Lori M. Jahnke

I am a biological anthropologist specializing in paleopathology, human variation, and Andean archeology. My research interests are rooted in my bioarchaeological field experience in Peru and my work as a CLIR Fellow in the digital humanities. Through the Council on Libraries and Information Resources, I also serve as a research consultant for the Scholarly Engagement with Hidden Special Collections and Archives Project, and the Mellon Dissertation Fellowship Retrospective Study.

Inspired by early work in using archaeological findings to supplement interpretation of the burial context, bioarchaeology has grown to encompass sophisticated modeling of the interactions among geography, epidemiological processes, and demographic change in the face of cultural transition. My research sits at this nexus drawing on the osteological data to reconstruct population history in understanding the paleoepidemiology of colonization and migration. My work in Peru explores the association of mortuary practice, biological kinship, and the distribution of the Chancay art style as a means to test archaeological hypotheses regarding social structure and external political influence during the Late Intermediate Period (LIP, A.D. 1000-1476).

Affiliations

S. Gordon Castigliano CLIR Fellow, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Associate Visiting Scholar, University of Pennsylvania

Education

Ph.D., Biological Anthropology (2009), Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Dissertation: Human biological variation and cemetery distribution in the Huaura Valley, Peru

M.A., Biological Anthropology (2005), Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

B.A., Anthropology (Honors); Geology, American Indian Studies minors (1998), Hamline University, St. Paul, MN
Thesis: Impact of Subsistence and Lifestyle Change at the Lindholm Site (21BS3), MN

Academic Interests

Interaction of small groups/individuals with larger sociopolitical processes; biological impact of colonization and social stratification; human variation and adaptation; philosophy of classification; organization of knowledge; social context of science

Research Interests

Andean bioarchaeology; paleopathology; popular interpretation of biological/genomic research; reconstructing population history; non-textual systems of information organization and communication

Certifications

ESRI ArcGIS Certification I, 2006
Spanish – US Foreign Service Level II, 2002