Allison C. Ham

Background

About Allison C. Ham

Allison is a PhD candidate in anthropology specializing in biological anthropology at the University of South Carolina (UofSC). She was awarded a Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Dissertation Fellowship for the 2022-2023 academic year, and is on track to graduate with her degree in May 2023. Her research areas include bioarchaeology and paleodemography. Originally from Arlington, VA, Allison attained her BA in archaeology at the College of Wooster in 2014, and received her MA in anthropology from George Mason University in 2018. During her time at UofSC, Allison has been a laboratory instructor for courses in biological anthropology and served as a graduate peer mentor for the Office of National Fellowships & Scholar Programs. Allison’s dissertation research explores sex-based differences in mortality risks in medieval Ireland. By incorporating historical evidence on context-specific gender ideologies and age-related cultural transitions, she hopes that her dissertation results can shed light on how human biology and culture intersect to produce health disparities, as seen through sex-based variation in skeletal stress marker manifestations, pubertal timing, and mortality patterns. Her doctoral research is funded by a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant and UofSC’s SPARC Graduate Research Grant. She has presented research at several national conferences, including the meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists and the Society for American Archaeologists, and has co-authored papers published in the American Journal of Human Biology and Bioarchaeology International.