Associate Professor and Honors Director, Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences
Dr. Alice Wright is an anthropological archaeologist broadly interested in the dynamics of cross- cultural encounters and how these interactions transformed communities and the landscapes they occupied. She currently studies pre-Columbian interaction in the Eastern United States, including the Hopewell Interaction Sphere, an exchange network that linked groups across eastern North America during the Middle Woodland period, ca. 100 BC - AD 400.
Recently, she conducted non-invasive surveys and excavations at the Garden Creek site in western North Carolina, focusing on a settlement, mounds and earthworks occupied from ca. 200 BC - AD 400. There, she explored the relationships between community aggregation, monumentality and craft production and exchange. With colleagues from Bryn Mawr College and Sewanee: The University of the South, now she co-directs the Pinson Environment and Archaeology Regional Landscapes (PEARL) Project, a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort tackling the Middle Woodland archaeological record of west Tennessee. She is also developing new field and collections-based projects to explore ancestral Cherokee landscapes in southern Appalachia.
Areas of Expertise
Southeastern United States archaeology, including the Southern Appalachians
Ancestral Cherokee history and heritage
Human-environment interactions in the past
Contemporary fieldwork challenges, including community engagement and gender-based discrimination
×
About Dr. Alice Wright
Dr. Alice Wright is an anthropological archaeologist broadly interested in the dynamics of cross- cultural encounters and how these interactions transformed communities and the landscapes they occupied. She currently studies pre-Columbian interaction in the Eastern United States, including the Hopewell Interaction Sphere, an exchange network that linked groups across eastern North America during the Middle Woodland period, ca. 100 BC - AD 400.
Recently, she conducted non-invasive surveys and excavations at the Garden Creek site in western North Carolina, focusing on a settlement, mounds and earthworks occupied from ca. 200 BC - AD 400. There, she explored the relationships between community aggregation, monumentality and craft production and exchange. With colleagues from Bryn Mawr College and Sewanee: The University of the South, now she co-directs the Pinson Environment and Archaeology Regional Landscapes (PEARL) Project, a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort tackling the Middle Woodland archaeological record of west Tennessee. She is also developing new field and collections-based projects to explore ancestral Cherokee landscapes in southern Appalachia.
Areas of Expertise
Southeastern United States archaeology, including the Southern Appalachians
Ancestral Cherokee history and heritage
Human-environment interactions in the past
Contemporary fieldwork challenges, including community engagement and gender-based discrimination
| Present | Assistant Professor, Appalachian State University ‐ Department of Anthropology | |
|
|
||
| Faculty Member, Appalachian State University ‐ College of Arts and Sciences | ||
|
|
||
Disciplines
Research Interests
Honors and Awards
- C.B. Moore Award, Southeastern Archaeological Conference, 2016
Courses
- Mesoamerican Cultures
- North American Archaeology
- Archaeology and the Human Past
| 2014 | Ph.D., The University Of Michigan ‐ Anthropology | |
|
|
||
| 2010 | M.A., The University Of Michigan ‐ Anthropology | |
|
|
||
| 2007 | B.A., Wake Forest University ‐ Anthropology and English | |
|
|
||
Links
Contact Information
828-262-6384
wrightap2@appstate.edu