I am a Professor of Anthropology at Illinois State University and currently the Coordinator of the Anthropology Program. I received my Ph.D. in 1990 from the University of Arizona, where I studied with Michael Schiffer and William Longacre. My dissertation work was based on a study of pottery use-alteration among the Kalinga, which resulted in the book Pottery Function: A Use-Alteration Perspective. Two other books came from that experience, the co-edited volume, Kalinga Ethnoarchaeology, and Ants for Breakfast, which is a book meant for students and the general public about the experience of doing field work in the Philippines. My interest in ceramic analysis cross-cuts much of my research and my co-edited book, Pottery and People, brings together scholars from different theoretical and regional perspectives all focusing on how we archaeologists make inferences about people from the fragments of pottery left behind. My interest in archaeological method and theory is manifest in a number of ways including my book series, Foundations of Archaeological Inquiry, the journal that I have co-edited with Catherine Cameron since 2000, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, and two co-edited books, Expanding Archaeology, and Archaeological Anthropology: Perspectives on Method and Theory. The latter is a volume done in honor of William Longacre. Finally, I’ve written a memoir, Bear Cave Hill, which is a coming-of-age story that takes place mostly in 1968, one of the most tumultuous years in American history.

               I have two recent field projects. I was the co-Director, with William Walker, of La Frontera Archaeological Program that focused on the excavation of the Joyce Well site in southwestern New Mexico. That work resulted in the co-edited book The Joyce Well Site: On the Frontier of the Casas Grandes World. I am currently the Director of the Grand Island Research Program, which is dedicated to understanding the prehistory and history of the island located on the south shore of Lake Superior.

I have been married to my beautiful wife, Becky, for over 25 years and we have two great kids, Matt and Sadie.