Faculty and Staff

Dr. Brooke S. Arkush

Professor of Anthroplogy
Bio

Brooke Arkush has directed the WSU Archaeological Technician Program since 1990 and received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California at Riverside in 1989. He teaches a large portion of the archaeology curriculum, including Prehistory of North America, Archaeological Field Techniques and Archaeological Laboratory Techniques. Much of Dr. Arkush's research activity concerns the prehistory, protohistory and colonial history of western North America, especially in regard to communal big-game hunting, ancient settlement and subsistence systems and post-contact Native cultural continuity and change.

Dr. Joanna Gautney

Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Bio

Ph.D. Biological Anthropology, Tulane University (2016)
M.A. Biological Anthropology, Tulane University (2012)
B.A. Anthropology, California State University, Sacramento (2007)

Dr. Gautney is a biological anthropologist specializing in paleoanthropology. Her primary research focuses on the phylogenetic relationships between fossil hominin species, and the role interspecific hybridization may have played in human evolutionary history. Other areas of interest include paleoecology, paleodemography, and climate change during the late Pleistocene, and their role in recent human evolution and dispersal.

Dr. Francis Harrold

Professor of Anthropology
Bio

Dr. Harrold received his B.A. in anthropology from Loyola University of Chicago, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago. He is an archaeologist interested in the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) of Europe and the Mediterranean, particularly in the period of the replacement of Neanderthals by anatomically modern humans. He has done fieldwork in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, and Albania. He has also done research and publication on the history of archaeology, and popular pseudoscientific beliefs about the human past.

Dr. Ron Holt

Professor of Anthropology
Bio

Ron Holt is a sociocultural anthropologist specializing in tribal politics and applied fieldwork. Most of his field work has involved American Indian tribes and tribes in the Middle East and Central Asia.

His research interests include Great Basin Native Americans, counterinsurgency, tribe-state relations, nomadic pastoralism, national policy, martial arts, radical Islam and honors education.

Dr. Mark Stevenson

Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Bio

B.A. Anthropology & Political Science, State University of New York College at Oneonta (1984); Ph.D. Anthropology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA (1996)

In addition to introductory courses (Intro. to Anthropology, Peoples & Cultures of the World, Language & Culture), Dr. Stevenson teaches a variety of electives, including courses on the cultures of contemporary Europe, post-socialism in Eastern Europe, globalization, Celtic culture and history, technology & culture, political and economic anthropology. He has also led numerous study abroad courses to Europe and China. Dr. Stevenson has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Ireland and Germany, including studies of the process of German unification in public broadcasting and film institutions and of the intersection of labor market policies, education reform and professionalization in the non-profit arts sector.

His current research projects and interests include:

• Professionalization and the influence of social media in Irish traditional music
• Sustainability in the business and non-profit sectors
• Cultural heritage, cultural policy and tourism
• Anthropology of work
• Anthropology of education
• Environmental anthropology
• Visual anthropology

Dr. David Yoder

Professor of Anthropology
Bio

Dr. Yoder is an archaeologist who focuses on the prehistory of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau of North America. His primary areas of research include Fremont societies, the Paleoarchaic to Early Archaic Transition, archaeometry, and cultural resource management (CRM). Outside of the university system, Dr. Yoder’s career has included positions in state government and private sector CRM.

Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2009); M.A. Anthropology, Brigham Young University, Provo (2005); B.S. Anthropology/History, Weber State University, Ogden (2003).