Lauren Norman
- Assistant Professor
- Social and Behavioral Sciences Anthropology
- College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
- Ph.D., University of Toronto, 2015
- Fall 2025 Office Hours: Mondays 10am - 11am and Wednesdays 12pm - 1pm in 610 Fraser Hall, and by appointment - send email to lauren_norman@ku.edu
- I am accepting new graduate students for the January 2026 NEW graduate application review.
Contact Info
1415 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
Personal Links
Education —
Research —
Research Areas: Zooarchaeology analysis, environmental archaeology, ancient faunal DNA, small-scale societies, environmental archaeology, community collaboration. North America, Arctic
My research examines the resilience of small-scale societies during periods of environmental and social change. I employ molecular methods to supplement traditional studies of faunal material in investigating the relationship between people and their environment. I am especially interested in community-based research with northern communities and multi-vocal interpretations of the past.
Teaching —
ANTH 177 Pets in the Past (First Year Seminar)
HNRS 190 Archaeology as Storytelling (Honors First Year Seminar)
ANTH 304 Fundamentals of Biological Anthropology
ANTH 305/505 Archaeology of the North American Arctic
ANTH 401 Integrating Archaeology (capstone)
ANTH 418/419 Summer/Training in Archaeological Fieldwork
ANTH 500 Topics in Archaeology: Historical Archaeology
ANTH 521 Zooarchaeology
ANTH 849 Seminar in Archaeology: People and Animals
ANTH 895 Graduate Teaching in Anthropology
Selected Publications —
Krus, Anthony M., Lauren E. Y. Norman, Sarah L. Unkel, Justin Tackney, Anne M. Jensen, Dennis H. O’Rourke. (Submitted). Birnirk-Thule social relationships reexamined in light of a context-appropriate chronology for the Alaska North Slope.
Norman, Lauren E. Y., Claire Alix, Owen K. Mason, Dennis O’Rourke. (2025). Variations on a theme: Comparison of precolonial Iñupiaq cultural landscapes through subsistence strategies at Cape Espenberg, Alaska. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2025.2537079.
Alix, Claire, Lauren E. Y. Norman, Anthony Krus, Juliette Taieb, Shelby Anderson, Dennis O’Rourke, and Owen K. Mason. (2025). The Birnirk to Thule transition as viewed from radiocarbon and tree-ring dating within two adjacent houses at Cape Espenberg, Northwest Alaska. American Antiquity. https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2025.21
Unkel, Sarah L., Lauren E. Y. Norman, Justin Tackney, Anthony M. Krus, Anne E. Jensen, Claire Alix, Owen Mason, and Dennis O’Rourke. (2022). Genetic analysis of Birnirk Inuit from the Alaskan North Slope. Arctic 75(1): 121-132. https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic74916
Reuther, Joshua D., Scott Shirar, Owen K. Mason, Shelby Anderson, Joan B. Coltrain, Adam Freeburg, Peter M. Bowers, Claire Alix, Christyann M. Darwent, and Lauren E. Y. Norman. (2021). Marine reservoir effects in seal (Phocidae) bones in the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas, northwestern Alaska. Radiocarbon 63(1): 301-309. https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2020.127.
Vanlandeghem, Marine, Bruno C. Desachy, Tammy Y. Buonasera, Lauren E. Y. Norman, Isabelle Théry-Parisot, Alain Carré, Christopher Petit, Michelle Elliott, and Claire Alix. (2020). Ancient arctic pyro-technologies: Experimental fires to document the impact of animal origin fuels on wood combustion. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 33: 102414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102414
Braymer-Hayes, Katelyn, Shelby Anderson, Claire Alix, Christyann M. Darwent, John Darwent, Owen Mason, and Lauren E. Y. Norman. (2020). Studying pre-contact gendered use of space in the Arctic: Spatial analysis of ceramics in northwestern Alaska. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 58: 101165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101165