Kristina Killgrove, PhD, RPA Profile picture
Science Writer, Copyeditor, Bioarchaeology PhD | Contributor @LiveScience | Find me at -- https://t.co/PwRdjaoYj3
May 14, 2022 11 tweets 3 min read
Back in Feb, anthro prof Elizabeth Weiss filed a lawsuit -- for an injunction to prevent the SJSU Directive (restricting access to Indigenous remains) from taking effect & claiming violation of her 1A rights and retaliation. The judge ruled on May 10. 🧵

Here's the link to the judge's order, which denies the injunction request and grants a motion to dismiss (with leave to amend in part):

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Sep 22, 2021 6 tweets 2 min read
I need a cooking challenge today but didn’t feel like bread or cake or pastry. Tamales it is! 🫔 I’ve only made these a few times but I read a dozen recipes so let’s goooooo! Slow-cooking the pork now, so it can cool. Then will make the red chili sauce, then assemble tamales for steaming for dinner. Also slow cooking black beans as a side. My house already smells of cumin and it's amazing.
Sep 20, 2021 14 tweets 3 min read
I am going to disagree with a lot of this, perhaps an unpopular opinion. While science is definitely for everyone, and I don't think gatekeeping the presentation of science is a good thing, there's a difference between gatekeeping and professionalization of archaeology. (1/n) US archaeology used to be treasure hunters and metal detectorists and people who just liked to dig stuff up. There wasn't a lot of education or training required - just money. But around the time of the Civil Rights movement, new laws and regulations were passed... (2/n)
Aug 26, 2021 36 tweets 6 min read
This 217-page report is... something. Still trying to process all the WTF'ery in it, but it kinda seems like ESH. Anyone interested in bio/arch/forensic ethics should read it.

(Trigger warning for gratuitous inclusion of photographs of violence being done to Black men.) So, the report is by a law firm hired by Penn to investigate. They interviewed a ton of people and read loads of stuff to produce the report. However, the report seems to be focused on basically establishing that Penn didn't know what was up. Anyway, some things I learned...
Feb 23, 2021 11 tweets 2 min read
Studying ancient skeletons has always been a little -- well, more than a little -- weird. But I've recently started adding DNA to my work, and one result in particular has kind of freaked me out (for lack of a better term) this week. [1/10] In the work I've been doing on the Oplontis skeletons (Italy, 79 AD), I've been trying to use mtDNA haplotypes to figure out biological relationships among the 64 people who all died in the same room due to the eruption of Mt Vesuvius. [2/10]
Jan 9, 2021 9 tweets 2 min read
On Wednesday evening, just after white nationalists stormed the U.S. Capitol, a panel in the Society for Historical Archaeology annual conference was kicked off. And a well-known white male professor used Nazi language and gesture to intimidate a younger woman panelist. (1/6) Shortly after the plenary panelists were introduced, archaeologist Liz Quinlan spoke about her successful efforts to create accessibility documents for the SHA conference. She concluded and the moderator, Dr. Della Scott-Ireton, asked if there were questions. (2/6)
Dec 16, 2020 28 tweets 8 min read
Alright, anthropologists. While I haven't read the entirety of That Book on Repatriation that's making the rounds, I have read the last paragraph of each chapter. Hoo boy, I did not expect it to be *this bad*. Screenshots follow...

upf.com/book.asp?id=97… For the introduction, I'll highlight this endnote. This is not how the majority of anthropologists use the term "race."
Oct 21, 2020 5 tweets 2 min read
Hey, #archaeology folks! Do you - or anyone you know - need a PAID 💰 internship for 2021? I'm looking for a grad student to help me as Registrar. My project involves archiving old RPA docs, so I could really use someone with expertise in digital archiving and/or curation. (1/5) The applicant should be self-directed; available to work approximately 10 hours per week; have access to the internet; and able to work remotely from their home. Familiarity with Google Drive, membership databases, version control, and tDAR is preferred, but not required. (2/5)
Mar 11, 2020 12 tweets 5 min read
Since all the cool kids are doing it, here are my suggestions for faculty finding themselves required to pivot to online biological anthropology courses this week. (Thread!)

#anthropology #pedagogy #online #COVID2019 #coronavirus Tricks to putting (particularly introductory) courses online = 1) split your lectures into short videos using Camtasia/Zoom/etc.,
2) link to others' video resources (e.g., @SciShow), and
3) ask your students to do their own research/homework/lab projects.
May 15, 2019 30 tweets 7 min read
I've seen loads of people discussing the #Alabama #AbortionRights issue this morning, shocked that this could happen. As an anthropologist and (former) six-year resident of "lower Alabama" (FL panhandle), let me give you a bit of history.

(1/n) I lived in Pensacola, FL, for six years, as a tenure-track (and then tenured) professor at the University of West Florida. I got a job offer there in summer of 2012.

(2/n)
May 1, 2019 23 tweets 24 min read
Good morning, folks still following the #SAA2019 debacle. Some new info has just come in, so here's another mini-thread... (1/n) Two of the #MeToo survivors who left #SAA2019 due to @SAAorg's failure to kick out David Yesner (who had been banned from UAA campus and the Alaska Anthro Assoc) have confirmed that they've had their registration fee refunded by SAA. (2/n)
Apr 21, 2019 11 tweets 3 min read
Today is both #Easter and the 2772nd birthday of the founding of Rome (#NatalediRoma), and the second day of #Passover. So here's a short thread on how these three things are MUCH more closely related than you thought! (1/n) First, Passover. This is the English word for the translation of "pasha" (Aramaic) and "pesah" (Hebrew) for "he passes over." It's a reference to God passing over the Israelites when killing first-born Egyptians. (2/n)
Apr 18, 2019 13 tweets 7 min read
OMFG. I just... honestly have no words right now. First, the SAA doesn't "credential" journalists. I know because I headed the Media Relations Committee. (1/7) Second, the SAA sends invites to the conference to HUNDREDS of journalists and science communicators, which includes people like me who write for science news outlets. (2/7)
Feb 2, 2019 200 tweets 49 min read
Academics, scholars, and researchers! Give me 3 emojis that summarize your latest research, and I’ll write you a click-bait headline based solely on them. 😏

#academia #researchemojis #scicomm You'll Never Believe Why This Cow Left a Temple With 5 Fingers

Nov 17, 2018 31 tweets 8 min read
💀Skeleton story time! 💀

Since I was tweeting earlier about how one should not buy/own/sell human remains, here's the story about the time I did call the police because of random human body parts, and what happened next...

#anthropology #bioarchaeology #osteology #skeleton This box showed up in my lab classroom one day when I was teaching at UWF. No note. No explanation.
Nov 13, 2018 36 tweets 8 min read
Me in August: Franz Boas was the father of modern American anthropology. He praised ethnography and participant-observation!
Students: ✍🏻

Me yesterday: Alright, let's talk ethics. Who wants to hear about all the shady shit that Boas did?
Students: 😳😬😮😧 If anyone wants a "Boas was shady af" story, you know what to do:

... that time Boas helped some grave robbers steal Native skeletons, and sell others.

... that time Boas imported 6 Inuit, 4 of whom died of TB, and 1 of whom he faked the burial of.
Oct 30, 2018 50 tweets 10 min read
Gather round, kids, for an ancient #Roman #zombie story. It's legit good - from the 1st century AD and involves eyeballs, hag-hair, and Julius Caesar in addition to a reanimated corpse. 🧟‍♂️🧟‍♀️🏛️💀

forbes.com/sites/kristina…

1/
Remember the soothsayer in Shakespeare? You know you do -- think back to high school and the "beware the Ides of March" warning. Well, she was hella tame compared to Erichtho the apparently world-famous Thessalian witch.

But first things first...

2/
Oct 19, 2018 9 tweets 3 min read
Osteology specific PSA: Don't buy equipment from Paleo-Tech. A bunch of us are currently looking into what the heck is going on with this company that used to supply specialized equipment for measuring human skeletons. I've heard from folks who haven't gotten orders placed months ago. A quick check of the BBB website has an F rating and several unresolved complaints against Paleo-Tech.

bbb.org/us/il/crystal-…
Oct 18, 2018 25 tweets 6 min read
I'm not generally in the habit of writing tweet threads, but since the last one was so successful and taught so many people new things, here's a second, much more discipline-specific one about that Vesuvian date, public scholarship, and collegiality.

1/
In writing yesterday for Forbes, I posted a piece that was unlike my usual public outreach: it was a short news item followed by a short explanation of why the possibility of a changed Vesuvian date mattered to me as a scholar of Roman archaeology.

forbes.com/sites/kristina…

2/
Oct 16, 2018 19 tweets 4 min read
Short thread on the importance of that new Pompeii graffiti and eruption date, to follow up on this very general story I posted earlier:

forbes.com/sites/kristina…

1/
The date of Vesuvius's exact eruption has been debated for quite some time. I learned about the possible October date as an undergrad, for example. The later date makes sense b/c of the clothes worn and, more importantly, the fruit in season.

2/