OFFICIAL BRIDGE LABORATORY SITE
Why BRIDGE Lab?
Bridge is not an acronym; it is a metaphor. As our work considers both the living and the dead, a bridge over the River Styx can symbolize our research. The bridge also emphasizes the connections between biology and culture. We study these connections through methods and data that bridge bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, and human biology.
Our research is explicitly biocultural and question driven, with evolutionary theory at its core. Much of our work focuses on the nature and consequences of inequality. We draw on traditional and cutting edge techniques to study human development, variation, migration, population mixture and drift, stress, morbidity, and mortality.
RESEARCH
Primary Areas of Interest
TOPICS OF STUDY
Research topics focus on the structure of human phenotypic variation, interactions between human culture, history, and biology, and health and wealth disparities now and in the past.
CURRENT PROJECTS
Research projects in the lab draw on methods and materials from bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, and human biology. From an evolutionary perspective, human biological methods inform us about living people with detailed, cross-sectional data, while bioarchaological methods provide less-detailed but longitudinal data.
METHODOLOGIES
Current research utilizes CT scans, dental casts, photomontages of tooth surfaces, photogrammetry of crania, dental morphology, human skeletal analyses, and stable isotope data.
CONTACT US
Anthropology Patio 210
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM, 87131
Bridge Laboratory Director: hjhedgar@unm.edu
