The Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences Department congratulates our students for being named to the Dean’s List for spring 2025. Students receive this recognition for each semester in which they earn a GPA of 3.25 or higher while taking a minimum of 12 credits.
Faculty and students from the Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences Department traveled to Denver to participate in the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting. They chaired sessions, presented on their ongoing work, participated in the SAA Ethics Bowl, and represented IUP and the Applied Archaeology program at the Cultural Resource Management Expo.
During the thirty-first annual Research Awards Reception at IUP, three Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences faculty members were recognized for outstanding scholarly activities.
The Pennsylvania Governor’s Awards for Local Government Excellence honored public officials at an April 2025 ceremony at the Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg, which included multiple authorities with graduates from the IUP Planning program in leadership positions.
Ken Coles will present “The Centennial of the Planetarium!”, a planetarium show celebrating 100 years since the first planetarium opened to the public in Germany. The show will review a few of the things a planetarium can show, along with recent discoveries from the Webb Space Telescope and the Bennu asteroid sample return.
Five IUP archaeology graduate students from the Department of Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences received awards and scholarships at the ninety-fourth annual meeting of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology.
Kevin Patrick and John Benhart, of the Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences Department, attended the National Association of American Geographers conference in March 2025.
The Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences Department had 56 students who presented at the twentieth annual IUP Scholars Forum on April 9, 2025. They gave both oral and poster presentations, and two applied archaeology graduate students participated in the Three-Minute Thesis Competition.
IUP archaeology graduate students from the Department of Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences traveled to Dubois, Pennsylvania, to present their work at the ninety-fourth annual meeting of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology.
IUP Anthropology faculty Amanda Poole and Abigail Adams, along with four IUP undergraduate students, participated in an academic panel at the eighty-fifth annual Society for Applied Anthropology Meetings held March 25–29 in Portland, Oregon.
Faculty and students of the IUP Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences Department traveled to Erie, PA to present at the Northeast-North Central Regional Geological Society of America Meeting. Their talks highlighted their ongoing research and demonstrated the diversity and synergy within the department.
IUP students, including advanced undergraduate and graduate students, joined Dr. Palmiotto in the field with their archaeological colleagues from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) Heritage Trust Program. There the team conducted investigations of sites within Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve in Charleston County, visited the iconic Fig Island Shell Ring complex, and met with representatives of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation (MCN).
The IUP Cejka Planetarium will host a chance to view and learn about our telescopes, and if it is a clear night, we’ll also observe the Moon and sky.
Professor Emeritus John Taylor and colleagues published a new study based on faunal collections from a 50-meter interval of the Jones Ridge Limestone in easternmost Alaska. The study provided new, detailed faunal range data across the base of the North American Ibexian Series and geochemical data that confirm an associated shift in ocean chemistry.
Professor Emeritus John Taylor published a new study on the taxonomy and stratigraphic distribution of Lotagnostus (Agnostida: Agnostidae) and associated trilobites and conodonts with IUP alumni James D. Loch ’83 and John E. Repetski ’69.
The National Hispanic Institute has recognized IUP student Marisol Gonzalez Flores as one of its College Students of the Year 2024.
Molly Patterson, Binghamton University, will present a seminar on the “Catchment Sensitivities of the West and East Antarctic Ice Sheets to Orbital Forcing During the Mid- to Late Pliocene” at the Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences Seminar on Friday, March 28, in Kopchick 102 from 11:15 to 12:15.
Ken Coles will present “Back to Venus” at the Cejka Planetarium. Come explore Venus!
IUP's Cejka Planetarium has announced the Spring 2025 schedule.
Ken Coles will present a seminar, “A Paleozoic Jackpot in Nevada: Starved Deposition Can Feed Us a Lot of Information,” at the Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences Department Seminar Series on Friday, February 14, in Kopchick 102 from 11:15 to 12:15.
There are laws of science, but true science changes. That’s what excites John Benhart, a professor in IUP’s Department of Anthropology, Geospatial, and Earth Sciences. Learn more about him in this Meet Our Faculty feature.
The Department of Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences congratulates our students named as Provost Scholars. To be named a Provost Scholar, students must have earned a minimum of 45 semester hours at IUP with a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or higher. Provost Scholar recognition is given only once during a student’s time of study at IUP.
The Department of Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences congratulates our students for being named to the Dean’s List for fall 2024. Students receive this recognition for each semester in which they earn a GPA of 3.25 or higher while taking a minimum of 12 credits.
A team of IUP students presented their research at the Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative (ACRI), a grant-funded program of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). The 2024 ACRI conference, held December 6–7 in Washington, D.C., featured projects from students representing 15 colleges and universities. These projects addressed a range of pressing regional issues, from economic revitalization to environmental sustainability, showcasing innovative, community-centered solutions.
Dr. Amanda Poole, Professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences, recently participated in the 66th African Studies Association (ASA) Annual Meeting, held in Chicago, Illinois, from December 12–14, 2024. The ASA Annual Meeting, the largest gathering of Africanist scholars in the world, is the flagship event of the association and brought together over 2,000 scholars and professionals under the theme Global Africa.