I am a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Virginia.  My research focuses on the categories archaeologists use to consider the social organization of Native groups in prehistory.  I am primarily interested in elucidating the complexity of Native social organization in the Middle Atlantic region, A.D. 1000-1665.  In my dissertation I use GIS to explore how the distributions of smoking pipes in the region reveals social dynamics or networks.  I suggest that identifying such social relationships, which are often ignored in archaeological research, impacts our understandings of how Native communities were interacting and signaling certain aspects of their identity.

I am also particularly interested in Public Anthropology and Community outreach.

I can be reached at bollwerk [at] virginia.edu.