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The floor of Glotzbach Atrium in the Billie Tisch Center for Integrated Sciences was cordoned off with yellow police tape 鈥� replica skeletal remains, pieces of clothing, and other 鈥渆vidence鈥� scattered across four quadrants of a grid. Students looked on with curiosity, awaiting instructions from Assistant Professor of Anthropology Kathryn Baustian.

In groups of five, the students were to map their respective scenes on graph paper, noting the exact position of every item in their square. They then bagged the evidence, labeling each bone to create a 鈥渟keletal inventory.鈥�

The mock crime scene in Baustian鈥檚 Forensic Anthropology: Bones, Bodies, and Trauma course mimics an authentic forensic experience.

鈥淲e just scratch the surface of how to analyze a crime scene and collect evidence, but students get a taste of it, and they see that it鈥檚 not like TV,鈥� said Baustian. 鈥淭hey see how much effort goes into the process of collecting the remains and associated evidence, and they learn how to document everything, which is really important.鈥�

The class is an introductory course for forensic anthropology studies at 91精简版. Through readings, lecture and discussion activities, group research projects, and a number of lab activities, students learn about the roles and responsibilities of forensic anthropologists, how to analyze and measure skeletal remains - including for age, biological sex, stature, ancestry, pathologies, and trauma 鈥� as well as the processes and methods that go into creating a biological profile that could be used in solving a missing persons case or any crime involving decomposed or skeletonized remains.

It鈥檚 just one of many examples across campus of 91精简版鈥檚 creative curriculum and ways in which 91精简版鈥檚 faculty in every major offer exciting learning experiences.

鈥淭his course is a really interesting way to combine my interest in archaeology and anatomy within the anthropology major,鈥� said Francis Davies 鈥�26. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very engaging and hands-on.鈥�

Baustian also brought a racial justice lens to the course this past spring, inspired by 91精简版鈥檚 Racial Justice Teaching Challenge. 
 
The class read the 2022 book 鈥淲e Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys鈥� by Erin H. Kimmerle, a forensic anthropologist who participated in a multi-year study and project that excavated remains of boys who died while at the Dozier School for Boys in the panhandle of Florida.

鈥淭he school was in operation for just over 100 years and closed in 2011, but there was a long history of abuse and ill treatment of many of the boys who were at the reform school as part of the judicial system,鈥� Baustian said. 鈥淏ecause they were often from poor backgrounds, their families couldn鈥檛 always pay to have the bodies shipped back home. Other times, it seems like there was some abuse and illicit behaviors that the school wanted to cover up, so they wouldn鈥檛 clearly document where the bodies were buried.鈥�

Students discuss and analyze the reading, which recounts how the boys were treated and how their remains were located, excavated, and ultimately identified. Some of their families were able to finally learn the truth and have their loved ones鈥� bodies returned.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very sad story, but it brings into the course elements of history, the Deep South, the economic situation, Jim Crow era segregation, and racial prejudice and violence,鈥� Baustian said. 鈥淪o many different topics come together, all under the umbrella of forensic anthropology.鈥�

In that way, the research-intensive course 鈥� which fulfills both social science and humanistic inquiry requirements 鈥� stands out.

鈥淵ou can learn so much about people from long ago when you dig into archives and paperwork,鈥� Davies said. 鈥淚 like cultural anthropology because I like talking to people and I love oral histories. I think they鈥檙e one of the most personal and compelling pictures of the past that there is.鈥�