Seton Hall University Receives Major Anthropology Grant that will Allow Students to Develop Hands-On Research Experience

Seton Hall University’s Assistant Professor of Anthropology Rhonda Quinn, Ph.D. was recently awarded over $450,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for an award period of five years to pursue research that will engage high school, undergraduate and beginning graduate students with hands-on research and training experience.

The award, made possible through NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER), is one of the foundation’s most prestigious honors, granted to junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars. Quinn will involve students in her interrelated research areas including environments of human evolution and environmental influences on human diet and mobility. The students will learn how to apply stable isotopic analysis to anthropological questions and will generate original data from samples collected from Quinn’s fieldwork around the world.

“I am very excited to bring this program to Seton Hall University,” said Quinn. “It is very rewarding to have the chance to mentor aspiring researchers and provide them with the tools necessary to succeed.”

Quinn will use the funds awarded to support four major components: laboratory enhancements, a three-week summer short course for undergraduate students, two annual undergraduate laboratory assistantships and summer and yearly laboratory research projects for area high school students.

The three-week summer short course will offer students the opportunity to conduct original research under the guidance of Quinn with the chance to highlight their work at the Petersheim Academic Exposition. This unique opportunity will be offered to students at no cost. Additionally, two annual assistantships will provide undergraduate students the opportunity to work and develop their own research projects.

Quinn hopes that this program will introduce students to day-to-day laboratory activities and develop their research skills. “It is my hope that students will build confidence, discover their passions and learn more about their own academic and career paths.”

Through Project SEED (Summer Educational Experience for the Economically Disadvantaged), an American Chemical Society summer research program, and Seton Hall University’s Experiential Learning Initiative with North Star Academy Charter School of Newark, NJ, high school students will be exposed to research and laboratory experience.

Quinn, who is an expert on human paleoecology, paleoenvironments and human diet and mobility, has published articles in Nature, the Journal of Archaeological Science and the Journal of Human Evolution. She has conducted fieldwork in the Turkana Basin of northern Kenya, along the Solo River of Java, on Pacific Islands and in the Yucatan Peninsula.

The program is set to begin June 1, 2015. For more information about the program and involvement opportunities please contact Rhonda Quinn, Ph.D. at rhonda.quinn@shu.edu.