Migration and Mobility

Migration is a central component of social and economic life, both past and present. Department faculty conduct research and teaching about human mobility across the subfields.

Pre-historic and historical archaeologists explore the ways that people moved in tandem with social and environmental shifts, specializing in historic emigration ( Carolyn White and Sarah Cowie), the Numic Spread and Great Basin pre-history ( Christopher Morgan and Geoffrey Smith) and the peopling of the New World (Smith).

Cultural anthropologists examine the intersections of migration, diaspora, citizenship and border studies around the world, with particular emphasis on the racial and gendered dimensions of mobility. They specialize in migration, gender and religious minorities in Europe and North Africa ( Mikaela Rogozen-Soltar) and migration, gender and family between the U.S. and Mexico ( Deborah Boehm). Boehm and Rogozen-Soltar also conduct research on return migration and deportation in border zones.

Finally, the department's biological anthropologists focus on migration at global, regional and local scales, from the dispersal of anatomically modern humans ( G. Richard Scott) to ancient and recent movements of populations in California, the Great Basin and Anatolia ( Marin Pilloud). Special emphasis is placed on using biological data to make inferences on the peopling of the Americas (Scott).