Professor The major impacts of my research have been developing approaches for understanding organizational complexity and diversity in Indigenous Pre-Columbian eastern North America and in non-state societies globally. My work as an archaeologist is inherently comparative and multi-scalar and has evolved from the study of settlement aggregation in eastern North America to the development of theories, models, and approaches that productively interrogate the nature of premodern social and political organization across the globe. My most recent contributions focus on the themes of Northern Iroquoian archaeology and radiocarbon chronology building, social network analysis and regional geopolitics, and institutional complexity and comparative governance in pre-modern societies. A message to prospective graduate students: I am interested in recruiting graduate students who can articulate a clear problem orientation and understand the relevance of their research to key themes in anthropological archaeology. Students applying to work with me should reach out early so that we can discuss shared interests and their individual research goals. While I am always interested in recruiting students whose interests intersect with my own research on the Indigenous societies of the Eastern Woodlands, collective governance, social networks, and chronology-building, I am willing to supervise students interested in a wide range of areas and topics. My Google Scholar profile My ORCID profile Of note: 2021 Richard B. Russell Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, UGA 2019 Jacques Dalibard Award, ICOMOS Canada 2013 Award for Excellence in Publishing, Ontario Archaeological Society Research Research Areas: Archaeology Research Interests: Archaeology of eastern North America Settlement patterns Archaeology of households and communities Organizational complexity Archaeology of warfare Multi-scalar analyses Social network analysis Radiocarbon dating and chronological modeling Geophysics Social theory Heritage Cultural resource management Selected Publications Selected Publications: Birch, Jennifer, Turner Hunt, Louis Lesage, Jean-Francois Richard, Linda A. Sioui, and Victor D. Thompson. 2022. The role of radiocarbon dating in advancing Indigenous-led archaeological research agendas. Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 9, 228. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01249-7 Birch, Jennifer. 2022. Premodern Confederacies: Balancing Strategic Collective Action and Local Autonomy. Frontiers in Political Science 4: 807239. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2022.807239 Birch, Jennifer, Sturt W. Manning, Samantha Sanft, and Megan Anne Conger. 2021. Refined Radiocarbon Chronologies for Northern Iroquoian Site Sequences: Implications for coalescence, conflict, and the reception of European goods. American Antiquity 86(1): 61-89. doi:10.1017/aaq.2020.73 Birch, Jennifer and John P. Hart. 2018. Social Networks and Northern Iroquoian Confederacy Dynamics. American Antiquity 83(1): 13-33. https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2017.59 Grants Grants: 2023 Senior Research Grant, National Science Foundation, "Evaluating the Depopulation of the St. Lawrence Valley Integrating Radiocarbon Dating and Indigenous-centered Research Perspectives," PI: Jennifer Birch, Co-PIs: Sturt W. Manning and Brita Lorentzen, $365,726 2022 Riksbankens Jubileumsfond Research Initiation Grant, “Beyond ‘Barbarians': Premodern polities in comparative perspective.” Uppsala Sweden, $12,600 2017 Senior Research Grant, National Science Foundation, "Establishing a High-Resolution Framework for Age Determination," PI: Jennifer Birch, Co-PI: Sturt W. Manning, $200,794 Education Education: PhD, Anthropology, McMaster University, 2010
