Research

Socio-Cultural & Linguistic Anthropology

Sharing a recognition of the centrality of language in the constitution of social realities, the work of our sociocultural and linguistic faculty intersects in three broadly defined, overlapping areas of inquiry.

Global Circulations and Identities: As ideas and images, migrants and technologies circulate globally, local identities and practices are increasingly shaped through cosmopolitan and vernacular forces. We explore the processes by which new forms of subjectivity and community are created in relation to local, national, and transnational structures of power and inequality.

Knowledge, History, and Critique: Expert knowledge and meanings of the past are increasingly important in contemporary political struggles. We trace trajectories of power and how they shift over time and space as knowledge is created and circulated, rendering particular futures imaginable while foreclosing others.

Governance, Rights, and Justice: Rights have become a dominant language for making claims or challenging injustices in the contemporary world. We study the forms of constraint, subjection, and coercion that appear alongside — or within — projects dedicated to freedom and progress. We also study the limits and failures of these forms of constraint and the new political possibilities that people construct under the political and economic conditions of the present.

Archaeology

The Department of Anthropology’s archaeology program focuses primarily on two themes:

Environmental Archaeology: Focusing on the archaeology of human-environment interactions, the Environmental Archaeology theme draws upon existing expertise and research interests of faculty in the Dept of Anthropology, Dept of Geography and other MSU programs, and collaborators at other institutions. The theme emphasize an interdisciplinary, scientific approach and training in archaeological sciences, including geoarchaeology and geomorphology, chronology, zooarchaeology, collagen peptide mass fingerprinting (ZooMS), paleoethnobotany, bioarchaeology, stable isotopes, and geographic information systems (GIS). Participating faculty carry out research programs in California and the Great Basin, the Midwest and Great Lakes, Mesoamerica, and Andean South America. 

Heritage, Preservation, and Community Engagement: Focusing on how material culture, sites of memory, and cultural landscapes are interpreted, presented, used, managed, protected, and preserved.  Our work is informed by a dialogue between both theory and practice, and is deeply committed to equitable and ethical community engagement and collaboration.  We emphasize training in digital heritage and archaeology, community engaged research, heritage preservation and management, public interpretation, and the politics of memory, the past, and cultural property. Participating faculty work with local, national, and international communities, heritage institutions, cultural landscapes, and sites of memory and memorialization.  

The Department of Anthropology hosts the Campus Archaeology Program, which works to mitigate, protect, and communicate the rich archaeological and cultural heritage resources on Michigan State University’s beautiful and historic campus.

Biological Anthropology

The program in biological anthropology focuses on the many complex interactions of human biology and culture, particularly the effects of human actions on skeletal anatomy both during life and after death. Graduates in biological anthropology have built careers in academia, in public and private sector organizations concerning forensic identification and health-related public policy, and also in medicolegal death investigation at the local, state, and federal levels. The graduate program in biological anthropology is particularly strong in skeletal biology, osteology, and forensic anthropology. Biological anthropology faculty and graduate students also work closely with faculty in the MSU medical colleges.

Faculty and students in biological anthropology are actively engaged in research and teaching concerning a variety of issues in human biology and variation, including:

Forensic Anthropology (Fenton, Isaac, Hefner)

• Trauma Analysis and Biomechanics
• Biological Profile (Age, Sex, Population Affinity, Stature)
• Comparative Medical Radiography
• • Human Cranial Macromorphoscopic Traits
• • Cremation Analysis
• • Buried Body/Surface Scatter Recovery
• • 3D Geometric Morphometrics
• • Quantitative Methods

Human Biology (Fujita)

• Human Milk
• Maternal/Infant Health 
• Human Adaptability
• Ecological Immunology
• Micronutrient Deficiency
• Biomarker Methods
• Quantitative Methods

Bioarchaeology (Wrobel) 

• Maya, Belize, Australasia
• Cranial Morphology
• Life History & Identity
• 3D Geometric Morphometrics
• The Effects of Disease, Nutrition, and Trauma
• Mortuary Practices

Students and faculty in biological anthropology conduct research in Giltner Hall in the MSU Forensic Anthropology Laboratory (MSUFAL), MSU Biomarker Laboratory for Anthropological Research, and the MSU Bioarchaeology Laboratory. Graduate students in the MSUFAL also have access to the autopsy facilities at the Genesee County Medical Examiner’s Office and the Sparrow Hospital in Lansing for study, training, and research.

Faculty and students also collaborate with scientists around the globe in addition to other units on campus, including the iProbe Laboratory in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the Department of Chemistry in the College of Natural Science, the Department of Radiology in the College of Medicine, and the Department of Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences and Department of Entomology in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Medical

The Medical Anthropology Program introduces students to major theoretical approaches to health, medicine and society. The program is research oriented and emphasizes political economy, post-structuralism, interpretive theory and critical analysis of health care and health policy.

Medical Anthropology at Michigan State University focuses on:

Training in the program includes graduate seminars in medical anthropology and course work tailored to meet students’ interests. Additional course work includes the department’s requirements in sociocultural or biocultural anthropology.

Graduates hold faculty positions in the U.S. and abroad, while others work in nonacademic settings. The latter include positions evaluating government programs, administering medical services, overseeing the review of medical research proposals, and carrying out research on health. The Medical Anthropology Faculty have specific collaborations with a variety of centers and institutes across MSU including: African Studies Center, Asian Studies Center, Center for Advanced Study of International Development, Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences, Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies Julian Samora Research Institute, Women & International Development Program.