Meet Our Faculty and Staff
Our department has fourteen core faculty and a number of lecturers that cover the broad spectrum of anthropology. With a regional focus on the Pacific Rim, our anthropologists work locally here in San Diego and southern California, as well as internationally in Mexico (Baja California, Oaxaca, and Campeche), the Solomon Islands, and Indonesia.
Important Contacts
Department Chair
Matthew Lauer
Office: AL-448A | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Undergraduate Advisor
Isaac Ullah
Office: AL-480 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Graduate Advisor
Nicole Mathwich
Office: AL-486 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Administrative Coordinator
Iris Isla
Office: AL-448
Phone: (619) 594-8450
Email: [email protected]
Tenured & Tenure-Track Faculty
Todd Braje, Ph.D.
Professor - On Leave
Office: HT-137
Email: [email protected]
Interests: Marine Historical Ecology; Coastal Archaeology
Amanda Kearney, Ph.D.
Professor
Office: AL-421 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Interests: Applied Anthropology/Engaged Anthropology, Socio-cultural Anthropology,
Ethnography, Indigenous land and sea rights
Matthew Lauer, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Chair
Office: AL-448A | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Interests: Environmental Anthropology
Seth W. Mallios, Ph.D.
Professor & Director, South Coastal Information Center
Office: AL-472 | Office Hours
Phone: (619) 594-4748
Email: [email protected]
Interests: Historical Archaeology, Economic Anthropology
Nicole Mathwich, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor & Graduate Advisor
Office: AL-486 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Interests: Archaeology, Columbian Exchange
Arion T. Mayes, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Office: AL-413 | Office Hours
Phone: (619) 594-4708
Email: [email protected]
Interests: Bioarchaeology, Dental Anthropology
Vijayanka Nair, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Office: AL-476 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Interests: Sociocultural Anthropology, South Asia
Oliver Paine, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Office: AL-459 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Interests: Paleoanthropology, early hominin feeding ecology
Ramona L. Pérez, Ph.D.
Professor & Director, Center for Latin American Studies
Office: AL-377 | Office Hours
Phone: (619) 594-1155
Email: [email protected]
Interests: Food and Nutrition, Migration and Identity
Erin P. Riley, Ph.D.
Professor & Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies
Office: AL-457 | Office Hours
Email:[email protected]
Interests: Ethnoprimatology, Environmental Anthropology
Erika Robb Larkins, Ph.D.
Professor & Director Center for Brazilian Studies
Office: AL-626
Phone: (619) 594-5028
Email: [email protected]
Interests: Violence and inequality in urban settings, Brazil
Casey Roulette, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Office: AL-484 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Interests: Evolutionary Anthropology; Human Biology
Elisa Sobo, Ph.D.
Professor & Director of CAL Undergraduate Research
Office: AL-411 | Office Hours
Phone: (619) 594-6591
Email: [email protected]
Interests: Medical Anthropology, Anthropology of Childhood
Isaac Ullah, Ph.D.
Associate Professor & Undergraduate Advisor
Office: AL-480 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Interests: Computational Archaeology, Social-Ecological Systems
Lecturers & Associated Faculty
Trudi Andres
Office: AL-459 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Shannon B. Black
Office: SH 231 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Keith Chan, Ph.D.
Office: AL-417 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Carlos Figueroa Beltran, Ph.D.
Office: AL-377 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Cheryl Hinton
Office: AL-478 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
David Kamper
Office: AL-331B | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Jocelyn Killmer, Ph.D.
Office: AL-455 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Sam D. Kobari
Office: AL-474 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Jaime Lennox
Office: AL-482 | Office Hours
Phone: (619) 594-4575
Email: [email protected]
Camila Pierobon
Office: AL-521 | Office Hours
Phone: (619) 594-4771
Email: [email protected]
Savanna Schuermann
Office: AL-478 | Office Hours
Email: [email protected]
Joseph W. Ball
(Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, Madison 1973) Mesoamerican culture history, ceramic
analysis
Email: [email protected]
Frederick Conway
(Ph.D. American University 1978) Cultural Anthropology, applied anthropology, sustainability,
the environment and language
Email: [email protected]
Lynn H Gamble
(Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara 1991) Complex hunter-gatherers, development
of socio-political complexity, archaeological method & theory, anthropological ethics,
European contact in North America, ethnoarchaeology, exchange, Cultural Resource Management;
California, North America
Philip J Greenfeld
(Ph.D. University of Arizona 1972) Linguistics, cognitive anthropology, Athapaskan
speakers, history of theory; US Southwest, Northern Mexico
Email: [email protected]
Ronald S Himes
(Ph.D. University of Hawai’i 1972) Cultural Anthropology, linguistics, historical
linguistics and dialectology; Philippines, Southeast Asia
Email: [email protected]
Lois K Lippold
(Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison 1971) Physical anthropology, primate ecology
and behavior, osteology, environmental archaeology, zooarchaeology; Latin America,
Vietnam, SE Asia
Email: [email protected]
Mary Jane Moore
(Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison 1971) Biological Anthropology, human biology,
genetics, medical anthropology, aging, nutritional anthropology, reproduction; Appalachia
Email: [email protected]
Wade C Pendleton
(Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley 1970) Applied, urban, research methods,
data analysis, computers; Africa, North America
Email: [email protected]
Vivian J Rohrl
(Ph.D. University of Minnesota 1967) Art, social anthropology, applied anthropology,
culture and personality, legal anthropology; China, Europe, North America
Email: [email protected]
Gary O Rollefson
(Ph.D. University of Arizona 1978) Old World archaeology, Paleolithic, Neolithic,
lithic analysis
Email: [email protected]
Lawrence C Watson
(Ph.D. University of California, Los Angles 1967) Psychological anthropology, the
individual and culture, ethnology; South America
Dan Whitney
(J.D. WSU 1976; Ph.D. Michigan State University 1968) Sociocultural anthropology,
law and society, environmental law, recreation and public land use; Japan, Okinawa
Email: [email protected]
Michael G Baksh
(Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles) Cultural ecology, culture change, time
allocation, cultural resource management, applied ethnography; Peruvian Amazon, Southern
California, Native North Americans
Email: [email protected]
G Timothy Gross
(Ph.D. Washington State University 1987) Hunter-gatherers, early agriculture, site
formation processes, food shortage-facilities, curation, lithic technology; Western
North America
Email: [email protected]
Madeleine M Richeport-Haley
(Ph.D. New York University 1975; Adj Professor) Medical anthropology, psychological
anthropology, visual anthropology; Caribbean, Brazil
Dominique Rissolo
(Ph.D. University of California, Riverside 2001) Maritime trade, cave archaeology,
rock art, ceramics; Mesoamerica, Caribbean
Email: [email protected]
Jennifer Roulette
(Ph.D. Washington State University 2019) Medical anthropology, human development,
childhood and culture, ethnobiology, prevention science, ethnographic methods; Sub-Saharan
Africa; Agro-pastoralists, hunter-gatherers and horticulturalists
Email: [email protected]
Jennifer Sime
(Ph.D. Columbia University 2009) Anthropology of religion, mass media (particularly
visual media), the politics of memory, social theory, and anthropology of the body;
Spain, Europe, and Latin America
Chia L Tan
(Ph.D. State University of New York, Stony Brook 2000) Primate ecology, behavior,
reproduction, development, social structure, and conservation, Rhinopithecus, Hapalemur;
China, Vietnam, Madagascar
Email: [email protected]
Jennifer T Taschek
(Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, Madison 1981) Archaeological field methods and techniques,
instrument mapping and survey, technical illustration and drafting, archaeological
excavation and conservation, Maya archaeology and cultural history, Maya ideology
and urban design, faunal analysis
Rose A Tyson
(M.A. San Diego State University 1973) Physical anthropology, museology