The Department of Anthropology has a strong reputation for its work in Great Lakes studies.  These efforts include activities in research, teaching, and outreach.  The Department sees itself as having a primary focus in this area, and the breadth and depth of activities supports this view.

The Department of Anthropology has five archaeologists (Chartkoff, Goldstein, Lewis, Lovis, and O'Gorman) and at least two cultural anthropologists (Krouse, DeLind) who are actively engaged in Great Lakes research.  For the archaeology faculty, their regional and topical research foci are diverse, and currently include projects such as:

• research on historic agricultural frontiers and settlement in sourthern lower Michigan (Lewis);
• the transition to horticulture in the Saginaw Valley region (Lovis);
• the occupations of Beaver Island in northern Lake Michigan, and a survey of 19th century school house sites in the state (Chartkoff);
• contact period adaptations of the Straits of Mackinac (Cleland); and
• the relationships between late prehistoric groups in southeastern Wisconsin (Goldstein). 

One of the most impressive things about all of the research mentioned above is that each project has a significant outreach component, and the researcher is actively engaged with local communities and citizens. In archaeology, outreach is evidenced by extensive involvement of our faculty with the Michigan Archaeological Society, the state avocational organization. Faculty also regularly provide presentations to public schools and community organizations, and we are in the process of developing a program for helping teachers introduce anthropology and archaeology in their classes. Further, we assist both state and federal agencies that manage public lands and development in Michigan in the development of appropriate public policy.  Many of our graduates are in prominent government management positions for Great Lakes properties in Michigan and elsewhere.

The Department regularly trains both undergraduate and graduate students in Great Lakes archaeology and ethnography, through field schools and regular programmatic coursework. Graduates of the department teach at almost every university in Michigan, as well as other universities and colleges throughout the region, and continue to conduct Great Lakes research.