- Director, Archaeology Program
Contact Information
Research & Teaching Interests
Human-environmental interactions, tropical island chiefdoms, public archaeology, peace and conflict resolution, resource exploitation, foodways, hierarchy, political economy, zooarchaeology, ethnoarchaeology, gender; Fiji and Polynesia, the Caribbean, India.
Current Research
I am a Professor of Anthropology at NKU. I have conducted fieldwork in the tropical Pacific Islands, North America, India, Japan, and the Caribbean. My current research employs ethnography, archaeology, and history and focuses on issues including: food, sustainable farming, identity, and gender. I have authored (or co-authored) dozens of peer reviewed articles, book chapters, and several books which I often use in my courses. I have lived and worked closely with native Pacific Islanders, especially in the remote Lau Island group of Fiji for two decades. On personal and professional levels, I am deeply interested in the dialogue between anthropologists, native peoples, and the general public. Moreover, I feel that the most important contributions that scientists can make are to effectively and skillfully communicate the value of our work to the public and to address pressing social issues. These ideals drive a recent research project I am collaborating on that explores archaeological and archival data from what was likely the first multi-racial and coeducational school in North America, the Parker Academy (founded in 1839; see: https://parkeracademy-nsfreu.weebly.com/).
Academic Degrees
- Ph.D. University of Florida
- M.A. University of Florida
- B.A. University of California, Berkeley
Courses
- ANT 100 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
- ANT 110 Unearthing the Past: World Archaeology
- ANT 210 Introduction to Archaeological Methods and Theory
- ANT 270 Native Australia and Oceania
- ANT 355 Archaeology Laboratory Analysis
- ANT 380 Origins of Civilization
- ANT 401 Anthropological Theory
- ANT 315 Archaeological Excavation Methods
- ANT 515 Advanced Archaeological Excavation Methods
Accolades
- 2009-2012 and 2012-2015 National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates Awards
- 2005 Post-doctoral Fellowship, Department of Anthropology and Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida
- 1999-2002 Graduate Student Fellow, National Science Foundation
Selected Publications
- Jones, S. 2016. Eating Identity: An Exploration of Fijian Foodways in the Archaeological Past. Journal of Indo-Pacific Archaeology 37(2015):64-71.
- 2016 Anthropological Archaeology in 2015: Entanglements, Reflection, Reevaluation, and Archaeology beyond Disciplinary Boundaries. American Anthropologist 118(2):301-316.
- Jones, S., Walsh-Haney, H., and R. Quinn. 2012. Kana tamata or feasts of men: an interdisciplinary approach for identifying cannibalism in prehistoric Fiji. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. DOI: 10.1002/oa.2269.
- 2009 Food and Gender in Fiji: Ethnoarchaeological Explorations. Lexington Books/ Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham and New York.
- 2009 A long-term perspective on biodiversity and marine resource exploitation in Fiji’s Lau Group. Pacific Science 63(4):617-648.
- 2004 Marine Resource Exploitation and Diversity in Kahikinui, Maui, Hawaii: Bringing Together Multiple Lines of Evidence to Interpret the Past. Archaeofauna 13:97-108.
