This is my 16th year at Foothill and I am pleased to be here.
I came to the Bay Area from Hawaii where I was a Forensic Archaeologist specializing in the recovery and identification of Missing In Action U.S. service members from past wars. We mostly worked in Vietnam and Laos excavating plane crashes.
I received my degree from UCLA where I completed a dissertation on the Maya - I studied how regular people were connected to the kings. I surveyed and excavated at a place called Chaa Creek, which is a wonderful resort - check it out online. My studies assessed ways in which we can measure the degree of integration or connectedness among people in the past.
All of my studies were in Belize, until in 2000 when I began researching with my wife, Ana, in Ecuador. We are fortunate to be part of a special project that has been ongoing in the highlands north of the capital Quito.
We look at Inca Fortresses, conducting excavations high in the Andes - on the edge of the Amazon at the equator.
While I have been traveling to Latin America and taking students on the field projects, but I also have worked in California, and hope to continue this now that I am at Foothill. We have exciting partnerships with local archaeologists at institutions like Stanford and CA State Parks. Currently we are helping to survey and document portions of the Santa Cruz Mountains with the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.
As I mentioned, we started a brand new research program focusing on castles in Ireland. The excavations and survey have turned up many artifacts and we think we found the medieval village just outside of the castle.
Lastly, my attention has moved to Hawaii where we are beginning yet another program on the Big Island in Hawaii. Check out the department website! This is an exciting time to be involved with Anthropology at Foothill. Please stop by and visit anytime -- my door is always open.
I am socio-cultural anthropologist, and my research looks at the intersection between West African indigenous religions and transnational flows of ideas and resources centered on human rights and contemporary forms of slavery.
I'm originally from Indiana and a first generation college graduate, and had the wonderful opportunity to do a study abroad program in Ghana and in Scotland. So after I completed by BA, I decided to move to the UK to complete my MSc in Anthropology & International Development at the London School of Economics and my PhD in Anthropology at the University of Sussex.
Since then, I have taught anthropology courses in a variety of higher ed institutions throughout the country, including in medium and maximum security correctional facilities!
Kathryn has spent many years living, studying and working abroad, and has conducted fieldwork in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Ecuador, Italy, Greece, Spain, Ireland and the Southwest and Bay Area of the United States. Before joining Foothill College as one of the full-time anthropologists on campus in the fall of 2011 she directed college semester abroad programs in Greece and Spain and worked as an applied anthropologist promoting cultural competency in the public sector in California human services agencies. Some of Kathryn's research interests include constructions and representations of cultural identity and worldview, indigenous politics and health systems in the Americas, cultural heritage management and the politics of archaeology, as well as applications of anthropological fieldwork methods and theory in the technology sector