Dental Anthropology Association in Cleveland, Ohio
Last week was the 88th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (soon to be American Association of Biological Anthropologists, ETA 2020) in Cleveland, Ohio. Over the course of the four days (March 27-30), members of the DAA participated in a variety of events, including a large number of poster and podium presentations, our annual workshop, speed networking, happy hour, and our business meeting. Several of our events are summarized below.
Workshop
Every year, the DAA hosts a workshop related to a topic in dental anthropology. This year, the workshop concentrated on Dental Development, with guest speakers Helen Liversidge, Ph.D., and Kyra Stull, Ph.D. Dr. Liversidge explored the various methods related to aging subadult individuals, and the advantages and disadvantages of these methods. Participants practiced six case studies to test their knowledge. The workshop concluded with Dr. Stull presenting her program “kidstats,” and its use of Bayesian statistics for aging estimations.
Speed Networking and Happy Hour
This year, students and professionals were able to mingle and network at our speed networking event. Based on the concept of speed-dating, this new format replaced our previous “Lets do Lunch,” giving students the opportunity to meet a variety of professionals with various specialties, as well as other students. After the formal networking concluded, the DAA hosted a happy hour to encourage more informal conversation. With over thirty participants, this event was a great success!
Passing the Gavel
At this year’s Business Meeting, Heather Edgar concluded her term as President, and passed the gavel to now-President Dr. Daniel Antoine. Dr. Marin Pilloud (co-editor of the Dental Anthropology Journal) was announced as the new President-elect. Additionally, other election winners were announced, with Emily Moes becoming the new Student Member and Emma Lagan re-elected as Communications Officer. Congratulations to all new members!
Student Prize Winners
The Dental Anthropology Association is proud to support student research through two awards: the Dahlberg Paper Competition and the CUP Poster Competition.
This year’s Dahlberg Prize winner was Anna L.M. Rautman, of the University of New Mexico, for her paper “Childhood Variation in Skeletal and Dental Development.”
This year’s three CUP Poster Competition Winners were: Luke Fannin (pictured below, left) of Dartmoth College for his poster, “Frequency of Enamel Chipping in Tai Forest Cercopithecids: Implications for Dietary Reconstruction in the Fossil Record”; Jennifer Nelson (pictured below, right) of the University of Alberta for her poster “Do Teeth Forming in Different Early Life Periods Show Differential Discrepancy with Known Age?”, and Nina Maaranen of Bournemouth University for her poster “Hyskos in Egypt—Utilizing Biodistance Methods to Interpret Archaeological adn Textural Evidence from Tell el-Dab’a” .
Congratulations to all the participants, and many thanks to our judges: Greg Nelson, Dan Temple, Richard Scott, Kathleen Paul, and Scott Burnett.
Onward!
We look forward to continuing to share Dental Anthropology news with you as the year continues. Stay tuned for new journal releases, updates to the website, and announcements for next year’s meetings!