About me
My training is as an osteologist and forensic anthropologist, specializing in juvenile osteology. As a forensic anthropologist, I have worked for the BC Coroner’s Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted police both in the field and in the lab.
More recently, I have been working from evolutionary perspectives with the Evolutionary Demography of Religion project. As part of this project, I led fieldwork in collaboration with the KWDSS and MRC in the Gambia, where I continue to maintain scientific collaborations.
My research practice adheres to Open Science principles wherever possible. I am passionate about using and teaching R for data processing and statistical analysis. Currently, I co-organize Rchaeology, an online community uniting R-using archaeologists from around the world. At Binghamton, I am affiliated with the Data Science TAE.
In my free time, I am an avid trail runner, climber, and all around outdoors enthusiast. I also love spending time with Oreo, my cuddly black lab.
Lab member bios
Laure Spake
Laure leads the lab
Read moreKailee Behunin
Kailee is a graduate student in the lab working on trade-offs in growth and development
Read moreCourses taught
Anthropology of Childhood
Taught at the 200 level
Read moreAdvanced Statistics - Multivariate
Taught at the graduate level
Read moreCheck out some photos from our work
Laure and Jainaba visiting with a participant in the women’s garden
Read moreAlieu takes anthropometrics as children watch on, the Gambia
Read moreCurrent and past projects
The Evolutionary Demography of Religion
Does social support improve maternal and child outcomes? And what role does belonging to a religious group play in promoting social networks and cooperation?
Read moreMortality bias in growth
The purpose of this project is to reflect on the likely magnitude of mortality bias in growth in the past. Are archaeological skeletal samples of juveniles representative of their living peers?
Read moreRecent publications from lab members
New More Generic and Inclusive Regression Formulae for the Estimation of Stature from Long Bone Lengths in Children
This paper takes a universal approach to juvenile stature estimation by using a reference sample that combines two different populations
Read moreBiological mortality bias in diaphyseal growth of contemporary children: Implications for paleoauxology
This paper uses a contemporary population to test the presence and magnitude of mortality bias in long bone growth and reflects on its possible presence in past populations
Read more