Profile

Dr. Giovas is an environmental archaeologist specializing in the zooarchaeology and human paleoecology of island and coastal settings, particularly the Caribbean and Oceania. Her research draws on behavioral ecology, historical ecology, and the biological sciences to investigate subsistence, sustainable resource use, landscape history, migration and colonization, and anthropogenic environmental impacts. These topics are tied to broader anthropological interests in forager adaptations and human responses to environmental change. Currently, Dr. Giovas is the Visiting Scholar with the Center for Comparative Archaeology at the University of Pittsburgh where she leads a research program investigating the role of exotic animal introductions in prehistoric island colonization and long-term adaptation by humans. She is also collaborating with UO faculty and students on several projects involving human ecodynamics and resource intensification in the Grenadine Islands, West Indies and Palau, Micronesia. Dr. Giovas has conducted field work in the Caribbean, Polynesia, France, the Northwest Coast, and Ontario. She is the Book Editor for the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology.