UMass Boston

Faculty & Staff

Anthropology Department Faculty

 

Ping-Ann Addo
Department Chair, Associate Professor of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.6845
ping-ann.addo@umb.edu

Expertise: Socio-cultural anthropology, Tongan/Pacific Islander material culture, and
contemporary cultural migration to New Zealand and the U.S.

 

Daniela Balanzátegui
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.6851
Daniela.Balanzategui@umb.edu

Expertise: Archaeology of the African Diaspora in Latin America, Community-based
and Collaborative Archaeology, History of Slavery and Racial Thinking
in Latin America, Afro-descendant Women and Archaeology.

 

Jean-Philippe Belleau
Associate Professor of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.794.5998
Jeanphilippe.Belleau@umb.edu

Expertise: Lowland indigenous societies, hunters-gatherers, human rights, anthropology
of becoming, Amerindian perspectivism, mass violence, Brazilian cinema,
raw art

 

Douglas Bolender
Research Assistant Professor of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.6828
Douglas.Bolender@umb.edu

Expertise: Archaeology of the North Atlantic, landscapes and geographic information
systems, property and social inequality, Viking Age and medieval archaeology.

 

Patrick Clarkin
Associate Professor of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617-287-6858
Patrick.Clarkin@umb.edu

Expertise: Biocultural and evolutionary models in anthropology, effects of war on
nutrition and growth; developmental origins of chronic disease; SE Asian diaspora

 

Christopher Fung
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.6845
Christopher.Fung@umb.edu

Expertise: Race, nationalism, hybridity, museums, settler societies, archaeology,
Mesoamerica, United States, Hawai`i, China and Sub-Saharan Africa

 

Eric Michael Kelley
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

N/A
Eric.Kelley@umb.edu

 

Nedra Lee
Associate Professor of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.5177
nedra.lee@umb.edu

Expertise: Historical archaeology, African Diaspora, Critical Race Theory,
and Intersectionality

 

Jose E. Martinez-Reyes
Associate Professor of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts and School for the Environment

617.287.4871
Jose.Martinez-Reyes@umb.edu

Expertise: Environmental Anthropology, Political Ecology, Agroforestry, Biocultural Diversity Conservation,
Material Culture, Social and Critical Theory, Ecomusicology,
Mexico, Caribbean, Fiji, Galicia

 

Stephen Mrozowski
University Professor of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.6842
Stephen.Mrozowski@umb.edu

Expertise: Social theory, historical archaeology, environmental and urban archaeology

 

Rosalyn Negrón
Associate Professor of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.6812
Rosalyn.Negron@umb.edu

Expertise: Major areas & specializations: Urban anthropology, linguistic anthropology,
medical anthropology, United States, Latinos, diversity, ethno-racial relations, immigration,
health disparities, research methods, social networks. Other major interests: language &
identity, decision-making, equity in STEM, climate equity, transdisciplinarity, public
policy, documentary filmmaking.

 

James Pasto
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617-287-6855
james.pasto@umb.edu

Expertise: Religion, language, ethnicity, archaeology and nationalism in the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict, Orientalism and post-colonialism, American-Italian studies

 

Meredith Reiches
Associate Professor of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.5752
Meredith.Reiches@umb.edu

Expertise: Biocultural anthropology, feminist science studies, human life history,
evolutionary and literary narrative

 

John Schoenfelder
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617-287-6846
John.Schoenfelder@umb.edu

Expertise: Prehistoric and historical archaeology, complex societies, agriculture, ideology,
GIS, aerial photography

 

Rita Shepard
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.6846
Rita.Shepard@umb.edu

Expertise: Arctic and subarctic archaeology, ethnohistory, historical archaeology,
colonialism and culture contact, household archaeology, gender

 

Stephen Silliman
Professor of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.6854
Stephen.Silliman@umb.edu

Expertise: Historical archaeology, colonialism, identity, labor, collaborative methods with
indigenous communities, North American archaeology.

 

Lauren Sullivan
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.6855
Lauren.Sullivan@umb.edu

Expertise: Mesoamerican Archaeology; Maya lowlands; development of complex society;
ceramic analysis

 

Elizabeth Sweet
Associate Professor of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

N/A
Elizabeth.Sweet@umb.edu

Expertise: Biocultural Anthropology

 

Amy Todd
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.6828
Amy.Todd@umb.edu

Expertise: Urban anthropology, marketplace systems in Oaxaca, Mexico, Mesoamerica,
biological anthropology

 

Alan Waters
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.6855
Alan.Waters@umb.edu

Expertise: Ethnomusicology, the anthropology of art and religion, Africa, the Caribbean,
and contemporary American culture, as well as the history of social theory

 

J. Cedric Woods
Director, Institute for New England Native American Studies
Director, Critical Ethnic and Community Studies Program

617.287.5784
Cedric.Woods@umb.edu

Expertise: Tribal government, American Indian education, economic development,
chronic disease prevention

 

Barbara Worley
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.6851
barbara.worley@umb.edu

Expertise: Africa and Islamic societies; Sahel, Sahara, North Africa, West Africa; Tuareg pastoral nomads; asymmetric warfare; climate change; biological anthropology; linguistics; gender, ethnicity, race; religion, ritual; classical civilizations.

 

Fiske Center Staff

Christa Beranek
Research Scientist I for the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research,
Department of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts


617.287.6859
Christa.Beranek@umb.edu

Expertise: Eastern North American material culture studies, vernacular architecture,
and archaeological writing.

 

David Landon
Associate Director of the Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research, Department
of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts


617-287-6835
David.Landon@umb.edu

Expertise: Archaeology of historic and industrial sites, environmental archaeology,
zooarchaeology, and archaeological science

 

Dennis Piechota
Archaeological Conservator of the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research, Department
of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts


617-287-6829
Dennis.Piechota@umb.edu

Expertise: Conservation, micro-analysis, soil micromorphology

 

Virginia Popper
Anthropology Department, College of Liberal Arts

N/A
virginia.popper@umb.edu

Expertise: Paleoethnobotany

 

John Steinberg
Research Scientist II for the Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research,
Department of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts


617.287.6824
John.Steinberg@umb.edu

Expertise: Prehistoric and historic archaeology, economic anthropology, methodology,
regional analysis, remote sensing; Northern Europe, Northeast US

 

Heather Trigg
Research Scientist II in the Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research,
Department of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts


617.287.6838
Heather.Trigg@umb.edu

Expertise: Social and economic effects of colonization, paleoethnobotany

 

Emeritae & Retired Faculty

Tim Sieber
Professor of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617-287-6853
Tim.Sieber@umb.edu

Expertise: Childhood, urban anthropology, applied anthropology, the culture history of
Amazonia, and immigrant and minority education.

 

Maria Idalí Torres
Associate Professor of Anthropology

617.287.5790
Idali.Torres@umb.edu

 

Judith Zeitlin
Professor Emerita of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts

617.287.6836
Judith.Zeitlin@umb.edu

Expertise: Archaeology - Prehistoric and historical archaeology, ethnohistory, complex
societies, New World colonialism. Geographical area: Mesoamerica, Andean
South America.

 

 

Staff

Administrative and Support Staff

Melody Henkel
Office Location: McCormack Hall 02-331
Phone: 617.287.6833

MA, University of Massachusetts Boston
Laboratory Coordinator in the Anthropology Department and the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research.

Melody received a BFA in Graphic Design with a concentration in photography from Southeastern Massachusetts University in 1980. She received a BS in public archaeology with a minor in earth sciences from Bridgewater State College in 1992. She began working for the Anthropology Department while working on her MA in historical archaeology at UMass Boston. She received her MA in 2001. She brings her skills of design and photography along with public and historical archaeology to her job as lab manager for the Anthropology Department.

Dagny McKinley
Office Location: McCormack Hall M-04-434
Phone: 617.287.6851
Administrative Assistant, Department of Anthropology

Dagny received a B.A. in Psychology in 2022 from the University of Connecticut.

Marisa D. Patalano
Office Location: McCormack Hall M-01-517
Phone: 617.287.6856
Graduate Program Coordinator, Historical Archaeology, Department of Anthropology

Marisa received a B.A. in History and Archaeology in 2005 and an M.A. in Historical Archaeology in 2009, both at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is passionate about recruitment planning and outreach, dedicated to ensuring positive cohort experience and retention, and committed to providing quality student support.