The Doctors Are In!

Milestone Achievement for Students and Department

Josh Zaffos

This spring, Kelton Meyer, Ph.D. and Zoey Walder-Hoge, Ph.D. became the first-ever Anthropology Ph.D. students graduated from Colorado State University. The individual achievements also represent a department landmark as the first two students to complete the Anthropology doctoral program since it launched in 2019.

“When I worked to get the program accepted by the university, this was a very hard sell because it’s difficult to explain to scholars not involved with fieldwork how long an Anthropology Ph.D. can actually take to complete,” said Professor Mica Glantz, who oversaw the creation and start of the doctoral program as chair at the time. “We are over-the-moon proud of Kelton and Zoey!”

“I think the fact that our first Ph.D. graduates represent very different corners of anthropology in terms of their scholarship is clear evidence of the broad strength of our young program and the dedication of our faculty mentors.”

Professor Mica Glantz

Meyer, who defended his dissertation in March, has accepted a position as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at University of Wyoming.

“It’s an honor to be the first one to graduate from the Ph.D. program, and to be heading off into a tenure-track job right away is a demonstration of how well-rounded and meaningful the program is, even in its earliest stages,” Meyer said. “I get to wear that badge as I move my home to a new place.”

A Focused Approach to Lithic Scatter in Colorado

Meyer, who completed his Anthropology M.A. at CSU (2019), examined a 12,000-year-old hunter-gatherer campsite in the San Luis Valley for his doctoral research. Known as the Reddin site, the area encompasses a massive array of scattered flakes and materials of stone tools used by Folsom Culture people, roughly 10,000 years ago. “The site is larger than the Vatican City in Rome,” Meyer said, “so I spent my time doing geospatial analysis to figure out why the site was so large, how many occupations there were, and how long people lived there during multiple visits.”

Advised by Prof. Jason LaBelle, Meyer successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, “Modeling Spatial and Temporal Variability in a Folsom Lithic Scatter: Views from the Reddin Site, San Luis Valley, Colorado” this March.

“I was very lucky to work with an amazing collection for my research at Reddin, including artifacts discovered by the Smithsonian and University of Wyoming over 40 years ago, as well as our two amazing CSU field schools in 2021 and 2022,” Meyer said. “I am grateful that Dr. LaBelle involved me in dozens of other field and lab projects over the years, which gave me the experience and context needed to build my own research program.”

“I’ve had a wonderful time working with Kelton over the years,” LaBelle said. “We’ve worked on so many field and lab projects together – beginning as a student and advisor and evolving into research collaborators years later. Kelton has taken advantage of every opportunity that has come his way, while gaining confidence, experience, and leadership skills with each project. I am so happy for his success and the future he has built for himself.”

“Kelton pursued a field-heavy M.A. and Ph.D. project and finished up at breakneck speed and – most impressive of all – he incorporated a strong geographical component to his project,” Glantz added. “His work is a great example of the niche focus of the CSU Anthropology Ph.D. degree.”

As a graduate student, Meyer has worked as an instructor, served as a field and lab director for LaBelle’s Center for Mountain and Plains Archaeology, and helped lead the CSU Archaeology Field School across five field seasons. “During my Ph.D. I was able to teach full sections of courses, including lower- and upper-division classes, advise capstone students and guide independent research projects, and teach field school during the summer,” he said. “Having the experience of working with students at different stages in their academic careers will be hugely beneficial as I start my new job at University of Wyoming.”

“Kelton is vital to the success of the Center for Mountain and Plains Archaeology,” LaBelle added. “He took on a leadership role from the very beginning of his time as a student – and as such, he has not only participated in research projects, but also worked to create, shape, manage, and see projects to their completion as reports and publications. I could think of no better way to learn to be a principal investigator in archaeology.”

Meyer plans to teach courses and seminars on surface archaeology and hunter-gatherer archaeology and to lead his own field school.

“If you asked me in 2016 when I started my M.A. if I could be a professor anywhere in the world, I probably would have said the University of Wyoming. It is a historically significant place for my kind of archaeology, and I get to keep my CSU connections and make new ones nearby,” Meyer added. “Advising new M.A. and Ph.D. students is the part that excites me most right now, but there is so much to choose from. I feel like the luckiest person in the world these days!”

Studying Food and Farming Impacts in Ethiopia

Walder-Hoge defended her doctoral dissertation, “U.S.-Driven Agricultural Development: Narratives, Knowledges, and Practices Directed Towards Northern Ethiopia’s Agro-Pastoral Landscapes” this May. Her project, which built on previous interests and work from her master’s degree at Simon Fraser University in Canada, examined the influences and impacts of U.S. agricultural and international-development policies and initiatives across northern Ethiopia including the consequences to cultural and indigenous farming knowledge and practices and the food that people grow and eat.

“Zoey’s work is an excellent example of how policy development and the sensibilities of theory and method from cultural anthropology work hand in hand to potentially improve people’s lives,” Glantz added.

While at CSU, Walder-Hoge has also been a graduate TA for multiple classes and been active with the Anthropology Graduate Student Society, most recently as the College of Liberal Arts Representative.

A Milestone Moment

Building on an impressive legacy with master’s students and research, CSU Anthropology and Geography launched its doctoral program in 2019. The department designed a place-based program around faculty focus areas across biological anthropology, archaeology, and cultural anthropology as well as geography and geospatial analysis.

“I think the fact that our first Ph.D. graduates represent very different corners of anthropology in terms of their scholarship is clear evidence of the broad strength of our young program and the dedication of our faculty mentors,” Glantz said.

Both students – along with nearly every graduate student in the department – has also benefited from multiple department and university funding and scholarship opportunities that help cover research and travel costs and other expenses.

Meyer received financial support through the Anthropology Scholarship Endowment, specifically established for graduate student research, and the Karen S. Greiner Endowment, as well as project funding via LaBelle’s center through grants and the support of the Jim and Audrey Benedict Fund for Mountain Archaeology.

“The Ph.D. program at CSU was a sweet deal from start to finish, both financially and intellectually,” Meyer said. “I was able to take relevant classes, fit in fieldwork with a busy schedule, make meaningful connections with faculty, gain teaching experience, and chase publication opportunities. I always felt welcomed by the many stellar scholars we have in the department, and the numerous funding opportunities helped me achieve my goals.”

Walder-Hoge also received department and college support as a doctoral student. “Zoey worked hard to navigate and benefit from program funding to complete her research,” Galvin said. “I am very proud that she was one of our first students to complete the program.”

With the first two CSU Anthropology Ph.D.s stepping out into the world, faculty are looking forward to the progress of other doctoral candidates and students and toward charting their impacts and contributions.

“We anticipate two to three additional graduates from the program next year, to round out representation from the sub-disciplines in anthropology currently housed in our department,” Glantz said. “It is exciting to see the results of the vision the department had of a unique Ph.D. program that was designed as a synthesis of our strengths to produce engaging new scholarship and to witness the success of our students.”