Mindy Pitre (Associate Professor, Ph.D. University of Alberta, Canada) is a bioarchaeologist who studies human skeletal remains from archaeological sites to explore the complex relationship between biology and culture in the past. In particular she is interested in understanding the presence and experience of disease and illness in antiquity. She has excavated and studied human skeletons in Canada, the United Kingdom, Egypt, the Sudan, and Syria. Dr. Pitre is the director of the Death in St. Lawrence County Project (DSLC)(http://www.dslc.info). Her current research involves examining the intersection of poverty and health at the St. Lawrence County Poorhouse, Canton NY through an interdisciplinary approach involving historical and archaeological research.
Dr. Pitre teaches biological anthropology courses such as Human Origins, Dealing with the Dead, Plagues and Peoples, and Forensic Anthropology. In the classroom she believes it is important to initiate students into the field of biological anthropology by exposing them to research and by providing them with opportunities to practice what they learn in the classroom and in the laboratory. Students in her courses take part in various activities including mock crime scene investigations as well as decomposition and mummification experiments involving pig and chicken carcasses.