The Western Bioarchaeology Group (WeBiG) was founded in 2012 with the mission of organizing an annual meeting in Western North America. The aim of the annual meeting is to facilitate collegial engagement and networking and promote discussion of issues in bioarchaeological theory and method.

WEBIG ANNUAL MEETING: “FUTURISMS” 2022

RIVERSIDE, CA

OCTOBER 21-22, 2022

WeBiG 2022

University of California, Riverside will host the eight annual Western Bioarchaeology Group (WeBiG) meeting on October 21-22, 2022. The conference will be held in Riverside, California at the California Museum of Photography in downtown Riverside. The Western Bioarchaeology Group (WeBiG) was founded in 2012 with the mission of organizing an annual meeting in western North America. The aim of an annual meeting is to facilitate collegial engagement and networking, and promote discussion of issues in bioarchaeological theory and method.

Guest Speakers at 2022 WeBiG (in order of speaking):

• Sabrina Agarwal (University of California, Berkeley) - (Plenary Speaker) - "Envisioning Bioarchaeological Futurisms"

• Alex Garcia-Putnam (Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation) - "Past as Prologue: Grappling with Epidemic Disease, Bodily Autonomy, and Systemic Inequalities at Charity Hospital, New Orleans, LA (1847-1929)"

• Amber Tedrow (Associate Environmental Planner (Archaeologist) and Native American Coordinator for for California Department of Transportation’s District 10) - "Penetrating the Past: Utilizing Ground Penetrating Radar and Community Collaboration at Hilltop Cemetery"

• Chin-hsin Liu (California State University, Northridge) - “What about the people? A bottom-up framework of human interactions in Postclassic West Mexico”

• Samantha Blatt (Idaho State University), Taylor Flaherty (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), Amy R. Michael (University of New Hampshire), & Mariyam I. Isa (Texas Tech University) - "Busting the Binary: Current and Future Strategies for Identification of Gender-diverse Individuals in Forensic Anthropology"

General Information about Meetings and Governance

WeBiG aims to be inclusive and encourages student participation, with informal and low-cost meetings. There is no membership requirement or membership fee. Participants pay a registration fee that covers the cost of each conference. Annual conferences include a plenary talk on opening night and one full day session of themed speakers and posters with and reception and networking. The annual conference is run entirely by volunteers from the sponsoring institution(s), and the current rotating Chair and steering committee that will host the meeting.

Past meetings include the 2013 meeting at the University of California, Berkeley (co-organized by Sabrina Agarwal and Christina Torres-Rouff), the 2014 meeting at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (organized by Debra Martin), the 2015 meeting at Arizona State University (co-organized by Brenda Baker and Kelly Knudson), the 2016 meeting (organized by Alexis Boutin), the 2017 meeting at the University of Nevada, Reno (organized by Marin Pilloud), the 2018 meeting at California State University, Chico (organized by Eric Bartelink, Colleen Milligan, and Ashley Kendell), the 2019 meeting hosted by Metropolitan State University, the University of Northern Colorado, and the University of Wyoming (organized by Christine Pink, Britney Kyle, and Melissa Murphy).

The members of the WeBiG committee are as follows:

Sabrina Agarwal, University of California, Berkeley

Brenda Baker, Arizona State University

Heather Edgar, University of New Mexico

Britney Kyle, University of Northern Colorado

Debra Martin, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Marin Pilloud, University of Nevada, Reno

Christine Pink, Western Michigan University

WeBiG 2022 Organizing Committee:

o Committee Chairs: Sara Becker, Elizabeth Berger, Sang-Hee Lee

FOR INFORMATION OR QUESTIONS CONTACT: westernbioarchaeologygroup@gmail.com