91²Ö¿â

2012                    Certificate (Introduction to Ceramics Level 1), Canterbury College, U.K.

2009-2011           Ph.D. (Anthropology), Southern Methodist University, U.S.A.

2007-2009           M.A. (Experimental Archaeology), University of Exeter, U.K.

2005-2007           M.A. (Anthropology), Southern Methodist University, U.S.A.

2001-2005           A.B. (Anthropology), Harvard College, U.S.A.

Broadly, I am interested in how Paleolithic (Stone Age) technology functions and evolves via a Darwinian system of descent with modification, and how technology helped hominins survive on the landscape, especially during dispersals into new and unknown territory. I address my research questions at different analytical scales, which is why I have conducted and published research on topics throughout the entire Pleistocene (i.e., Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic). As a comparative benchmark to my Pleistocene research, I have also found it useful to pursue and publish research questions involving non-human primates, as well as on later Holocene, and even historical, archaeological contexts. While my specialty and main interest is flaked stone technology, my research also at times involves other materials (e.g., ceramics, metals, etc.).

I have found that throwing a wide geographic net over my research interests results in new testable ideas or theoretical perspectives. To date, I have led or conducted research in North America (Canada, Colorado, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin), Europe (Denmark, France, Ireland, Norway, Republic of Georgia, Turkey, United Kingdom [U.K.]), Asia (China, India, Japan, Oman), and Africa (South Africa, Tanzania). Additionally, I have recently conducted and published research on collections from Russia (Siberia), Antarctica, Virginia, and Kentucky. I have also led, or co-led, fieldwork projects throughout my career at prominent sites such as Olduvai Gorge, Paleo Crossing, and Goodson Shelter; and participated in fieldwork at notable sites like Mumba Rockshelter, Dmanisi, Lindenmeier, and Mountaineer, among others.

I was a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Fellow from 2006 to 2011, and a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow from 2011 to 2013. Since then, my senior-level research has been funded by the NSF, the Ohio History Connection, the Royal Society (U.K.), the European Research Commission (ERC), the Ohio Department of Education, the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), the Spanish Ministry of Science, the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, the U.S. Department of Energy, among others.

I founded, and currently co-direct, the 91²Ö¿â Experimental Archaeology Laboratory, so it perhaps goes without saying that I conduct lots of laboratory and field experiments on tool function, taphonomy and post-depositional processes, craft production, and so on. Along those lines, I am flintknapper with 22 years of regular practice and experience, and able to replicate some of the most difficult flaked stone technologies (Levallois, Clovis, Folsom, Solutrean, etc.). For those academic and hobby knappers with interests in such things, my two knapping mentors were Bruce Bradley (in England between 2007-2009) and the late Robert J. Patten (2009-2017). I also had two weeks of intense knapping instruction from Jacques Pelegrin in France in 2008.

I have growing interests in forensics (for example, see my latest in Forensic Sciences Research: ), and I like to tinker and invent, with one patent under my belt (and another pending).

I have no personal social media accounts, but can be reached at meren@kent.edu. I often send emails outside business hours; I do not expect immediate replies. I also have gotten into the bad (or healthy?) habit of answering many emails after a period of time, which may be several days, or longer. So please be patient if I do not reply immediately.