Meghan C.L. Howey is an anthropological archaeologist specializing in landscape archaeology and interdisciplinary approaches to deep-time coupled human natural systems. She received her B.A. (2000) from the University of Delaware and her M.A. (2002) and Ph.D. (2006) from the University of Michigan. She has conducted research in North America, Europe, and East Africa. One of her major research projects has focused on Native American regional organization in the Northern Great Lakes region in the period preceding European Contact. She has explored how local communities construed and used ceremonial monument centers to facilitate economic, social and ideological interaction in this period. She also examines the critical role of food storage during this period as well. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis, ethnohistoric research and collaboration with local tribal communities enhance her research. Her theoretical and methodological interests include landscape theory, the Anthropocene, geospatial analysis, ritual practices, and early colonialism. Dr. Howey is currently the James H. Hayes and Claire Short Hayes Professor of the Humanities and her project is “A Deep Time, Multi-Archive Narrative of the Anthropocene in the Great Bay”. In this capacity, she is the Director of the Great Bay Archaeological Survey (GBAS), a community-engaged and interdisciplinary archaeology program.
Courses Taught
- ANTH 412: Adventures in Archaeology
- ANTH 514: Method & Theory in Archaeology
- ANTH 699H: Honors Senior Thesis
- ANTH 700: Internship
- ANTH 796: Reading and Research
Research Interests
- Archaeology: anthropocene
- Cultural heritage and sustainability
- Geospatial modeling
- Landscape
- North America
Selected Publications
Howey, M. C. L., & DeLucia, C. M. (2022). Spectacles of Settler Colonial Memory: Archaeological Findings from an Early Twentieth-Century "First" Settlement Pageant and Other Commemorative Terrain in New England. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. doi:10.1007/s10761-021-00635-2
Miller, G. L., Bernardini, W., Carballo, D. M., Feinman, G. M., Henry, E. R., Hill, M. A., . . . Miller, G. L. (2021). Ritual, Labor Mobilization, and Monumental Construction in Small-Scale Societies The Case of Adena and Hopewell in the Middle Ohio River Valley. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY, 62(2), 164-177. doi:10.1086/713764
Howey, M. C. L. (2020). Harnessing Remote Sensing Derived Sea Level Rise Models to Assess Cultural Heritage Vulnerability: A Case Study from the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. SUSTAINABILITY, 12(22). doi:10.3390/su12229429
Howey, M. C. L. (2020). Colonialism, Community, and Heritage in Native New England. PUBLIC HISTORIAN, 42(3), 155-156. Retrieved from https://www.webofscience.com/
Howey, M. C. L. (2020). Other-Than-Human Persons, Mishipishu, and Danger in the Late Woodland Inland Waterway Landscape of Northern Michigan. AMERICAN ANTIQUITY, 85(2), 347-366. doi:10.1017/aaq.2019.102
Howey, M. C. L., & Burg, M. B. (2017). Assessing the state of archaeological GIS research: Unbinding analyses of past landscapes. JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE, 84, 1-9. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2017.05.002
Howey, M. C. L., Palace, M. W., & McMichael, C. H. (2016). Geospatial modeling approach to monument construction using Michigan from AD 1000-1600 as a case study. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 113(27), 7443-7448. doi:10.1073/pnas.1603450113
Howey, M. C. L. (2011). Multiple pathways across past landscapes: circuit theory as a complementary geospatial method to least cost path for modeling past movement. JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE, 38(10), 2523-2535. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.03.024
Howey, M. C. L. (2007). Using multi-criteria cost surface analysis to explore past regional landscapes: a case study of ritual activity and social interaction in Michigan, AD 1200-1600. JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE, 34(11), 1830-1846. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2007.01.002
Howey, M. C. L., & O'Shea, J. M. (2006). Bear's journey and the study of ritual in archaeology. AMERICAN ANTIQUITY, 71(2), 261-282. doi:10.2307/40035905