservation Network.

In 1952, Toy Len Goon, a Chinese immigrant widow raising eight children, was selected as U.S. Mother of the Year by the American Mothers Committee of the Golden Rule Foundation. Her story, celebrated during the Cold War as proof of American democracy, is featured in a new book by Dr. Andrea Louie, Goon’s granddaughter, and professor and chair of Michigan State University’s Department of Anthropology.   

Louie’s book, Chinese American Mothering: Toy Len Goon’s Legacy and the Myth of the Model Minority, gives her grandmother the chance to tell her story through her own experiences, not just through the lens of Cold War propaganda. The book uses immigration documents, family interviews, news articles, and secondary sources to illustrate the story of Goon’s struggles and successes alongside the public narrative that framed her as a symbol of democracy triumphing over communism.   

“I grew up knowing the story but hadn’t really thought about its larger historical significance,” Louie said. “There are lots of layers and different perspectives that I bring into conversation in the book—not only how my grandmother’s story was told by the media, but also how she told her own story to her family.” 

She describes her book as an ethnography of the model minority myth, told through the life of her grandmother, whose story played a role in shaping it.   

The book examines how her maternal grandmother’s life was portrayed in the media and used by politicians to promote an image of opportunity in the United States. It also explores the evolution and impacts of the model minority myth, a stereotype created during this time and framed Asian Americans as inherently successful, intelligent and hardworking minorities.  

“The danger of the myth is that the stereotype paints Asians as rule-followers who do everything right and succeed—suggesting that other minorities aren’t working hard enough,” Louie said. “It also minimizes the structural challenges that Asian Americans face and oversimplifies and homogenizes their experiences.”  

Breaking the myth  

What began as a childhood interest in studying the past and human remains has led Dr. Andrea Zurek-Ost to a career in forensic anthropology. She joins the Department of Anthropology as a research associate working on MOSIAC, or Methods of Sex, Stature, Affinity and Age for Identification through Computational Standardization, a project funded by a $2.1 million National Institute of Justice grant.

Zurek-Ost, originally from Kalamazoo, Michigan, developed an interest in anthropology at a young age. In first grade, she recalls learning about the excavation of King Tutankhamen and being fascinated by archaeology, mummies, and the study human remains. In high school, her interests shifted toward health sciences. During an anatomy class, her teacher tasked each student with interviewing a health professional. Zurek-Ost wanted to speak with someone who worked with the deceased.

After calling several police departments for leads, she was connected to a graduate student in Michigan State University’s anthropology department. Zurek-Ost was invited to the MSU Forensic Anthropology Lab (MSUFAL) and immediately fell in love with the field.

“I was hooked from that moment,” she said.

Now back in her home state, Zurek-Ost is working with Dr. Joe Hefner, lead principal investigator for MOSIAC. The project involves collecting data from thousands of donor skeletons using a variety of methods. That data will help to develop and train a program that considers information related to the four main parameters of the biological profile: stature, sex, age and population affinity. The program will combine that data into a single algorithm, which will be used to more quickly and accurately bring names to unidentified individuals.

“The unique part of the MOSAIC project will be the way that several different methods come together to produce a holistic biological profile,” Zurek-Ost said. “Something like this has never been attempted at this scale in forensic anthropology.”

Zurek-Ost completed her undergraduate degree from Central Michigan University, her master’s in forensic and biological anthropology at Mercyhurst University, and her Ph.D. in anthropology this past May from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her dissertation work focused on archaeologies of warfare, pilgrimage and ephemerality at a site in the Basque Country in northern Spain.

Drawn to MOSIAC for the opportunity to engage in collaborative and multi-institutional research, Zurek-Ost brings years of experience in skeletal analysis, especially skeletal measurements and morphological assessments—skills essential for constructing a biological profile.

For the MOSAIC project, Zurek-Ost is responsible for coordinating with the managers of donated skeletal collections, facilitating data collection trips, determining sampling strategies, and disseminating the results of the research, including writing grant reports.

“Forensics makes a difference to individuals and also to communities on a larger humanitarian scale,” Zurek-Ost said. “It’s a beautiful thing when a passion you have can positively impact other people.”

Outside of work, Zurek-Ost enjoys photography, playing the piano and guitar, and consulting on bioarcheological projects in Iraqi Kurdistan and Spain. She also mentors students interested in gaining experience with forensic science research.

Zurek-Ost said she is looking forward to the mentoring aspect of MOSIAC.

“Any way you can incorporate compassion into your work is incredibly powerful—it impacts everyone you work with,” she said.

The Michigan State University (MSU) Museum is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Stacey Camp as Curator of Archaeology. An accomplished historical archaeologist and professor in MSU’s Department of Anthropology, Dr. Camp brings a wealth of experience in research, teaching, and public engagement focused on immigration, identity, and labor in the United States. 

“The MSU Museum’s curatorial team continues to expand in ways that strengthen our interdisciplinary approach and deepen our community connections,” said Devon Akmon, Director of the MSU Museum. “Dr. Camp’s expertise in archaeology and material culture will enrich our collections, exhibitions, and research, while advancing our mission to serve as a collaboratory at the nexus of arts, sciences, cultures, and technologies.” 

Congratulations to Gungun Islam, anthropology graduate student, on receiving the Dr. Delia Koo Global Student Scholarship. This award supports her ethnographic fieldwork in West Bengal, India, where she is examining the complex inequities found within infertility.

“In India, infertility is never just a biomedical issue,” Islam said. “It is deeply political—shaped by intersecting structures of sociocultural, economic, environmental, and political inequalities.”

Her research investigates how assisted reproductive technologies (ART), while expanding possibilities for conception, remain largely inaccessible to many marginalized women. Islam noted that these women are faced with systematic neglect, religious prejudice, and humiliation in clinical settings all of which constrain their access to care.

“For rural women, these challenges are even greater,” Islam said. “With limited local healthcare, they must rely on urban facilities, often at significant financial and emotional cost. At the same time, community stigma heightens their isolation and leaves them at greater risk of violence.”

With support from this scholarship, Islam will continue her fieldwork with the goal of raising awareness about reproductive health inequities and advocate for accessible and community-driven care.

A new collection of original essays, “Ancient Indigenous Cuisines: Archaeological Explorations of the Midcontinent,” is the first to examine trends in ancient Indigenous foodways across the region. This volume, a collaborative effort by Dr. Jodie O’Gorman, former chair and associate professor in Michigan State University’s Department of Anthropology, and Ph.D. alumni Dr. Susan Kooiman and Dr. Autumn Painter, explores the concept of cuisine and its connections to social experience—how what people ate shaped and reflected their lives. 

Recognizing overlapping research interests, O’Gorman, Kooiman, and Painter brought together scholars studying an array of related topics in a variety of cultural contexts. Their goal was to pool insights, expand available data and share findings through a comprehensive collection of essays on midcontinental archaeological foodways. 

As Kooiman, O’Gorman, and Painter explain in the Introduction, “This volume features archaeological explorations of the cuisines of ancient Indigenous peoples of the Midcontinent of North America, examined through a range of cutting-edge methods and perspectives and exemplifying a wide range of questions and outcomes that demonstrate the versatility and strength of culinary studies.”

The editors stress that food can be used to gain insight into many different aspects of any culture. Beyond the basic questions of what people from a particular place and time ate, food can be used to address questions of economics, socio-politics, identity, health, religion, environment, and more.

To investigate dietary practices from thousands of years ago, researchers used a range of methods that build on fundamental identifications of plant and animal remains. These included detailed contextual analysis, identifying microscopic residues and use-wear found on pottery and other tools, and use of experimental studies. Contributors focused not only on what resources people used, but also choices about that food and the dynamic relationships of food with society.   

Each chapter in “Ancient Indigenous Cuisines” uniquely approaches social issues through the lens of food. For example, in her own research collaboration with MSU Ph.D. alum Dr. Jeffrey Painter on Morton Village collections, O’Gorman was surprised by the “powerful role” cuisine played in social negotiations among groups within the village. In Kooiman’s  chapter with MSU undergraduate alum Rebecca Albert, she reveals how the importance of maize and wild rice in local cuisine shifted over time in northern Michigan.

The MSU scholars hope readers come to understand that our lives are in many ways centered around food and that food not only represents who we are in a certain time and place, but plays an important role in how we shape and transform social identities.

by Louise Henderson

A new arts-based research project reveals how young people in Ambon, Indonesia are transforming language into a tool for unity and healing.

Associate Professor of Anthropology, Dr. Elizabeth Drexler, co-authored a new study titled Language and Conflict De-escalation: Preserving peace in Ambon through literature and art. In collaboration with Dr. Wening Udasmoro, Professor of Literature and Gender and Vice Rector of Education and Learning at Universitas Gadjah Mada, and Mariana Lewier, lecturer at Pattimura University in Maluku, the team examined how the youth of Ambon approach social issues related to peace, justice and human rights.

Despite its now vibrant cultural identity, the region has also experienced religious conflict, particularly following the end of Indonesia’s authoritarian rule in 1998. While previously communities had lived together peacefully for decades, tensions escalated in the early 2000s.

According to the study, language—including rumors and misinformation—was used to fuel conflict. Indonesia has reported numerous cases in which online agitation has led to direct physical violence toward youth.

Through conversations with members of the current youth arts community, the researchers identified ways in which musicians, artists and writers were approaching this conflict differently than previous generations.

To promote de-escalation, Drexler explained that in the early 2000s the Ambon youth began countering disinformation and emphasizing local context. Their approach stood in contrast to outside media, which often lacked context and presented issues in a polarized way.

“Language is often seen as a force that incites violence,” Drexler said. “We saw an opportunity to highlight how these youth had used a force (language) often used for violence, to promote peace.”

Today’s Indonesian youth take de-escalation a step further. They create art and music together in mixed communities, including with groups their communities were once in conflict with. Rather than use language exclusive to their own communities, they focus on building trust and demonstrating that peaceful collaboration is possible.