Sarah Kennedy receives NSF support to study diasporic communities
Kennedy is Robert A. Oden, Jr. postdoctoral fellow for innovation in the humanities and archaeology at Carleton.
Dr. Sarah Kennedy, Robert A. Oden, Jr. postdoctoral fellow for innovation in the humanities and archaeology, has been named a co-Principal Investigator on a National Science Foundation Senior Archaeology Grant (2050528) for the project “Social Adaptation During Periods of State Collapse.” Kennedy joins Dr. Sarah Baitzel (PI, Washington University in St. Louis) and Dr. BrieAnna Langlie (co-PI, SUNY Binghamton) to examine how diasporic communities from highland Peru and Bolivia modified their diet, mobility, and ritual activities to adapt to new coastal environments during sociopolitical reorganization and climate change following the collapse of the prehispanic Tiwanaku Empire (AD 1000). The grant funds four years of research and Kennedy will lead the zooarchaeological and isotopic analyses to track human and animal transhumance, mobility, and exchange.