University of Tennessee Department of Anthropology

Elizabeth Tarulis (Anthropology), DCHA Graduate Student Fellow, used a Riggsby Travel Fellowship to attend the 91st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in San Francisco, where she presented on her project, “’Much time thereby unprofitably expended’? An Analysis of North American To***co Pipes in 17th-Century New England” as part of a session on past uses of plants beyond food.

Created through the generous support of Stuart and Katherine Riggsby, the Riggsby Travel Fellowship provides financial support to Denbo Center Faculty Fellows and Graduate Student Fellows to help defray travel costs to conferences, museums, and archival institutions for the purpose of furthering their research.

Big congratulations to Taylor Walkup on receiving the Graduate Student Research Award! 🎉 Her research, "Investigating Toxic Heavy Metal Exposure in East Tennessee via Portable X-ray Fluorescence", uses pXRF to examine heavy metal exposure in East Tennessee communities, exploring how exposure patterns may vary across life stages and populations and helping us better understand long-term environmental health impacts in the region.

Anthropology undergraduate and graduate students graduating in May 2026, along with their families, joined us for the Department Commencement held last Saturday. Outstanding graduates were recognized with department awards, and families enjoyed spending time with faculty as we celebrated this special milestone together. Wishing all of our graduates great success and all the best in the exciting journeys ahead!

Caroline Znachko, PhD, was recently spotlighted by the College of Arts and Sciences. Check out the link below to learn more about Caroline's research and experience at UTK.

Investigating Appalachian Life Through Biomarkers - College of Arts and Sciences While earning her PhD in biological anthropology, Caroline Znachko has researched how stress during early life can be seen in the skeleton and genetic markers. Caroline Znachko first learned that skeletons can reveal information about people’s lives when she was a child visiting the Smithsonian Na...

Congratulations to Perri Mahfouz for receiving a post-undergraduate Fulbright! Perri Mahfouz is an interdisciplinary researcher graduating in May from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she studies Medical Anthropology and Community Health through the College Scholars Honors Program. Her research centers on maternal healthcare access, legal governance, and reproductive health inequities in underserved regions. She has conducted research with the Appalachian Justice Research Center and Pregnancy Justice and was awarded a 2026-2027 Fulbright U.S. Student Open Research Grant to Sweden to study rural maternal health systems and midwifery-led continuity of care.

Congratulations to Elizabeth Tarulis who is a recipient of the 2026 VOLunteer Distinction Award! Elizabeth recently defended her dissertation, entitled “Much time thereby unprofitably expended”? An Analysis of North American To***co Pipes in 17th-Century New England. Her research analyzes how English colonists adopted to***co smoking and began manufacturing smoking pipes in 17th-century New England using a combination of documentary, archaeological, and elemental (ICP-MS) data. In addition to this work, she ran a public archaeology field school with the Overfield Tavern in Troy, Ohio. In her time at the University of Tennessee, she has worked as a researcher and instructor of record for a diverse array of courses, and she was previously recognized with an Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching Award. Currently, she is a Graduate Fellow at the Denbo Center for Humanities and the Arts. In June, she will start a new position as Site Supervisor at Jamestown Rediscovery in Williamsburg, VA.

Cheers to the faculty, staff, and graduate students who made Anthropology shine in 2025–2026!

Congratulations to Caroline Znachko for being awarded the 2026 VOLunteer of Distinction award!
Caroline Znachko, PhD, recently completed her doctoral studies specializing in forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology. Her dissertation examined how structural violence in Appalachia becomes biologically embedded through stress biology, influences growth and development, and contributes to regional health disparities. More broadly, her research bridges social epidemiology with forensic anthropological praxis. As a doctoral student, Caroline served as the manager of the UT Donated Skeletal Collection, a primary analyst for forensic casework and an instructor of training courses at the Forensic Anthropology Center, and a statistician with community partner Hellbender Harm Reduction through the Appalachian Justice Research Center. She also completed the Visiting Scientist program at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in NYC and an ancient DNA/epigenetics internship at Pennsylvania State University, where she collaborated on research aiming to improve forensic anthropological methods. Next, Caroline will join an interdisciplinary team in Erin Dunn's lab at Purdue University as a postdoctoral research associate, where she will explore developmental connections among early-life adversity, teeth, and epigenetics.
*Note: The skull in image is a cast, not a real bone.

Last Friday, our Undergraduate Anthropology Association (UAA) joined the Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences (EEPS) Student Association for their first Fossil Fridays event. The event introduced a wide range of paleontology research, where visitors explored trace fossils, eggs, and predated marine organisms while trying their hand at fossil identification. Special thanks to UAA president Heather Scott (far right) and Matt Wisenhatt (next to her) for representing our group and helping make the event a success.

Join us for a special discussion with Raja Swamy on capitalism, catastrophe, and the social dimensions of disaster! The event will take place on Thursday, May 1, from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM at Scripps Lab / COM 402G, hosted by the Center for Social Theory.