Faculty Scholarship Showcase

Heather Rockwell, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor | Cultural and Historic Preservation 
& Cultural, Environmental and Global Studies

Dr. Rockwell’s research focuses on Paleoindigenous Communities, the earliest indigenous people of New England and the Canadian Maritimes. Her current field research is in northern Maine at the Munsungun Quarries site, a quarry and campsite utilized by indigenous people for thousands of years. This location serves as both scientific research station and classroom as she strives to create hands-on learning opportunities for her students by including them in her field work. In addition, Dr. Rockwell has developed a local field project which invites students to investigate the history of Aquidneck Island through archaeological projects on campus. 

Beyond market share: Accounting for doctoral program size in recent rates of anthropology faculty job placement.

Madeline E. Mackie and Heather M. Rockwell

Abstract:   Job placement trends in higher education at US institutions are bleak. Within anthropology and other social science disciplines this problem appears to be particularly pronounced. Recent studies focusing on placement in Anthropology using market share analysis have suggested that specific doctoral programs offer a greater chance of placing their graduates in faculty positions. Here we expand on that work, looking beyond market share to the number of graduates placed in positions relative to the total number of program graduates. Our results suggest that while large programs do indeed command the majority of tenure track placements by market share, much of this may be a product of the high numbers of graduates from these programs. Smaller programs can be proportionally as successful at placing their students in tenure track positions. The majority of PhDs in anthropology should anticipate gaining employment outside of a tenure track position. Training students for positions in private industry, government, and other non-faculty opportunities is essential.

Access:
PLOS One, 18(5), 2023.
Open Access:   10.1371/journal.pone.0285330

Preliminary results on the applicability of neutron activation analysis (NAA) to identify cherts from the Munsungun Lake Formation, Maine, USA

Nathaniel R. Kitchel, Brandi L. MacDonald, Matthew T. Boulanger, Heather M. Rockwell

Abstract:   Red chert attributed to the Munsungun Lake Formation, Maine, USA is common in late Pleistocene fluted-point-period archaeological sites located throughout the New England states and Quebec, appearing more frequently than any other material type in the region. Despite the assumed association between red Munsungun chert and fluted-point-period sites, until recently, it was not possible to link red chert artifacts from these sites to a specific source area within the Munsungun Lake Formation because outcrops of this material associated with direct evidence of past use were not documented. Here, we report the first results of a neutron activation analysis (NAA) study of red Munsungun chert from two quarry areas within the Munsungun Lake Formation. These results suggest that NAA can distinguish between chert source areas within the Munsungun Lake Formation and lookalike materials from the wider region. Additional analyses are required to include more comparative samples and evaluate the efficacy of less destructive geochemical techniques in characterizing cherts from the region. Despite the need for additional research, these results suggest that NAA will be useful for re-evaluating past identifications of chert from the Munsungun Lake Formation, providing an important foundation for additional geochemical research in the region.

Access:
Geoarchaeology, 38(5), 2022.
Abstract Only:   DOI 10.1002/gea.21969
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