headshot of Meghan Howey

Meghan Howey

Center Director, Anthropology
PROFESSOR
James H. Hayes and Claire Short Hayes Professor of the Humanities
Phone: (603) 862-2518
Office: Anthropology, Huddleston Hall, Durham, NH 03824

Meghan C.L. Howey is an anthropological archaeologist specializing in landscape archaeology and interdisciplinary approaches to deep-time coupled human natural systems. She received her B.A. (2000) from the University of Delaware and her M.A. (2002) and Ph.D. (2006) from the University of Michigan. She has conducted research in North America, Europe, and East Africa. One of her major research projects has focused on Native American regional organization in the Northern Great Lakes region in the period preceding European Contact. She has explored how local communities construed and used ceremonial monument centers to facilitate economic, social and ideological interaction in this period. She also examines the critical role of food storage during this period as well. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis, ethnohistoric research and collaboration with local tribal communities enhance her research. Her theoretical and methodological interests include landscape theory, the Anthropocene, geospatial analysis, ritual practices, and early colonialism. Dr. Howey is currently the James H. Hayes and Claire Short Hayes Professor of the Humanities and her project is “A Deep Time, Multi-Archive Narrative of the Anthropocene in the Great Bay”. In this capacity, she is the Director of the Great Bay Archaeological Survey (GBAS), a community-engaged and interdisciplinary archaeology program.

Courses Taught

  • ANTH 412: Adventures in Archaeology
  • ANTH 514: Method & Theory in Archaeology
  • ANTH 699H: Honors Senior Thesis
  • ANTH 700: Internship
  • ANTH 796: Reading and Research

Education

  • Ph.D., Anthropological Archaeology, University of Michigan
  • M.A., Anthropology, University of Michigan
  • M.A., Archaeology, University of Michigan
  • B.A., Anthropology, University of Delaware
  • B.A., Political Science, University of Delaware

Research Interests

  • Archaeology: anthropocene
  • Cultural heritage and sustainability
  • Geospatial modeling
  • Landscape
  • North America

Selected Publications

  • Howey, M. C. L., & DeLucia, C. M. (2022). Spectacles of Settler Colonial Memory: Archaeological Findings from an Early Twentieth-Century "First" Settlement Pageant and Other Commemorative Terrain in New England. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. doi:10.1007/s10761-021-00635-2

  • Miller, G. L., Bernardini, W., Carballo, D. M., Feinman, G. M., Henry, E. R., Hill, M. A., . . . Miller, G. L. (2021). Ritual, Labor Mobilization, and Monumental Construction in Small-Scale Societies The Case of Adena and Hopewell in the Middle Ohio River Valley. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY, 62(2), 164-177. doi:10.1086/713764

  • Howey, M. C. L. (2020). Harnessing Remote Sensing Derived Sea Level Rise Models to Assess Cultural Heritage Vulnerability: A Case Study from the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. SUSTAINABILITY, 12(22). doi:10.3390/su12229429

  • Howey, M. C. L. (2020). Colonialism, Community, and Heritage in Native New England. PUBLIC HISTORIAN, 42(3), 155-156. Retrieved from https://www.webofscience.com/

  • Howey, M. C. L. (2020). Other-Than-Human Persons, Mishipishu, and Danger in the Late Woodland Inland Waterway Landscape of Northern Michigan. AMERICAN ANTIQUITY, 85(2), 347-366. doi:10.1017/aaq.2019.102

  • Howey, M. C. L., & Burg, M. B. (2017). Assessing the state of archaeological GIS research: Unbinding analyses of past landscapes. JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE, 84, 1-9. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2017.05.002

  • Howey, M. C. L., Palace, M. W., & McMichael, C. H. (2016). Geospatial modeling approach to monument construction using Michigan from AD 1000-1600 as a case study. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 113(27), 7443-7448. doi:10.1073/pnas.1603450113

  • Howey, M. C. L. (2011). Multiple pathways across past landscapes: circuit theory as a complementary geospatial method to least cost path for modeling past movement. JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE, 38(10), 2523-2535. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.03.024

  • Howey, M. C. L. (2007). Using multi-criteria cost surface analysis to explore past regional landscapes: a case study of ritual activity and social interaction in Michigan, AD 1200-1600. JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE, 34(11), 1830-1846. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2007.01.002

  • Howey, M. C. L., & O'Shea, J. M. (2006). Bear's journey and the study of ritual in archaeology. AMERICAN ANTIQUITY, 71(2), 261-282. doi:10.2307/40035905

  • Most Cited Publications