Katharine Alexander, RPA
Indiana Lab Director
RPA Registration No. 5461
EDUCATION
Arizona State University, BA Anthropology
University of Alberta, MA Anthropology
University of Kentucky, PhD (ABD, In Progress) Anthropology
NPS QUALIFICATION(S)
Katharine Alexander is the Archaeological Laboratory Director in CRA’s Indiana office. She is currently a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of Kentucky, and experienced with prehistoric and historic archaeology in curatorial, lab, and field settings.
As part of the University of Alberta’s Iringa Region Archaeological Project, Katharine assisted with laboratory processing of artifacts from East African Stone Age and Iron Age sites. While later working for the University of Kentucky’s Program for Archaeological Research, she carried out all aspects of laboratory processing of prehistoric and historic artifacts, as well as background research, technical report writing, and site form preparation, for projects throughout Kentucky. In addition, she has worked extensively in archaeological curation and collections management at the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology and the Arizona State University Anthropology Collections.
Although her duties are now lab-focused, Katharine has served on crews for Phase I, II, and/or III projects primarily in Texas and Kentucky, but also Louisiana, Mississippi, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina, and Virginia, for various companies (including CRA). She has also participated in archaeological fieldwork for academic research in Georgia, Kentucky, and Arizona as well as abroad in France, Spain, and Tanzania.
For her PhD dissertation at the University of Kentucky, she is exploring human-environment relationships and plant use leading to the adoption of domesticated plants in the Lower Ohio River Valley through the analysis of botanical remains from several Middle and Late Archaic period sites. She has also analyzed botanical remains from additional sites spanning the Archaic through Late Prehistoric in Kentucky and Texas, with this work published in technical reports and/or presented at conferences.
In her free time, Katharine enjoys giving attention to her spoiled cat, reading historical fiction novels, and watching horror movies.