CE Credit: 1 CM
Forensic Anthropology is the study of decomposing and skeletal remains in a suspicious setting. This involves establishing a biological profile, including age, sex, ancestry, and stature of the individual, and helping the police narrow down the list of possible matches. Texas State University - San Marcos Department of Anthropology is unique for the fact that it has the second and largest outdoor decomposition facility in the world, also known as The Forensic Anthropology Research Facility. The Anthropology Research Facility assists local and national researchers and law enforcement in training opportunities as well as understanding the postmortem interval. The Research Facility also allows for the remains to be curated in perpetuity, creating one of the world's most modern skeletal collections.
Speaker Bio
Kelly Sauerwein is a second-year Anthropology graduate student at Texas State University-San Marcos concentrating in Forensic Anthropology. She received her BA from Tulane University and has an MA in Social Psychology from the University of California, Davis. Her interests include taphonomy, skeletal biology, and zooarchaeology. Her current research focuses on the use of skeletal staining to reconstruct past events, including time since death and depositional context.