Intercultural and Anthropological Studies

A researcher taking a hard look at a tablet with a magnifying glass

Institute for Intercultural and Anthropological Studies
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5494 USA
(269) 387-2505

Research

The faculty in the Institute for Intercultural and Anthropological Studies 51 Michigan University are involved in a variety of research initiatives.

  • Dr. Jon Holtzman recently wrote a journal article titled “Rice, Beer and Salad: Varying Constructions of Craving in Japan” which was published in Appetite.  He also presented a paper titled “Shadowscape With Frieze of Goats” at the Satterthwaite Colloquium for African Studies.
  • Tim Bober's research interests have  recently included Mesoamerican archaeology and the archaeology of the Fur Trade in the Great Lakes area.  Tim has concentrated his Mesoamerican interests primarily in Mexican cultures like the Aztecs and Teotihuacan.  He has also been involved in a public archaeology project entitled, The Fort St. Joseph Archaeology Project, investigating an 18th century French fort built near the Michigan and Indiana border.
  • Dr. Britt Hartenberger has focused her archaeological research on the production of stone tools and pottery in the Middle East, specifically southeastern Turkey during the Bronze and Iron Ages. In the summer of 2019, she joined the in Greece to conduct flotation and collect microdebris for investigating activities in a Classical period house. She is also working on publications of the pottery and lithics from the Ziyaret Tepe Archaeological Project in Turkey.
  • Dr. Michael Nassaney has research interests that include the archaeology of eastern North America with a focus on colonialism, the fur trade, material analysis, public archaeology, and ethnohistory. He is the principal investigator of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project, an interdisciplinary program in community service learning that focuses on the 18th-century site of Fort St. Joseph in Niles, Michigan.

Collaborating Faculty

The following 51 faculty in other departments collaborate on anthropology and African American and African studies projects and research:

  • Ann Miles, Department of Sociology
  • Vin Lyon-Callo, Sociology
  • Jackie Eng, Biology

Fort St. Joseph

Making archaeology accessible to the public is a major goal of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project, which is unearthing and interpreting the community's history.

IIAS Scholarly Works

Scholarly works published by faculty, students and alumni are stored for reference in 51's ScholarWorks program.  Honor's Theses, Master's Theses, Archaeological Reports, faculty books and images can be found .