Associate Professor, Anthropology and World Languages
Dr. Owoc is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and World Languages, where she teaches, conducts research in the U.S. and the U.K., and directs the departmental Funerary Laboratory, which focuses on Historic cemetery and grave marker memorialization, recordation, and preservation. Dr. Owoc’s early research on British Beaker and Bronze Age ceremonial monument construction and related ritual practice fostered an interest in the anthropology and archaeology of death and prehistoric practices of cordage/basketry ceramic impression. An early career in Cultural Resource Management fostered a commitment to responsible public archaeology and excellence in archaeological fieldwork.
Dr. Owoc’s current teaching and research interests include funerary anthropology and archaeology, theory, the archaeology of religion and ritual, European prehistory, materiality and transformation, ancient cordage and basketry, contemporary material culture use, and the anthropology of the body. Her commitment to promoting student research has led to fifty mentored undergraduate and graduate theses, as well as coauthored articles and conference presentations. Dr. Owoc has co-edited a book and published numerous articles and book chapters. She has organized professional symposia, presented work for many national and international conferences sessions, and coauthored a number of archaeological reports.
- Ph.D. Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
- B.A. Anthropology, History, University of Pittsburgh
- Anthropology of Gender
- Anthropology of Religion, Ritual, and Magic
- Anthropology of Ritual
- Archaeology/Lab
- Biocultural Anthropology
- Concepts in Archaeology
- Funerary Archaeology
- History of Anthropological Theory
- Introduction to Archaeological Theory
- Later European Prehistory
- Research Experience
- Stories Through Things: The Anthropology of Material Culture
- World Geography
- American historic cemetery memorialization
- Contemporary material culture studies
- European prehistoric cordage/basketry impressions
- The archaeology of communities
- Transformation and artifact biography
- Historic preservation
- American Historic Cemetery Recordation and Analysis
- Contemporary Material Culture Studies
- Prehistoric and Historic Funerary Practices
- American Anthropological Association
- Society for American Archaeology
- European Association of Archaeologists
Owoc, MA., Pregler, R., Vento, F., Marjenin, A. and Byrnes, A. (forthcoming) Archaeological Investigations of the Jackson Farmstead Site, Spring Creek, Warren County, PA.
Napoli, J. and Owoc, MA. (2014) Forever in our hearts: Two hundred years of epitaph memorialization in Erie County, PA. Journal of Erie Studies 39.1.
Owoc, MA. (2008) Monuments as landscape: place, perspective and performative practice. In Monuments in the Landscape, ed. P. Rainbird. Stroud: Tempus Publishing.
Owoc, MA. (2005) From the ground up: agency, practice and community in the southwestern British Bronze Age. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 12.4, 257-281.
N. Boivin and M. A. Owoc, eds. (2004) Soils, Stones and Symbols: Cultural Perceptions of the Mineral World eds. London: UCL Press.