Professional Archaeology
Department of Anthropology and Geography offers a specialization in Professional Archaeology at the Masters level. The goal of the specialization is to prepare students to move immediately into positions of responsibility in heritage or cultural resources management. Objectives include exposing students to classroom situations that deal with legal and technical aspects of compliance. In addition, students complete an internship with a federal or state agency responsible for heritage management activities or private firm involved in the same that exposes them to real-life aspects of cultural resource management. Finally, students complete a 6-hour master's thesis to demonstrate their ability to design and execute research that is contextually situated, addresses important issues in the evolving literature, and is well written. All of these experiences are framed by a holistic anthropological approach.
Students completing the specialization have produced theses on diverse topics: Central Plains Tradition agriculture, Hopwellian lithics, Pawnee chronology, Oregon Trail road houses, w. South Dakota landscape, Ft. Union chipped stone, Plains Woodland ceramic use-wear, Oneota faunal remains. Graduates have gone on into positions with the NPS Midwest Archeological Center and the Nebraska State Historical Society, and private firms including Metcalf Archaeological Consultants, Inc, RAM of Rapid City, and the Mannick and Smith Group.
The Archeology program faculty includes Effie Athanassopoulos, Peter Bleed, Paul Demers, Carleen Sanchez, Doug Scott, LuAnn Wandsnider; Nebraska State Museum Adjunct Professor Alan Osborn; and, Midwest Archaeological Adjuncts Professors William Hunt, Mark Lynott, and Vergil Noble. All of these faculty members are involved in offering archaeology core courses and in serving on thesis committees. Additional support is provided by Michael Hoff (Art and Art History).
Recent Graduates in Professional Archaeology
Amy Bleier Staff Archaeologist, Metcalf Archaeological Consultants, Inc. Bismarck, ND. Thesis: Dating Woodcliff (25SD31): Insights into Pawnee Archaeology. (Professional Archaeology MA, June 2004) Amy is managing a variety of archaeological projects for Metcalf Archaeological Consultants, Inc. in their Bismarck, North Dakota office.
Damita Hiemstra Staff Archaeologist, Metcalf Archaeological Consultants, Inc. Bismarck, ND. Thesis: Pull of the Hills? : An Examination of Prehistoric Land Use on the Great Plains, Along the Southern Margin of the South Dakota Black Hills (Professional Archaeology MA December 2003). Damita is managing a variety of archaeological projects for Metcalf Archaeological Consultants, Inc. in their Bismarck, North Dakota office.
