Current Graduate Students

(Thesis Committee Member Chairing Role marked with asterisk, other roles as indicated)

Xi Qiao, Western Michigan University, Department of Statistics, conducting epigenomic and epigenetic aging analyses, 2020-2023. Straight is Thesis committee member. NSF #1728743.

Former Students

(Thesis Committee Member Chairing Role marked with asterisk, list incomplete for pre-2010 defenses)

Jackson Plemmons, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Anthropology, Conducted field research in northern Kenya Summer 2022, co-supervised with Charles Hilton, NSF #1728743.

Diandra Allen, State University of New York at Albany, Department of Anthropology, Conducted field research in northern Kenya Summer 2018, co-supervised with Charles Hilton, NSF #1728743.

Stephanie Morgan Haft, Western Michigan University, Department of Psychology, Conducted field research in northern Kenya Summer 2018. Prof Straight was thesis committee member. NSF #1728743.

Erica Tyler, State University of New York at Albany Department of Anthropology, Conducted field research in northern Kenya Summer 2017, NSF #1430860.

Brianna Forbis, Western Michigan Department of Psychology, Conducted field research in northern Kenya Summer 2016, NSF #1430860.

Giordano Marmone 2017 Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense - served as external Ph.D. Committee member (Ph.D. Thesis "Danser et chanter un système d'âge: Anthropologie musicale des Samburu (Kenya)")

Seth Allard* 2017 (Thesis “Guided by the Spirits: The Meanings of Life, Death and Youth Suicide in an Ojibwa Community”)

Sonja Johnson* 2017 (Internship MA at the Kingman Museum, BattleCreek, Michigan)

Kiana Sakimehr* 2017 (Thesis "A Study of Empathy in the Context of Religious Identity in the United States"), Currently Ph.D. student at Michigan State University (Anthropology)

Shannon Sheffey* 2017 (Thesis “Women’s Role in their Reproductive Process: The Effects of Authoritative Knowledge and Biomedical Interventions on the American Birth Experience”)

Marcia Taylor* 2017 (TEST Thesis “Alaska Native Artifacts; Eskimos and Aleuts of the Bering Sea Rhythm of the Sea Collection”)

David Brown 2016 (Thesis “Using Photography as an Anthropological Approach to Studying Culture at the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School, 1893-1934”), Currently MA-Ph.D. student at University of Chicago (Social Sciences)

Brandon Soderman 2016 (Thesis on Consensus and Generalized Reciprocity in Kalamzoo)

Shohei Yoshida* 2016 (Thesis, “Interaction between Human Experience, Landscape, and Coffee Production in the Blue Mountain Region of Jamaica”)

MaryKate Bodnar 2015(Thesis, “Breastfeeding with the Bronson Mothers’ Milk Bank”) , Currently Ph.D. student at Michigan State University (Anthropology)

Paige Edwards 2014 (Thesis, “Owning Our Food System: Urban Community Gardening and Local Food Movements”)

Rieti Gengo 2014 (Thesis, “Race Becomes Biology”: Co-Occurring Oral and Systemic Disease as Embodiment of Structural Violence in an American Skeletal Sample”), Currently Ph.D. student at University of Notre Dame (Anthropology and Peace Studies)

Ashleigh Dunham* 2013 (“Silence, Declaration, and Circumstance: Rethinking Women’s Roles in Saudi Arabia”)

Diane Roushangar* 2013 (Thesis, “Refugee Reflections: A Focus on the Lived Experiences of Africans Resettling in Michigan”), Currently Ph.D. student at Western Michigan University (Sociology)

Stephen Damm 2012 (Thesis, “The Age of Consumption: A Study of Consumer (and Producer) Behavior and the Household”)

Autumn Shroyer 2012 (Thesis, “Religious Rx: The Roles of Faith and a Religious Community in the Management of Mental Illness”)

Truus Friso-Engeln 2011 (Thesis on language and immigrant identity)

LisaMarie Malischke 2009 (Thesis, “The Excavated Bead Collection at Fort St. Joseph (20BE23) and its Implications for Understanding Adornment, Ideology, Cultural Exchange and Identity”)

Cleothia Gill 2008 (Accepted into Michigan State University MPH Program after MA)

Adriana Rosas* 2007 (Thesis, “Kalamazoo Homeless Action Network (KHAN)”).

Patrick Lindsay 2006 (accepted into University of Michigan-Milwaukee Ph.D. program after MA)

Kiragu Wambuii 2004 (outside member, Ph.D, Political Science)

Christopher Sweetapple* 2003 (Honors College Thesis on Turkish guest workers in Berlin), Currently Ph.D. Candidate at University of Massachusetts, Amherst..