Hi! I’m Emily from Peru.
I work at the intersection of archaeology, biology, and a bit of anthropology. My background is in biology, but I like to think of myself as a kind of Indiana Jones…just using genomics instead of a whip.
During my PhD (as part of the MSCA SeaChanges project), I worked on ancient DNA (aDNA) from Atlantic walruses at the University of Groningen and the University of Copenhagen. I looked at time periods from about 10,000 years ago to the Medieval period, tracing walrus ivory trade between pre-Inuit cultures and Norse Vikings in northern Greenland.
In my previous postdoc, I focused more on contemporary ivory trade and its importance for Inuit communities. That’s where I really got into the anthropology side of things and learned how important it is to work closely with Arctic Indigenous communities and their heritage.
Now I’ve joined the department as a postdoc to explore elephant ivory trade from the Bronze Age to the Roman period (yes, moving from walruses to elephants!).
I’m really interested in combining different fields and bringing in Indigenous knowledge to build more inclusive and meaningful science. And even if elephants are quite far from birds, I promise they’re just as fascinating!
If you ever want to chat about archaeology (Arctic, Iberian, or African) or history in general, feel free to reach out.
In my free time, I love painting, visiting museums, and going for coffee.
