Allison Mickel

Allison Mickel is the Class of 1961 Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, and Director of Global Studies at Lehigh University. She received her PhD in anthropology from Stanford University in 2016 and her BA from The College of William and Mary in 2011. Her research focuses on how local communities have impacted and been affected by archaeological work. By interviewing current and former site workers employed on archaeological projects, and utilizing statistical and visual methods like social network analysis, Allison Mickel maps, measures, illustrates, transcribes, outlines, and stipples the roles that local community members play in the processes of archaeological knowledge production. She has excavated in Jordan, Turkey, Kenya, and the United States. Mickel is the author of two books: Why Those Who Shovel are Silent, and Archaeologists as Authors and the Stories of Sites. She is now writing her third book, which investigates new strategies being used in Jordan to ensure fair labor conditions on archaeological excavations and elevate local expertise in cultural heritage. In addition to her scholarly work advocating for more inclusive practices in archaeology, Allison Mickel is also an active public anthropologist, writing for newspapers and online platforms, volunteering with the organization Skype a Scientist, reviewing educational material for organizations like the Boy Scouts of America, and organizing annual outreach events with local public schools for Anthropology Day. She is an avid audiobook listener, reality television viewer, native plant gardener, sparkling wine sipper, and thrift shopper. She will pet any dog anytime, anywhere, and most likely still hasn't unpacked from her last trip.

Suzanne Pilaar Birch

Dr. Suzanne Pilaar Birch is an archaeologist whose work advances our understanding of human resilience to climate and environmental change in prehistory. She holds a B.Sc. in Evolutionary Anthropology and Human Paleoecology from Rutgers University, and an MPhil in Archaeological Science and PhD in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University before joining the University of Georgia, where she is an associate professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Geography.

Dr. Pilaar Birch combines the study of animal bones and biogeochemistry to investigate changes in diet, mobility, and settlement systems in the period spanning the end of the last ice age through the spread of agricultural lifestyles in the circum-Mediterranean region. Her research has taken her from Turkey to Croatia, Kazakhstan, China, Italy, Cyprus, and most recently, Jordan; she has visited 27 countries across six continents in the course of her career.

She wrote and recorded the 20-episode series Early Humans: Ice, Stone, and Survival, now streaming on Wondrium and available as an audiobook on Audible. She has published over 35 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and been awarded over half a million dollars in research funding from sources including the National Science Foundation, National Geographic, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council of the UK. She edited the book Multispecies Archaeology and is currently writing two popular audience books, Animal Bone Detectives (MIT Kids/Candlewick Press) and Life Before Agriculture (Princeton University Press).

She is one of the co-founders of the non-profit organization TrowelBlazers (www.trowelblazers.com), which highlights the contributions of women, past and present, in archaeology, paleontology, and geology.

Don Wilson

Don Wilson is Curator Emeritus of Mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and was named senior scientist in January 2000. Don was director of the Smithsonian's Biodiversity Programs for ten years. A distinguished mammalogist and an internationally recognized authority on bats, he earned his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of New Mexico. He is the author of over 280 scientific publications and 30 books, including the highly acclaimed 9-volume series Handbook of Mammals of the World. For the last 50 years, his work has taken him around the world conducting field work and research. He has led tours for Smithsonian Journeys to most of the world's greatest natural history destinations, from Antarctica to Zimbabwe. Don loves to share his passion for the natural world, and his easygoing nature, sense of humor, and excellent presentations have earned him much praise and a loyal following from Smithsonian travelers.

Nam C. Kim

Nam C. Kim is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the current Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies on its campus. He holds degrees in anthropology (PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago), political science (MA, New York University) and international relations (BA, University of Pennsylvania). Prior to beginning a career in academia, Nam worked in a variety of nonprofit- and private-sector settings in Philadelphia, New York City, and San Francisco.

As an anthropological archaeologist, his research deals with early complex societies and the significance of the material past for modern-day stakeholders. He is especially interested in humanity’s global history of organized violence and warfare. Nam has conducted fieldwork in parts of the US, Mesoamerica, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Since 2005 he has been conducting archaeological fieldwork in Vietnam at the Co Loa settlement in the Red River Delta. A heavily fortified site located near modern-day Hanoi, Co Loa is connected to Vietnamese legendary accounts and is viewed as an important foundation for Vietnamese culture. He is currently beginning a new project examining the material remains and cultural legacies of “Operation New Life,” which was an American military operation in 1975 that helped resettle thousands of refugees at the end of the Vietnam War.

Nam’s work has been featured in various podcast interviews and a documentary (on the History Hit website). He has also authored several articles and books. The Origins of Ancient Vietnam (2015) provides a glimpse into the foundations of Vietnamese civilization, as seen through the archaeological record. Emergent Warfare in Our Evolutionary Past (2018, co-authored with Marc Kissel) provides a comprehensive view on the origins of war within the history of humanity. It seeks to answer the questions about how far back in time we can see warfare, and whether or not organized violence is somehow innate within our species.

Janet Duncan Jones

Janet Duncan Jones, Professor Emerita of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Bucknell University, is an archaeologist with over 40 years‘ experience in the field. She has participated in excavation projects in Turkey, Greece, Tunisia, and Jordan. Her experience as a glassblower out of college ignited a career long research interest in preindustrial technologies and the lives of early craft workers. While living in villages in the Middle East she became interested in the impacts of preindustrial technologies on the ancient environment and the evolution of cultural landscapes. Her publications include studies of the ancient glass from sites in Turkey and Jordan, and synthetic considerations of the landscape of ancient ruins and of the messages and impacts of ancient mega-engineering projects. Recently she has focused her work on the impact of the Moors in southern Spain on urbanism, architecture, technology, and intellectual history.

Janet has lived in Turkey and Greece, and has traveled widely with an eye toward the messages that landscapes send us about the values and concerns of past peoples. She holds degrees from the College of William and Mary and from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she also acquired a devotion to ACC basketball. She lives in the mountains of central Pennsylvania with her geographer husband and hounds descended from those she originally imported from the Euphrates Valley in southeastern Turkey. 

Peter Bobrowsky

Peter Bobrowsky is a professional archaeologist and geologist with 40 years of experience working as a scholar, consultant, teacher and researcher across the world. His publication record approaches 500 contributions including 20 technical books. Dr. Bobrowsky is the recipient of numerous awards and boasts a prominent history of international positions and appointments. A popular global speaker for the past 25 years, he remains a much sought after and well-liked lecturer for the Smithsonian since 2004 having led dozens of tours to all 7 continents. His multi-disciplinary background, active field studies and extensive travel to over 110 countries contribute to his unique, informative and enthusiastic speaking style. A born extrovert, with an easy-going manner, Peter strives to understand and explain the crucial links between a diverse and dynamically changing Earth and the evolution and adaptation of cultures, societies and individuals over time.

Katryn Wiese

Katryn Wiese is a professor of geology, paleontology, and oceanography with 30 years of experience in research, teaching, field explorations, and community outreach. She studied at Caltech, Oregon State University, and Stanford University, and focused her early research on volcanic processes in Iceland, Hawaii, the seafloor around the Azores and the Galápagos Islands, and the tablelands of Eastern Australia. She has journeyed around the world as a scientist and field guide, gaining field expertise across the Americas, Antarctica, the Arctic, Australia, and the islands of the Pacific. 

Katryn’s primary focus is engaging students of all ages and backgrounds in exploring natural phenomena, from reading the stories in the rocks to evaluating the impact of the Earth and its oceans on our climate, culture, and society. She shares that work through her Earth Rocks! YouTube video channel, her library of open-source earth science lessons and lab manuals, and also thorugh the “Story of Time and Life”—a four-floor exhibit of dinosaurs, fossils, and meteorites that she installed and curates at City College of San Francisco in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences. She recently joined the faculty at the College of San Mateo, near her home on the edge of the San Francisco Bay. Katryn is an avid hiker and kayaker, and is most at home outdoors exploring erupting volcanoes, glacially carved fjords, fossil-and-mineral-rich cliffs, and majestic mountains and coastlines that are off the beaten path.