336 Days In

Welcome back to another blog update from the MSUFAL! Can you believe that we have already spent approximately one year in quarantine? If we choose to acknowledge that quarantine started on March 13, 2020 (which was the most googled date), then we are 336 days in to isolation. Days have blended into weeks that have blended into months… I digress. Through everything, we have kept our lab meetings consistent and team morale strong. We meet every Tuesday, rotating our discussions between current literature, events, and casework going on at the lab. We also make sure to stay up to date on what is going on in each lab member’s life and check-in on everyone’s mental health. Since January, topics have included elder abuse casework, analysis of cremains, a discussion on Love and Langley’s (2020) article on supplemental training for students, and the ongoing ancestry discussion in forensic anthropology.

Apart from our weekly meetings, we have been preparing for this semester’s round of virtual conferences. Up next is the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, which will be held via Zoom from February 17-19. Several MSUFAL members are presenting. The dates and times of the presentations are listed below:

1. Rhian Dunn, Nick Passalacqua, Joseph Hefner, Katie Zejdlik. The impact of forensic anthropology manuscripts in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Wednesday, February 17, 2021 – Poster Session

2. Mari Isa, Todd Fenton, Alexis Goots, Elena Watson, Feng Wei.The effects of input energy and impact surface on cranial fracture patterns. Thursday, February 18, 2021 – Session II: Trauma and Taphonomy

3. Micayla Spiros, Kelly Kamnikar. Reporting Biases between missing persons and unidentified persons in the United States Friday, February 19, 2021 – Session I: Structural Vulnerability and Critical Race Theory

The presentations have been pre-recorded; however, the authors will be available to answer questions in real time during the session. We will miss seeing our colleagues, but all agree it is the safest option for everyone to participate virtually. Furthermore, the Anthropology section members will be putting on some amazing events that our lab members are attending including a Student Networking Event, put on by the Anthropology ad hoc committee on Outreach, Retention, and Recruitment (ORR), and a Virtual Conversation on Race and Ancestry in Forensic Anthropology, put on by the Society of Forensic Anthropologists.

Later this semester, Dr. Hefner will be co-presenting research at the Annual Meetings of the Human Biology Association on March 30, 2021. He and Dr. Hugo Reyes-Centeno, from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kentucky, will present a talk entitled Testing the association of cranial macromorphoscpic trait variation and genomic variation in modern humans. Finally, at the American Association of Physical Anthropology meetings, Rhian Dunn will present a poster entitled Advisor Influence in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology with co-authors Nick Passalacqua, Joseph Hefner, and Katie Zejdlik.

Noteworthy events at the MSUFAL that have occurred since our last blog have been numerous. First, we would like to thank Dr. Gabe Wrobel (MSU) for inviting the MSUFAL members to a virtual discussion on the history of racism in anthropology and how biology becomes a reflection of social history by Dr. Michael Blakey (William & Mary). We recommend reading Dr. Blakey’s most recent publication, “Understanding racism in physical (biological) anthropology”. Second, we are proud to announce that graduate student, Micayla Spiros, is featured in the Forensic Anthropology Journal Companion Podcast! In this episode, Micayla discusses the protocol she developed for collecting postcranial macromorphoscopic data, and her future research goals for postcranial variation. Smart cookie this one! Listen to the podcast here. Third, many of the MSUFAL members have participated in the Science Through Story workshops led by Sarah ElShafie and hosted by the AAFS ORR. These presentations focused on storytelling our work to capture the attention of broad non-scientific audiences. Lastly, we want to recognize the hard work of all lab members through this pandemic. We are truly grateful for the opportunity to stay connected and continue to motivate each other through this uncertain time.

Authored by: Kelly Kamnikar