Ellery Frahm
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota
WELCOME
Currently I am a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, teaching courses that integrate the archaeological, biological, and sociocultural subfields. After completing my Ph.D., I was a Marie Curie Experienced Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Minnesota, and a Research Fellow at Harvard University.
I have principally conducted and published archaeological research in three main regions: (1) the Eastern Mediterranean (Greece and Cyprus), Middle East (Syria and Turkey), and Southern Caucasus (Armenia and Georgia), (2) Eastern Africa (Kenya), and (3) North America (the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest). These projects together span almost half a million years of history, from early human dispersals out of Africa into Eurasia to the historical period in the American Midwest. The unifying theme of my work is elucidating how different cultures made use of their environment and how their behaviors shaped opportunities for cultural transmission, the spread of technological innovations, and ultimately social change.
About Me
I am an anthropological archaeologist with a scientific bent. I've conducted archaeological research in Eurasia, Africa, and North America, spanning from Palaeolithic human dispersals to Minnesota's fur trade era.
Links & Affiliations
Research & Fieldwork
My research explores how different cultures throughout human history made use of the environment and its resources during times of climatic, demographic, and technological change and how such behaviors shaped opportunities for social transmission and, thus, the spread of cultural and technological innovations.
TeachinG EXperience
In addition to archaeology, my teaching incorporates the cultural and biological subfields in courses such as Anthropology of the Middle East, Anthropology of Material Culture, and Neanderthals: Biology and Culture of Humanity’s Nearest Relative, and my interdisciplinary classes have included Geoarchaeology.