2012-2017
University of Chicago
I am in my fifth year of graduate study as a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. My dissertation research utilizes archaeological and paleoethnobotanical analyses to investigate the dynamics of religious institutionalization and the politics of kingly patronage through the medium of foodways at royal institutions--known as asramas-- during the formative phase (9th-10th centuries A.D.) of the Khmer Empire at Angkor, Cambodia. More specifically, my research seeks to examine the material dimensions of foodways as symbolic reflections and generative media of identity and to investigate how political legitimacy is established and justified through the (literal) sustenance of religious institutions. During the Autumn semester 2012, I will be training in paleoethnobotanical methods under the direction of Dr. Christine Hastorf at the University of California, Berkeley.
