McKenzie Alford

BA Anthropology and International Studies, Texas A&M University
MA Medieval Archaeology, University of York
MA Anthropology, Southern Methodist University

McKenzie is currently a PhD candidate of Anthropology at SMU and entered the program in 2019. She completed her BA of Anthropology and International Studies at Texas A&M University in 2017. She went on to complete her MA in Medieval Archaeology at the University of York in 2018 and subsequently gained her MA in Anthropology at Southern Methodist University in 2021.

Her dissertation topic engages with archaeological legacy collections to examine mortuary information from the site of S'edav Va'aki, Phoenix, Arizona, to understand well-being and living conditions during the period of transition at the end of the Hohokam Classic Period. McKenzie's interests intersect with mortuary archaeology and the use of field notes and maps from already-repatriated legacy collections to create a nondestructive method of utilizing previously ignored or forgotten excavations to generate new information.

McKenzie was awarded the Clements Center Travel Research Grant in 2020 and the Garry A. Weber Graduate Fellowship Endowment in 2023 to digitize mortuary information for her dissertation research.

Entered program in 2019

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