Biography
Dr. Williams a bioarchaeologist specializing in research of human health and diet. She received her PhD in 2008 from University of Western Ontario and was awarded the Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal in 2009. She has been a member of the Dakhleh Oasis Project in Egypt since 2002, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven project at Dayr al-Barsha in Egypt since 2006, and also works with various archaeological projects in Europe, the Near East, and Mesoamerica. The central goal of Dr. Williams’ research is to better understand the synergistic complexities among biological, social and physical environments in the past. She focuses particularly on isotopic and elemental analysis of hair, seasonality in fertility and disease, musculoskeletal biomechanics and patterns of activity, and placement of the dead in the physical and social landscapes.
Dr. Williams’ research contributions have been published in journals such as the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, American Antiquity, and Practical Diabetes International. She has published a book titled Forensic Recovery of Human Remains: Archaeological Approaches, 2nd Edition (with co-authors T. Dupras, J. Schultz, and S. Wheeler, CRC Press, 2011). Dr. Williams joined the faculty in 2013 and teaches Life and Death in Ancient Egypt, Human Biological Diversity, Medical Anthropology, Nutritional Anthropology, History of Anthropological Thought, Forensic Archaeology Field Methods, and Seminar in Biological Anthropology.
