Anthropology

Email: tpelch@siue.edu

Personal History

Starting out in musical theater and vocal performance, I discovered anthropology early on in college, and have loved the field ever since! I began teaching at local colleges and universities in 2009, and have taught biology, anatomy, and sociology in addition to anthropology. I have experience in botany and ethnobotany and worked as a curator and research assistant at the Missouri Botanical Garden for three years. I have also participated in archaeological and ethnographic research in Native American communities across the U.S., Mexico, and Belize. I have experience analyzing human skeletal remains and am very interested in forensics and paleopathology. I earned my first master’s degree in anthropology from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, back in 2006. For my thesis research, I spent much time analyzing two-thousand-year-old human bones for clues about those individuals’ activities during their lifetimes. I completed a second master’s in museum studies at UMSL last year. I hope to share this enthusiasm for anthropology with my students!

Teaching Philosophy

My work as an anthropologist has allowed me the privilege of working with many people from diverse cultural backgrounds. I teach students to appreciate and celebrate diverse voices and perspectives! Being a first-generation college student, I understand the challenges faced by students who are the first in their family to attend college. I strive to teach young people that education can open new doors and lead them on wonderful paths that they never imagined. It is a privilege to teach and to help guide students in the direction they wish to go.  

Courses Taught 

• ANTH 111A: Human Ancestry and Adaptations
• ANTH 111B: Human Culture & Communication

Research Activities 

In the summers of 1998 and 1999, I participated in my first field research project through the University of Texas at Arlington under Dr. Jeffrey Hanson. Our project was called The Trowel and the Drum, and represented both an indigenous Shoshone (Native American) and modern scientific perspective. Our goal was to document and analyze the ancient petroglyphs carved into the rocks at the McKonkie Ranch in Northeastern Utah. We hoped to discover their historic and cultural significance. To do this, Dr. Hanson felt that it was important for us to have both trained archaeologists and Native American team members working on the project together. John and Virgene Tarnesse, both of Wind River Shoshone heritage, taught us their unique perspective on the petroglyphs and helped us to understand their religious and cultural importance. John was a traditional spiritual practitioner, and his wife Virgene was a gifted herbalist. Working with them for two summers was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, as they taught me so much about respecting cultural traditions that were very different from my own. Not a day goes by that I don’t use some of their wisdom! 

In the summer of 2011, I traveled to northern Belize to work at the Maya Research Program field station with Dr. Tom Guderjan of The University of Texas, Tyler. I was able to help excavate an ancient Maya shrine and analyze human skeletal remains at the Remple Group site. I was also able to work in the field station’s laboratory and curation center to wash, label, sort, and photograph most of the artifacts we discovered that summer. It was wonderful to work in such a beautiful country and to meet archaeologists from all over the world! 2012 brought me to the Yucatec Maya village of Yaxunah, where I was able to assist with community projects and ethnographic research under Dr. Grace Bascopé from the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. I learned so much about contemporary Maya culture and fell in love with the food and people of Mexico! 

 From 2016 to 2019, I worked as a volunteer and student curator at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Herbarium, organizing and databasing their immense historic maize (corn) collection under Herbarium Director Dr. Jim Solomon. I also led student tours and helped with public outreach events at the Garden. In 2019 and 2020, I contributed to the research and development of the SIUE University Museum’s Voices in Wood online exhibit under Dr. Cory Willmott. I was able to assist with the analysis and inventory of the museum’s Pacific Northwest Coast indigenous wooden carvings and learned different perspectives on the concept of authenticity. I am looking forward to participating more in these and other similar projects in the future! 

Education

• Master of Arts, Museum Studies
  University of Missouri St. Louis, 2021
• Master of Arts, Anthropology
  Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2006
• Bachelor of Arts, Anthropology
  Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2001
• Professional Affiliations
  American Anthropological Association