Faculty are exploring aspects of Digital Cultural Heritage—the valuing, protection, documentation and understanding of humanity’s shared heritage through application of digital tools, medias and digitally-enabled spaces.
We rely on digital technologies for scholarship, teaching and advancement of anthropological discourse and investigation in Digital Heritage.
- We teach students to use digital tools in their field and laboratory research.
- We support faculty digital projects independent of and in cooperation with the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities.
- We facilitate department-wide digital projects that allow students and faculty to cooperate on common research.
- We explore how such technologies enable a wider and deeper sharing of anthropological findings.
Faculty projects
MayaArch3D
Heather Richards-Rissetto and her team are recreating an ancient Mayan city with virtual reality technology. She co-founded this interdisciplinary project developing a 3D WebGIS that connects 3D models and GIS for studies of ancient Maya architecture and landscapes. Archaeologists, art historians, and cultural resource managers collaborate with experts in remote sensing, 3D modeling, and virtual reality.
Chaco research archive
Carrie Heitman is the director and co-PI for this project that brings together archival resources and current techniques in digital archaeology to advance research on Chaco Canyon, New Mexico - a UNESCO World Heritage Site and National Historical Park.
LandCover 6k North America
LuAnn Wandsnider works with this project, which is part of a larger effort, LandUse 6K, to recruit archaeological, geographical and historical data on land use to correct extant models of anthropogenic land cover. Climate modelers can develop more accurate global climate simulations with better predictive power.
Omaha and Ponca Dictionary
Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, this project continues the work of Mark Awakuni-Swetland (deceased), a dictionary of Omaha and Ponca words with English translations.
Yanomamö database
Through the NSF-funded grant "Demographic and Genealogical Dimensions of Cultural and Biological Success," Raymond Hames and Napoleon Chagnon (U. Missouri) are collaborating to produce a demographic and kinship database of approximately 4,000 Yanomamö to be housed at ICPSR.
Barbuda Research Complex
Sophia Perdikaris is a part of this not-for-profit research facility preserving and conserving heritage and environment through educational initiatives bringing together local stakeholders and international scholars.
Stress in service personnel
Bri Petersen is working on a project with forensic anthropologist Emily Streetman to study skeletal evidence of systematic stress in mid-century American military service personnel.