The Center for the Study of the First Americans is part of the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M University. The department has 24 faculty members and offers BA, MA, and PhD degrees.

The Center is fully integrated into the academic curriculum of the Department of Anthropology. The Director and Associate Director regularly teach classes and participate in the education and training of graduate and undergraduate students. They have developed a set of specialized undergraduate and graduate courses for students specializing in First American studies. These include First American Archaeology, Paleolithic Northeast Asia and Alaska, Method and Theory of Peopling of the Americas, Geoarchaeology, and Lithic Technological Organization.

Both undergraduate and graduate students have the opportunity to become involved with Center research projects in both the field and laboratory. These provide numerous training experiences in diverse settings from the Texas woodlands to Alaskan arctic tundra.

Center graduate students also take courses from other Anthropology faculty. Some examples include human behavioral ecology (M. Alvard and J. Winking), hunter-gatherer archaeology (A. Thoms), palynology (V. Bryant), economic archaeology (S. Eckert), zooarchaeology (D. de Ruiter), and paleoanthropology (S. Athreya). The study of the First Americans is a very interdisciplinary field. Students are encouraged to take courses in other departments and colleges across the university. Courses in geochemistry, geomorphology, sedimentology, pedology, ecology, and many other fields are available at Texas A&M University.

For more information about degree programs, see the Department of Anthropology website.

John Blong (PhD.)

I am interested in how prehistoric people used upland landscapes in Central Alaska from the earliest human occupation to less than 1000 years ago. I am currently conducting research in Central Alaska, excavating sites in the Savage River valley in Denali National Park and Susitna River valley south of the Alaska Range. I will combine these data with other regional archaeological data to tackle questions of lithic variability, specifically the microblade/biface dichotomy, to ultimately understand landscape use in the central Alaskan uplands. (Chair: Ted Goebel)
( CV )

Marion Coe (M.A.)

I am interested in perishable cultural remains from prehistoric North American archaeological contexts. Currently, I am studying the perishable artifact assemblage from Four Siblings Rockshelters in the eastern Great Basin, identifying raw material types used in the construction of perishables in this region to better understand landscape use in the surrounding environment. (Chair: Ted Goebel)
( CV )

Jessi Halligan (PhD.)

I am conducting a geoarchaeological analysis of submerged sinkhole sites in the Aucilla River of northwestern Florida for my PhD research. Numerous sinkholes in this river contain Clovis artifacts, including well-preserved bone and ivory tools. Previous research has confirmed that the river also contains a rich paleoenvironmental record from the terminal Pleistocene, but site formation processes in these underwater sinkholes are not understood, which limits reconstructions of Paleoindian behavior. My goal is to address both site formation and human behavioral processes by examining both underwater and terrestrial deposits in one area of the Aucilla River and comparing these data to previous research in the region. (Chair: Mike Waters)
( CV )

Tom Jennings (PhD.)

I am studying the Late Paleoindian, Clovis, and potential pre-Clovis stone tool debris from the Buttermilk Creek site, Texas. Through the detailed technological characterization of the lithics, I hope to evaluate the degree to which technological continuity exists between these three assemblages and chronicle changes in mobility strategies through time. (Chair: Mike Waters).
( CV )

Josh Keene (PhD.)

I am interested in Paleoindian geoarchaeology and lithic technology. For my dissertation, I will use geoarchaeological methods to reconstruct late Pleistocene climate and better understand Paleoindian stemmed point chronology in the Great Basin. In addition, I am involved in geoarchaeological testing of several locations on the Idaho National Laboratory, southeastern Idaho, and plan to develop and test models that predict Paleoindian site locations across the Great Basin. (Chair: Ted Goebel)
( CV )

Joshua Lynch (M.A.)

I am interested in how the first Americans interacted with their environments. Recently, I have been involved in CSFA excavations at Serpentine Hot Springs, a buried fluted point site on the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Seward Peninsula. I plan to develop a project that addresses how early Beringians organized technologies in response to climate flux during the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition. (Chair: Ted Goebel)

Heather Smith (PhD.)

I am interested in Paleoindian technological adaptation, behavior and dispersal into the Americas. Recently, I have worked on several CSFA field projects, including excavations at Buttermilk Creek (Debra L. Friedkin site), Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, Owl Ridge, and Serpentine Hot Springs. I would like to continue my research developing methods in geometric morphometrics to better understand shape in Clovis and other fluted points across North America. I am currently developing dissertation research focused on fluted-point technology in Alaska, especially at the Serpentine Hot Springs site located on the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Seward Peninsula. (Chair: Ted Goebel)
( CV )

Jesse Tune (Ph.D.)

I am interested in early to middle Paleoamerican period archaeology in the Mid-South of the U.S. Specifically, I am interested in understanding how humans responded to dramatic climate change during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition through technological change and social organization. Currently, I am involved in investigation of the Coats-Hines site located near Nashville, Tennessee where so far two mastodons have been recovered in direct association with stone tools. (Chair: Mike Waters)
( CV )

Angela Younie (PhD.)

I am interested in microblade and other lithic tool technologies in the North American subarctic. My M.A. thesis research at the University of Alberta focused on artifact refitting and technological analysis of the microblade assemblage from the Little Pond site in northern Alberta and compared these data to Denali-complex microblade technology from central Alaska and the Yukon. I plan to study lithic assemblage variability, microblade technology as cold adaption, and the relationships between Nenana and Denali cultures and their possible role in understanding the peopling of the Americas. (Chair: Ted Goebel)

Ashley Smallwood (PhD.)

I am studying Clovis technology in the southeastern U.S., with a specific focus on the adaptive context of Clovis biface production. I have supervised excavations at the Topper Clovis site in South Carolina since 2005, and I am analyzing the lithic assemblage from this site as well as assemblages from the other important Clovis sites in the Southeast, including Williamson. The goal of my dissertation is to identify the signatures of Southeastern Clovis biface technology and the organization of this industry to culturally define Clovis in the region. (Chair: Ted Goebel)
( CV )

John Blong (M.A. 2010)

Thesis title: Paleoindian Toolstone Provisioning and Settlement Organization at the Higgins Site

Heather Smith (M.A. 2010)

Thesis title: A Behavioral Analysis of Clovis Point Morphology Using Geometric Morphometrics

Josh Keene (M.A. 2009)

Thesis title: Site Formation Processes at the Buttermilk Creek Site (41BL1239), Bell County, Texas

Charlotte Pevny (Ph.D. 2009)

Dissertation title: Clovis Lithic Debitage from Excavation Area 8 at the Gault Site (41BL323), Texas: Form and Function

Juan Urista (M.A. 2009)

Thesis title: Stratigraphy and Geochronology of the Vernor Mammoth Site, Clute, Brazoria County, Texas

Victor Galan (Ph.D. 2008)

Dissertation title: Excavation, Analysis, and Behavior of the Hegar and Texas Caches in Southeast Texas.

Dawn Alexander (M.A. 2008)

Thesis title: Geoarchaeological Investigation of Natural Formation Processes to Evaluate Context of the Clovis Component at the Gault Site (41BL323), Bell Country, Texas

Scott Minchak (M.A. 2007)

Thesis title: A Microwear Study of Clovis Blades from the Gault Site, Bell County, Texas

Heidi Luchsinger (Ph.D. 2006)

Dissertation title: The Late Quaternary Landscape History of the Middle Rio Negro Valley, Northern Patagonia, Argentina: Its Impact on Preservation of the Archaeologiucal Record and Influence on Late Holocene Human Settlement Patterns.

Michael Aiuvalasit (M.A. 2006)

Thesis title: Geoarchaeological Investigation at the McNeill-Gonzales Site (41VT141), Victoria County, Texas.

William Dickens (Ph.D. 2005)

Dissertation title: Biface Reduction and Blade Manufacture at the Gault Site 41BL323: A Clovis Occupation in Bell County, Texas.

James Wiederhold (M.A. 2004)

Thesis title: Toward the Standardization of Use-Wear Studies: Constructing an Analogue to Prehistoric Hide Work.

If you would like to learn more about the Graduate Program in the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M University, please contact us by phone at (979) 845-5242, or by email at anthro@tamu.edu.