I am an active field and lab bioarchaeologist who broadly studies groups that lived in the Bronze and Iron Age southern Levant (c. 2000-1000 BCE). I am currently working at the sites of Ashkelon, Megiddo, and Shimron as a senior staff osteologist.
My research seeks to clarify structures of kinship, maternity, and stress in the past, through biomolecular (aDNA, isotopes) and bone histological analyses. As such, my work is interdisciplinary and attempts to connect the life sciences with the humanistic social sciences.
I received my B.A. from the University in Florida, with a double major in Anthropology and Classical Civilizations (2015). I then earned a M.A. in Human Skeletal Biology from New York University (2017). Now, at Brown University, I am pursuing a Ph.D. at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World alongside a Sc.M. in Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology.
Outside of work, I can be found playing with my adorable dog, Quinn, or refinishing antique furniture.
Academia: https://brown.academia.edu/RachelKalisher
Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rachel-Kalisher
