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Biological Anthropology Research Program

Biological Anthropology Research Program

We are a collegial group of biological anthropologists who collaborate in research and teaching.

Our program offers students the opportunity to study human biology, past and present, using a variety of data, methods, and theoretical orientations in genetics, epidemiology, nutrition, bioarchaeology, and paleopathology.

We are addressing questions about human origins and migration, population structure, health and disease, and human-environment interactions in past and present populations.

There are active research projects in current child health and nutrition and the nexus of diet and maternal-child health in past and contemporary communities, the origins and evolution of pathogens and epidemics, Indigenous health, mammalian phylogeography, molecular anthropology and Roman bioarchaeology.

We have state-of-the-art laboratory facilities in hard tissue thin sectioning, microscopic image analysis, molecular genetics and enjoy collaborations with researchers in Italy, France, England, the Netherlands, Spain, US, Canada, and locally in the City of Hamilton.

The Shelley Saunders/ Koloshuk Family Scholarship

The Shelley Saunders/Koloshuk Family scholarship supports biological anthropology PhD students for 4 years of study with a minimum of $40,000/year (international students) and up to $25,000/year (domestic students).

Apply to our PhD program and you will be automatically considered for the scholarship. There are funds available to assist with lab and fieldwork. Visit our PhD Program page for more information.

Learn more about The Shelley Saunders/Koloshuk Family Scholarship (PDF)

Key Features of the Biological Anthropology Research Program

  • 705: Advanced Skeletal Biology
  • 707: Past Perspectives on Health
  • 708: Anthropology of Infectious Disease
  • 711: Advanced Topics in Physical Anthropology
  • 712: Handling Quantitative Social Science Data: Collection, Analysis, and Interpretation
  • 715: Readings in Physical Anthropology
  • 740: Biocultural Synthesis
  • 744: Ancient Biomolecules and Bioarchaeological Chemistry
  • 745: Topics in Bioarchaeology
  • Emerging infectious disease, epidemiology and paleopathology
  • Diet, nutrition and growth
  • Environment and health
  • Extinctions: human, faunal and microbial
  • Peopling of the New World
  • Demography and paleodemography
  • Modern human origins
  • Molecular anthropology
  • Aboriginal health
  • Bioarchaeology
  • Ancient DNA
  • Evolutionary genetics
  • Coprology
  • Skeletal and dental analysis
  • Anthropometry
  • Community health surveys
  • Archival fieldwork and analysis
  • Palaeopathology
  • Stable isotope analysis
  • Biocultural anthropology
  • Evolutionary theory
  • Epidemiological transition theory
  • Determinants of health
  • Multi-scalar analysis and interpretation

Meet the Biological Anthropology Research Program Team

Tina  Moffat headshot image

Tina Moffat

PhD

Professor, Anthropology
Adjunct & Associate Member, Health, Aging & Society

Hendrik  Poinar headshot image

Hendrik Poinar

PhD

Professor, Anthropology

Associate Member, Biology, Faculty of Science

Joint Appointment, Biochemistry & Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences
Member, Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research (IIDR), Faculty of Health Sciences
Member, Origins Institute, Faculty of Science
Associate Member, Biology, Faculty of Science

Tracy Prowse

PhD

Associate Professor, Anthropology

Associate Editor, American Journal of Biological Anthropology

Amanda Wissler headshot image

Amanda Wissler

PhD

Assistant Professor, Anthropology

D. Ann  Herring headshot image

D. Ann Herring

PhD

Emeritus, Anthropology

Bonnie Kahlon

Lab Technician, Anthropology

McMaster Paleoethnobotanical Research Facility (MPERF)

Melanie Kuch

Research Coordinator, Anthropology

Debi Poinar

Research Assistant, Anthropology

Theses Awarded in Biological Anthropology

Eaton, Katherine
2022 Big Data, Small Microbes: Genomic Analysis of the Plague Bacterium Yersinia Pestis

Avery, Creighton
2022 Coming of Age in the Roman Empire

Murchie, Tyler
2021 Ancient environmental DNA as a means of understanding ecological restructuring during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in Yukon, Canada

East, Kaitlin
2021 Stress, Dying, and Disease: Hair Cortisol Concentration in the Study of Stress at the End of Life in the Past and Present

D’Ortenzio, Lori
2018 Tooth Tales: What Internal Dental Structures Reveal About Visiting Vitamin D Deficiency and Age Estimation

Lockau, Laura
2018 Skeletal evidence for vitamin D deficiency and chronic respiratory infections across the life course at two Roman period sites

Emery, Matthew
2018 Assessing Migration and Demographic Change in pre-Roman and Roman Period Southern Italy Using Whole-Mitochondrial DNA and Stable Isotope Analysis

Gilmour, Rebecca
2017 Resilient Romans: Cross-Sectional Evidence for Long-Term Functional Consequences of Extremity Trauma.

Stark, Robert James
2017 Ancient lives in motion: A Bioarchaeological Examination of Stable Isotopes, Nonmetric Traits, and Human Mobility in an Imperial Roman Context (1ST-3RD C. CE)

Mant, Madeleine
2016 Slips, trips, falls, and brawls: Fractures of the working poor in London during the long eighteenth century

Marciniak, Stephanie-Marie
2016 Scourge of the Empire? Ancient Pathogen Genomics and the Biosocial Context of Malaria in Imperial Period Southern Italy (1st-4th c. A.D.)

Devault, Alison
2014 Genomics of Ancient Pathogenic Bacteria: Novel Techniques & Extraordinary Substrates

Bos, Kirsten
2011 Genetic Investigations into the Black Death

Borisov, Katarina
2023 Breastfeeding, Weaning Practices, and Childhood Diet in Rural Roman Italy

Christenson, Rebecca
2023 Quantifying Age-Related Bone Loss and Vitamin D Deficiency: Exploring Co-Occurrence and Co-Morbidity in Two 18th to 19th Century French-Canadian Communities

Welsh, Hayley
2021 Investing Patterns of Growth and Development in Subadults from the 10th-13th Century Cemetery of St. Etienne de Toulouse, France

Tapson, Madeline
2020 An Analysis of Rodent Reservoirs of Plague During the Second Pandemic: Shifting Focus Towards a Multi-host and Multi-mechanism Model of Plague Maintenance and Reintroduction in the Past

Lamer, Madeleine
2020 Decoding Adolescent Rickets: The Effects of the Environmental and Social Contexts on the Development of Rickets in Adolescents in the Netherlands from the 17th to 19th Centuries

Salahuddin, Hana
2019 Individual Breastfeeding and Weaning Histories in Iron Age South Italy using Stable Isotope Analysis of Incremental Dentine Sections and Bone Collagen

Peacock, Taylor
2019 City, Town and Village: An Intra and Inter Site Analysis of Long Bone and Rib Fractures at Five Settlements in the Western Roman Empire

Smith, Taylor
2018 Individual breastfeeding and weaning histories in a 19th century Spanish sample using stable isotope analysis of incremental dentine sections

Jennings, Emma
2017 Analysis of Trauma Patterns and Post-Traumatic Time Interval in a Late Romano-British and Spanish Context

Avery, L Creighton
2016 An Analysis of Dental Health in Relation to Sex and Social Status at Roman Winchester

Wei, Xuan
2016 An evaluation of “old age” traits in transition analysis and mandibular ridge resorption in age estimation of older individuals

Semchuk, Lisa
2016 A Stable Isotope Investigation of Diet at Vagnari

Timmins, Sarah
2016 Subadult Growth and Rickets from a Late Roman and Merovingian Period Context in Lisieux, France

Ingram, Joelle
2015 Activity and Aging in Adult Males: Investigation of Entheses and Cortical Bone from the Site of Lisieux-Michelet in Northern France

Schattmann, Annabelle F.
2015 The Co-Occurrence of Scurvy and Rickets in 16th to 18th Century Skeletal Material from Douai, France

Casaca, Lia
2014 Taphonomy: What About the Small Bones, Long Bones, and Cranial Bones? A Study of the Representation and Weathering of Human Remains from the Battle of Stoney Creek during the War of 1812

D’Ortenzio, Lori L.
2013 You are not what you eat during stress: An Isotopic Evaluation of Human Hair from Belleville, Ontario

Emery, Matthew
2012 A Stable Isotopic Invesigation of the Smith’s Knoll Sample

Lockau, Laura
2012 Bioarchealogical Analysis of Trauma in an Skeletal sample from Smith’s Knoll Historic Cemetary