Background
Professor DiGangi's research interests are focused on two areas in skeletal biology: bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology; with her bioarchaeological work focusing on the prehistoric Andes and the southeastern U.S., exploring changes in traditional skeletal health markers before and after major subsistence change. Her current research program in forensic anthropology involves gunshot trauma analysis. She is also interested in the application of forensic anthropology to questions surrounding human rights violations. For five years she taught and advised forensic professionals in Colombia, where she also co-created the Centro de Identificación Humana in Medellín, a state-of-the-art forensic anthropology center for the identification of human remains, continuing education, and research. It was a research methods course developed by her and a colleague for Colombian anthropologists that led to the publication of her co-edited volume (with Dr. Megan Moore): Research Methods in Human Skeletal Biology (Academic Press, 2013). She is second author of Forensic Taphonomy and Ecology of North American Scavengers (with Susan Sincerbox; Academic Press, 2018). As a board-certified forensic anthropologist, she consults on skeletal cases for local, state, and national agencies.
Education
- PhD, University of Tennessee
- MA, BA, University at Buffalo
Research Interests
- Forensic anthropology
- Population-specific standards
- Age-at-death estimation
- Trauma analysis
- Prehistoric and historic health; stress; and well-being
- Latin America; Caribbean; Europe Bioarchaeology; Paleopathology
- North Africa
- North America
- Ancestry and social race
