Anthropology research around the globe
Wayne State’s anthropology faculty always have their hands in interesting projects to advance their knowledge in their specialties. Two of our faculty, Drs. Jaymelee Kim and Tamara Bray, spent their summers abroad working in Uganda and Ecuador, respectively.
Dr. Jaymelee Kim in Uganda
A forensic human rights anthropologist, Dr. Kim conducted fieldwork in northern Uganda as part of a long-term community-engaged research project that began over 10 years ago. Kim and her collaborators are working with war survivors to identify social, spiritual, economic and forensic concerns associated with the myriad mass, unmarked or otherwise improperly structured graves.
At the same time, the inter-institutional research team has consulted with diverse stakeholders, including forensic scientists, members of government and non-governmental organizations to assess forensic capacity within Uganda and Tanzania and to offer forensic anthropology training to interested parties. In addition to forensic sensitization and training, the research team has also provided participating communities with site maps they created of burials and socially relevant locations and copies of their research-related publications.
In the future, Kim and her co-principal investigator, Dr. Tricia Redeker Hepner (Arizona State University), plan to publish a book that uniquely focuses on forensic anthropology and spirits of the dead as a conclusion for this phase of the project.
Dr. Tamara Bray in Ecuador
Dr. Bray was engaged as a Fulbright specialist at the Yachay Archaeological Museum at Yachay Tech University in the small town of Urcuqui. The Fulbright specialist program supports senior scholars who travel to other institutions around the world to share their expertise.
At the Yachay Museum, Bray worked with the collections team to research and reassemble the original contexts of their archaeological holdings and help develop plans for a new installation at the museum. Anthropology graduate student Gabriela Lloyd Perez also completed an internship at the Yachay Museum during this period in partial fulfillment of the requirements for her Graduate Certificate in Museum Practice.
After her Fulbright ended, Bray moved south to continue work on her archaeological project in San Miguel de Porotos, Ecuador. Her research in this region centers on Inca pottery production, non-local craft specialists resettled here by the Inca and the relations between imperial pottery producers and local potters. This summer, she and her co-principal investigator, Franco-Ecuadorian scholar Catherine Lara, completed the lab analysis of the ceramics recovered last season and prepared the first in a series of planned articles that they submitted to Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.
Gabriela, who had participated in excavations here in previous seasons, returned with Bray's team to San Miguel as well this summer. As part of their commitment to community engagement, Gabi worked on developing a prototype for a new culture and history virtual museum for San Miguel Parish that showcases the archaeology and the local pottery-making tradition.
The virtual museum will go live on the municipal government’s website in November. Dr. Bray rounded out her summer research and travel with a trip to Cusco, Peru, to participate in an international conference on the Inca and visit several ongoing archaeological projects.
