Dr. Andrea Waters-Rist is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Western University, Canada, and a Guest Researcher at Leiden University. She previously co-directed the Laboratory for Human Osteoarchaeology in Leiden's Archaeology Faculty. 

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Dr. Andrea Waters-Rist is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Western University, Canada, and a Guest Researcher at Leiden University. She previously co-directed the Laboratory for Human Osteoarchaeology in Leiden's Archaeology Faculty. 

Office days

Flexible, not at the Faculty on a regular basis. 

Research

Dr. Waters-Rist’s expertise includes the isotopic reconstruction of dietary practices, including breastfeeding and weaning, in past populations and the analysis of dental and skeletal diseases and morphological variants. She works with human skeletal material from various geographic areas and temporal periods, predominately post-Medieval Dutch populations, mid-Holocene Siberian hunter-gatherers, and pre-Columbian Nicaraguan agriculturalists.  

Teaching

Anyone interested in Human Osteoarchaeology is invited to enroll in the free MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) entitled "The Truth in Our Bones", taught by Dr. Waters-Rist and offered via Leiden University and Coursera. This course launches every month and consists of 5 modules.  In the 1st module it is shown how age-at-death, sex and stature can be estimated by the close examination of (archaeological) skeletal remains. In the 2nd and 3rd modules it is shown how human bones can provide information about the diseases and injuries with which people suffered and what they ate. In the 4th and 5th modules, it is shown how the human skeleton provides information about the kinds of activities in which people engaged and about how they migrated and moved around their landscapes.
 

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Publications

Activities