I am a former criminal attorney turned archaeologist; I leverage the deep-time perspective archaeology provides us with to try to understand how humans have adapted (or failed to adapt) to some of its greatest challenges: 

• What factors lead to the emergence and persistence of violence and social inequality?
• How does stress and malnutrition in childhood shape experiences and opportunities in adulthood?
• What causes people to migrate, and how does migration shape the health and risk for violence for people on the move?
• How did environmental and climatic changes impact social life, health, and mobility in the past?
• And most importantly, how can these insights from the past contribute to collaborative solution-building to addess the social and environmental stresses we face today or will face in the future? 

I address these questions through a combination of bioarchaeological, isotopic, and geospatial methods applied to skeletons and artifacts in the pre-Hispanic Andes. I work at three scales of analysis: 

• Individual life courses: Isobiographies (life-long dietary and residential histories from stable and/or radiogenic isotopes) and paleopathological analysis of tissues allow me to reconstruct major changes in an individual's life trajectory.
• Excavation of archaeological sites: Site-level analysis helps me contextual skeletal individuals and artifacts in light of local and regional patterns. I currently focus my excavation and osteological analysis on Early Intermediate Period to Late Intermediate Period sites in southern Peru (Arequipa).  
• Regional meta-analyses: Aggregating skeletal, archaeological, and environmental data from throughout the Andes and South America sheds light on patterns in disease (spatial paleopathology), violent conflict, diet, and mobility that can illuminate trends not visible at the site and individual levels. I am particularly interested in examining relationships between these variables at a global scale. 

Prospective students and collaborators should contact me to discuss projects in other time periods, world regions, or methods.