National Lecture Program

AIA Lecturer: Jane Buikstra

Affiliation: Arizona State University

Jane Ellen Buikstra is a prominent American anthropologist and bioarchaeologist. She is credited with coining and defining bioarchaeology in the US as the application of biological anthropological methods to the study of archaeological problems. Emphasis was placed on problem-oriented research. Relevant topics include mortuary studies, paleopathology, paleodemography, biological distance, paleogenetics, among others.

She obtained a Bachelors degree in Anthropology from DePauw University, Indiana in 1967 and her Masters and Doctorate degrees, also in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. She is a Diplomate for the American Board of Forensic Anthropology and sat on the Board of Directors for the year 1999 – 2000. She has served as faculty at Northwestern University, University of Chicago, and the University of New Mexico. Buikstra was previously Leslie Spier Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. She currently serves a professor and director of the Center for Bioarchaeological Research, a unit within the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. Buikstra is also President of the Board of Directors of the Center for American Archeology in Kampsville, Illinois.

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