Profile

I am an archaeologist investigating ancient human-environment interactions and cultural niche construction in early East Asia. My work deals primarily with the transition from hunting and gathering to dependence on farming for food, and has been featured in media outlets ranging from scientific journals to NPR. My topical interests include paleoethnobotany, phylogenetics of crops, traditional farming technologies, ideology of food, cultural landscape of early agricultural societies, island archaeology, and quantitative archaeology. While focused in Asia, my research spans the globe, and I have led archaeological projects and participated in excavations in Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, Korea, and Vietnam. Since 2007 I have been based at the University of Oregon, in Eugene, as a member of the faculty of Anthropology