InnoAnth Lab Membership

Forensic Anthropology, Human Rights, Decolonial Anthropology

This semester I will primarily be focusing on research for my Mexican American culture class. These projects include researching the life and contributions of border icons, as well as creating an ethnographic account of the experiences and lives of those living in la frontera.

Cultural heritage; Preservation; Museum Collection and Curation; Accessibility

I am currently enrolled in the Locally Engaged Research course in which our class will be participating in a semester long research project. From this, we will using qualitative research tools such as interviews, surveys, and participant observation.

Linguistics\ Phonetics,- C-V Coarticulation, Socio-Cultural Studies, Peoples & Cultures of Africa

Medical Anthropology, Public Health, Women's Health, Women's Reproductive Health and Infant Health, Menstruation, Health Policy

I intend to study Women's reproductive health in my dissertation. Having lived in multiple countries, my research interest arose from my personal experience and interest. The socio-cultural aspects I have seen in my country, where women's lives are considered private, and women's health is always less prioritized than men's health, as well as having recently experienced severe postpartum depression without any treatment or support from health care providers, piqued my future interest in advancing my research career in a women's reproductive health.

I think I will learn the anthropology research methods by using the lab. In a co-working space, the lab has many potentials to offer fellow students proper methods and ideas for doing actual research, which will help me a lot. Additionally, there is a lot of equipment available in the lab, which will help me to create my class projects like podcasts or Zine. Also, as a lab staff, I will be helping other students by mentoring and guidance.

Primate Ecology, Conservation, Genetics, Nutrition, Ethology, Parasitology, Microbiomes, Immunology, Human-Primate Interactions, Biological Anthropology, Ecological Anthropology

This semester, I will be developing the foundation of my dissertation research on primate ecology and conservation, with a focus on genetics and nutrition. I aim to explore how dietary patterns and genetic diversity influence primate health, adaptation, and resilience. My work will integrate ecological observations with molecular approaches to better understand the links between nutrition, genetics, and conservation outcomes. Through the lab, I hope to refine my methods, engage in interdisciplinary conversations, and build innovative strategies for communicating my findings.

Latinz Studies, San Marcos Community, Cultural Anthropology

I will be researching the San Pedro Cemetery, the San Marcos community, and coffee culture in San Marcos. We will be conducting lots of field activities, including interviews, data collection, and data analysis. Right now, we are just learning more about the communities and how to take notes; we have not gone over specifically what we will be doing. I know I need the lab to check out different kinds of equipment. For the San Pedro Cemetery, we will be conducting interviews and reviewing old interviews, and conducting more data collection.

Vulnerability, social support/social network, gender, disaster, law

As internship director, I'm envisioning building connections and relationships with community organizations and exploring partnerships with the Innovative Anthropology Lab. In the future, I'd also like to explore the possibility of a podcast to encourage applied experiences in our program.

Queer Kinship and Relationships; LGBTQ+, Feminism

I hope to learn about queer culture in how kinship and relationships work within said groups. This will be a thesis/dissertation that I'm working under Dr. Villarreal. During my research I hope to learn how these kinships function and perceived within and outside of LGBTQ+ groups. I plan to make this into a video for YouTube so that my research can be accessible to everyone.

Conflict Archaeology, Medical Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Peace

I'm enrolled in ANTH 3336, Locally Engaged Research, and will be working with the San Marcos community in regards to the people who rest in the San Pedro cemetery here. We'll be in groups, learning about the history of not just the people there but the city as a whole, and using qualitative research methods to speak and work alongside community members, record their words, and learn about the ancestors and descendants of people buried, sometimes unnamed, in San Marcos. We'll also be volunteering during the Dia de Los Muertos event in November.

Naval archaeology, drug history, music anthropology, social justice studies

I am in the locally engaged research class and we are doing a research project with descendants of those buried in San Pedro Cemetery. We will conduct this work as a team to hopefully work on our skills as researchers and to learn more about the community.

Cultural Anthropology, Mexican American Studies, Cultural studies, Diversity Studies

I will be recording and documenting interview sessions with community members of San Marcos, working with families during the Dia de los Muertos event at the San Pedro cemetery as well as gathering qualitative data based on the interactions and spoken responses of the community members involved.

I will be working on the San Pedro Cemetery Project interviewing families of the people buried there.

Applied Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, Global Health, Human-centred design.

My interest is in utilizing the tools to help my learning in my class work and dissertation, such as use of visual anthropology techniques, making podcasts, posters. I'm also curious about what other team members are working on and the strategies they are using.

Forensic Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, and Biological Anthropology

How to create an engaging website for diverse audience communicating aspects of my dissertation. So far, I’ve attempted to develop websites using WordPress and googling questions as needed. However, I would ultimately like to present this website so working with other lab members would help greatly improve the quality of this proposed website well beyond my previous attempts.

Participatory Research, Anthropology Research Project, Local Communities

I will be conducting demographic and archival research using primary and secondary sources. I will be conducting community-based participatory research within the community of San Marcos.

Linguistic Anthropology, Word Relationship, Cognates, Cross Languaging Skills, Language Acquisition

I intend to begin researching the Purepecha word association with items present within the natural environment and word association with the same or similar items represented in art. An example would be a photograph of a star or stars and an artistic representation of the same thing. Are the same words chosen and how do these words imply cultural understanding of their environment. I will also look for the similar usage in distant cultures as a comparison.

Veterans, Latinas in the Military, Mexican American Studies, Mexico, Gender and Identity

I am currently engaged in data analysis for a border project. I am considering utilizing Atlas-ti for qualitative data analysis, as well as various recording devices to capture oral histories. I am also teaching this semester's locally engaged research class, leading the San Pedro Cemetery Project.

Medical Anthropology, Queer Studies, Gender Studies, Health Equity, SRHR, Substance abuse

This semester, I plan to conduct a workshop focused on using software for qualitative data analysis, such as Atlas.ti, NVivo, and MAXQDA. The goal is to provide members of the Innovative Anthropology lab and students with hands-on demonstrations and practical skills for analyzing qualitative data using these tools. Additionally, I will arrange workshop on citation management software, including Mendeley and EndNote, to help students and members to use referencing of academic sources ethically.
 

Food System Inequalities, Latinx Studies, African American Studies

In our ANTH 3336 class, we will be working with community partner Dr. Ana Juarez to conduct observational research and interviews with those with ties to the San Pedro Cemetery so we can best respect, preserve, and learn from their family experiences.

Olmec Iconography, Mesoamerican and North American Belief Systems, and General Mesoamerican Archaeology

My current research focuses on Olmec iconography, Mesoamerican archaeology, and indigenous belief systems. My research explores the concept of the World Tree throughout the chronology of Mesoamerica. The ideological concept of the World Tree can be found in ancient and living cultures throughout the world. Many cultures located in Mexico and Mesoamerica have incorporated this tradition in their ancient indigenous art, ceremonies, and recorded oral histories. The ideology of a culture may evolve or transform due to internal and external factors over time, however sacred principles can be hidden in plain sight or be kept secret by those who protect these ancient practices.

Cultural Anthropology, European Archaeology, AI, Law

I'm studying the past residents of San Marcos through the graves at San Pedro’s Cemetery, which serve as an enduring archive of community history. Each headstone provides valuable information such as names, birth and death dates, epitaphs, and religious or cultural symbols. By carefully recording these details, we can reconstruct family ties, social status, and migration patterns that shaped the community over time. For example, clusters of graves belonging to the same surname may reveal extended kinship networks, while iconography such as crosses, angels, or indigenous motifs can shed light on the blending of cultural traditions in San Marcos. However, the written record alone cannot tell the full story without interviews.
 

Economic Anthropology, Organizational Anthropology, Social Work and Anthropology, Intersectional Science and Technology Studies, Intersectional Medical Anthropology, Lopsided Imaginations

This semester, I plan to use the lab to explore qualitative art based methods and how I can integrate art based methods into my research. I would like to join the lab and the lab community to explore and develop my research dissertation topic as a first year PhD cultural anthropology student!

Fun fact: As an MA student in 2021-2022, Kayli was one of the first two lab staffers and helped build the lab that we all enjoy today! Welcome back, Kayli!

Sustainability, harm reduction, conservation, food justice, film, ethnography 

My research is currently over investigating alternative restaurant models and nonprofit land management income strategies for my graduate thesis. My hope is to identify a mutually beneficial relationship between a restaurant model that is a non-profit and a nature preserve, where profits can go towards supporting a wildlife conservation/land management effort.

I am interested in how translations (especially German to English translations) change the reception and impact of narratives. I am also interested in the cultural influence of heroic epics, as well as the application of gender studies in Aegean prehistory.

I will be using the lab to support current research I am undertaking that is examining the reception of classical texts like the Iliad and the Odyssey, and how translations can influence the modern reader's perception of different characters, cultural values, etc. I hope to use the lab's resources to support an iconographic analysis I am pursuing as well.

Applied Anthropology, Border studies, Ethnographic research, Latinx Studies

I will be working on my thesis proposal this semester. It will be about issues with the identification of those who die trying to cross the border in Eagle Pass, TX. Ethnographic research will be used in my thesis to help better understand why these issues are happening. 

Maya, anthropology of religion, culture, theory, and field research methods

Cultural Anthropology, Biological Anthropology, Genetic Anthropology, Forensic Anthropology, and Geoarchaeology

My research this semester will be preparing me to soon complete my capstone project in Anthropology. For this project I would like to examine the impact of cultural and biological evolution on the female gender pertaining to the womb from a cross cultural perspective. I hope to spend the semester refining my topic, preparing a literature review, creating a research plan, and seeking project mentorship.

Forensic Anthropology, Feminism, Linguistic Anthropology, Biological Anthropology

This semester my class will be locally engaged research. Our project this semester is to help Dr. Juarez and the community identify unknown San Marcos Mexicans who were never properly identified and help provide them with a proper identification so that one day their families can, hopefully, put them to rest. Additionally, we will write and photograph our research to help Dr. Juarez achieve this. Our professor mentioned putting our work in the San Marcos library in 2026 and I want to be able to ensure that I have the best study methods at my finger tips and feel confident in my research and any work put out that may be regarding that. I never want to slack when it comes to my research or work. Using all tools provided is essential.

Religious studies, social justices, folklore, feminism, and representation in media.

I would like to put together a video series of anthropology topics in the news or a documentary about superstitions and hometown myths. I believe that if there were more options to interact with the knowledge in the anthropology field, the participation would expand.

medical anthropology, forensic anthropology, biological anthropology,  and applied anthropology

This semester, I hope to continue my research regarding the nursing shortages within the United States. Currently, I am combing through the available literature in order to craft a scoping review. I also wish to use this lab to work on different class projects and, when I have a better idea of what it will be, my graduate thesis. 

Anthropology of Education, Medical Anthropology, Mental health, Asian Studies, Accessibility

I am interested in how people learn and function in educational spaces. I am passionate about helping students learn how they can be more successful in school. I am interested in learning more about using Canva in the classroom as an educator and as a student to help accomplish these goals.

Forensic Anthropology, Humanitarian Work, Migration, Latinx Studies, Ethnography

I will be researching first gen grad students and their sense of belonging compared to non first gen grad students for Dr. Taylor's class. For my dissertation, I am researching missing persons reports, concentrating on missing migrants, and standardization.

African studies, English language hegemony, language attitudes and identity, multilingualism, post-colonialism, sociocultural and linguistic anthropology

My aim is to develop the linguistic perspective in the InnoAnth Lab and the department as a whole by emphasizing the imperative role language plays in social and cultural research. I will be utilizing my background in phonetics and sociolinguistics to develop ethnographic resources such as fieldwork and language documentation tools, methods for interviews and cross-cultural communication, and guides for digital behavioral data collection and analysis.

Language, gender, and identity; teasing and gossip practices; childhood obesity and body image; adolescent and emerging adult health; youth and social media; ethnographic and applied research methods; contemporary U.S. and educational research settings

feminism, oral histories, deadheads, fan and music culture, business anthropology, applied anthropology, cultural anthropology, archives, gender studies

I will be starting to develop my thesis idea and begin working on my proposal. The lab space is an excellent location to work on projects away from more crowded areas on campus as well as within Evans. For my thesis, I want to incorporate some type of visual data collection, but have no previous experience. This isn't something taught in class. I know the InnoAnth lab has tools to assist me as I learn this form of data collection new to me. 

Director of the Innovative Anthropologies Lab

science and technology studies (STS); feminist STS; business anthropology, design anthropology, applied anthropology; innovation; entrepreneurship; technologies; design; futures and foresight; expertise; ignorance and agnotology; and infrastructure

Cultural Anthropology, Marriage, Gender, Kinship, Design Anthropology, STS, Screen, Interface, Virtual Ethnography

An Anthropological study of Screen and Interface in the context of Indian matrimony: Studying matrimonial (marriage) websites can reveal how design gets integrated into social norms of kinship, gender, religion, caste, and so on. I'd be looking at how technology gets socially appropriated, how it mediates intimate relations, and how 'technology in use’ is different from ‘technology in design'.

sanctuary movements, place justice and restorative practices, queer/trans studies

Monuments and place names as they relate to ethnic conflict, social justice, and truth and reconciliation processes in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I am also making a documentary and writing ethnography about Chicanx drag king culture as spiritual activism with a group in San Antonio called Los MENtirosos.  
 

West African economies, merchants, veterans of colonial armies, Islam in West African society, history of theory in anthropology, pedagogic methods