Happy summer from the Michigan State University Forensic Anthropology Laboratory! As we come to the end of another strange semester, we’re feeling overwhelmingly hopeful for the first time in a long time! Our gears are already turning as we think about the casework, coursework, and research that will hopefully be able to resume in the near future. While we look to an exciting future, we also want to spend a moment reflecting on the incredible ways that our students and faculty have showed up and worked through personal and professional challenges to keep our lab running smoothly over the past several months!
Throughout the Spring 2021 semester, we continued to hold weekly virtual lab meetings, which acted as both a way to discuss casework and scholarship, as well as a chance to stay caught up with each other. Importantly, we spent a lab meeting with an invited Licensed Professional Counselor to discuss vicarious trauma and the importance of mental health within the field of forensic anthropology and in our lives as a whole. In addition, the MSUFAL maintained its modified operations by continuing to perform casework either virtually or in-person with limited personnel. As graduate students, it is reassuring to know that our mental health and physical safety are the top priority of our faculty!
Another exciting update is that the remodel of our new laboratory space in Giltner was completed this semester! We are thrilled to be close to our colleagues, for larger lab and teaching spaces, and for a walk-in cooler! But it also means we will be saying goodbye to East Fee this summer. Our move is bittersweet, as East Fee has been MSUFAL’s home for 20+ years. It is where many graduate students spent countless days and nights doing graduate work, where we defended dissertations and proposals, where we ate an obscene amount of snacks, and where we made memories with amazing friends and mentors. It is even where Dr. Isaac met her husband! Although East Fee has housed MSUFAL for all these years, we know that our MSUFAL family will make Giltner home!
Our fearless leader, lab director Dr. Carolyn Isaac (she/her), notes that although this semester was among the most challenging to date, she managed to successfully complete instruction for her asynchronous course and managed to only give away a few final exam answers accidentally on D2L! Dr. Isaac sends a huge “thank you” to our lab manager, Micayla Spiros, and her research assistant, Clara Devota, who kept her accountable and on top of all the casework coming in! Dr. Isaac also wrapped up her NIJ grant on the histomorphology of cranial fracture healing. She notes that this project, which is older than her two children, has produced exciting foundational data that will contribute to our understanding of how cranial injuries heal (spoiler alert: it is not the same as postcranial healing) and a timeline for these events! She looks forward to continuing this research and expanding to other skeletal elements in the future.
Between training for a marathon and shaving his beard, Dr. Joe Hefner (he/him) taught Intro to Forensic Anthropology and a graduate biological profile methods course. He also coauthored a poster presentation with Dr. Hugo Reyes-Centeno of the University of Kentucky at the Human Biology Association annual conference. Along with Drs. Fenton and Isaac, Dr. Hefner also bore the brunt of the case load for the graduate students, and continued to help our laboratory run like a well-oiled machine!
Our department chair Dr. Todd Fenton (he/him) has been working tirelessly to keep our entire department afloat during one of the most challenging years in recent memory. Between his many Zoom meetings, Dr. Fenton mentored two graduate students through dissertation proposal defenses, and made it a priority to always put our well-being first. We hope he gets a chance to rest as the semester comes to a close!
Kelly Kamnikar (she/her), a fifth-year PhD candidate, has had a busy and collaborative semester! Kelly facilitated a virtual workshop to anthropologists at the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Forenses de Guatemala on the theory and practice of FORDISC. Additionally, she held a virtual workshop for anthropologists at the Fundacion de Antropologia Forense de Guatemala on the use of transition analysis in age estimation. She also mentored undergraduate MSU student Carolynn Sauter on her UURAF presentation, entitled “The Impact of Sex and Ancestry on Dental Development.” Kelly has always been skilled at teaching, mentoring, and collaborating, and she has done a phenomenal job at sharing her talents virtually throughout the pandemic!
Amber Plemons (she/her) is another of our fifth-year PhD candidates. This semester, Amber worked on collecting data for a collaborative NIJ grant with Texas State. Data collection involved scoring dental development in juvenile radiographs to improve accuracy in juvenile age estimation. Additionally, Amber spent time writing various publications with other members of MSUFAL and Campus Archaeology, as well as coauthors outside of MSU. She anticipates submitting 3 of them in upcoming months, which is so exciting! Further, Amber began writing her dissertation and worked to collaborate with museums in Europe to complete data collection in creative ways! Amber is a brilliant researcher, and we’re looking forward to reading her upcoming publications!
The last of MSUFAL’s fifth-year PhD candidates is Alex Goots (she/her). This semester, Alex achieved ABD status when she successfully defended her dissertation proposal, entitled “Migration and Health at an Early Middle Ages Cemetery: The Case of Roselle (Tuscany, Italy).” Additionally, she is collaborating with members of the MSUFAL on three upcoming publications, which she hopes to submit this summer. Further, Alex attended a virtual webinar hosted by the Trans Doe Task Force, which focused on the impact of gender identification in forensic cold cases.
Elena Watson (she/her), our lone fourth-year PhD student, also beautifully and successfully defended her dissertation proposal, entitled “A Paleopathological Investigation on the Presence of Malaria in Medieval Nubia and its Skeletal Manifestation.” Additionally, Elena worked on preparing for comprehensive exams, which she will take in the fall. Elena continued her duties as Department Research Assistant, which included assisting with departmental communications and the department newsletter. Finally, Elena ended her tenure as the GSA treasurer this semester. Elena’s strong and steadfast work ethic is evident through her service to the department and our lab, as well as through her amazing proposal defense presentation. We are so grateful for her!
Our amazing third-year PhD student, Micayla Spiros (she/her), is wrapping up her duties as MSUFAL lab manager this semester! Micayla has led our lab through these unprecedented times with her characteristic intelligence, hard work, and immaculate attention to detail. Not only did Micayla manage our lab through a global pandemic, but she also completed her Cultural Heritage Informatics (CHI) Fellowship and developed the 3D MMS Initiative, which serves as a teaching tool focusing on cranial and postcranial variations that are not well represented in digital archives. In addition, Micayla coauthored a presentation with fellow graduate student, Kelly Kamnikar, at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences entitled “Reporting Biases Between Missing Persons and Unidentified Persons in the United States.” Further, Micayla mentored MSU undergraduate Savannah Holcombe on her Dean’s Assistantship/UURAF project. She also ended her year-tenure as the GSA president this semester. Micayla is also training to become the department’s new course assistant for all online Anthropology courses and preparing for her dissertation!
Rhian Dunn (she/her), our second-year PhD student extraordinaire, claims to have had a slow semester, but that is a lie. Rhian took three graduate courses and served as the laboratory TA for an all-online Intro to Forensic Anthropology course. She also worked with the Campus Archaeology Program (CAP) on their artifact of the week series. Finally, she presented at both the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American Association of Physical (Biological) Anthropologists annual meetings. Simultaneously teaching and taking courses virtually during a global pandemic is a particularly unique challenge, and Rhian met these challenges head-on with aplomb!
Hopefully, it is clear how impressive, resilient, kind, and hard-working the members of the MSUFAL have been over the past semester. Although each of us has experienced personal and professional struggles, setbacks, and challenges, we have collectively maintained the excellence that the MSUFAL has come to be known for! We are all looking forward to getting back into the lab and we can’t wait to see you all soon—in person!!
Authored by: Alex Goots
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