Course Details

  • This class will meet in-person to participate in a dig on Aquidneck Island in Portsmouth, Rhode Island
  • 5 weeks | May 28 to June 28, 2024
  • 4 credits | $2,500
  • Last day to register: May 21, 2024

Course Overview

Examines a topic of current interest in the public sphere from an anthropological perspective. The content and format of the course will be tailored to the topic area. Course may be taken twice as long as topics differ.

Course Advantages

Students will learn and master GPR (ground penetrating radar), metal detection, photogrammetry, 3D scanning, and mapping field methodology at Butts Hill Fort in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Students will be taught best archaeological practice, ethics and community outreach along with cultural resource management (CRM) at this National Historic Landmark. Lab component education in intake, cleaning, cataloguing, interpretation and analyses techniques. Research questions will follow the battle between French, U.S., and Hessian forces, fort construction and use, and lifeways of occupants (Northern and Southern Batteries). Students will also visit the Navy College and tour local battlefields and forts. We will seek to understand both African diaspora or African American and Native American views during this field school and will be visiting diaspora sites and Native American museums. 

Additional Information

Faculty will contact all students after the Tuesday, May 21, registration deadline.

About the Instructor

Alexandra D. Uhl

Instructor of Biology and Sociology
Alexandra Uhl is a biological anthropologist. As a member of Stonehill’s faculty, she manages The Uhl Lab, where she and students complete an interdisciplinary examination of research focused on biological anthropology, biological archaeology, historic archaeology, sexual dimorphism, skeletal morphology and health/wellness. Uhl’s research has been funded by The Leakey Foundation and focuses on sexual dimorphism and ontogeny. She utilizes medical imaging software to study skeletal material and fossil specimens. Her work has been published in PLOS ONE, AJPA and Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Uhl is the excavation leader of an ongoing archaeological site in Rhode Island funded by the van Beuren Charitable Foundation. With 10 years of teaching experience across the fields of anthropology and biology, she has taught as a visiting professor at Boston University and Salve Regina University. She regularly teaches courses on osteological forensic techniques, primate ecology/evolution, human evolution, sexual dimorphism in humans, general anthropology, anatomy and physiology, North American Indian societies and archaeology. Uhl earned a doctoral degree in scientific archaeology from the Department of Paleoanthropology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen in Germany.

Questions? Contact Us

Duffy Academic Center – 112

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