Samantha-Lagos

Ph.D., Anthropology

As an archaeologist of islands and lakes, I explore hundreds or thousands of years of the human past through the material objects left behind in these land and seascapes. By interpreting these as layers of behavior, interactions, and processes, I aim to understand at least part of how people navigated and affected their changing environments, and the innovative technologies they developed along the way. What I love about archaeology is that it’s all about dynamic lived pasts, it’s not just a static history or a single moment in time. Being an archaeologist is better than being a time traveler!

I completed my Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and a Master of Arts in Anthropology at the University of Washington, Seattle. My research has focused on population settlement and subsistence strategies in lacustrine environments during the late Holocene (12,000-3,000 years ago) in the Fayum, Egypt, and Fort Rock Valley in the Great Basin. At SMU, I hope to employ innovative computer technologies and to work with descendant communities in explorations of human-environment interaction in island Polynesia. 

When I’m not elbow deep in my research, you’ll find me knee deep in the bush on a tramp (like the good kiwi girl I am), reading a book in happy solitude, tearing my hands up indoor bouldering, or working my way through a cross-stitch.