Intern

Alex graduated in May 2025 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Bachelors’ of Arts in Anthropology and Biology. His primary academic interest is in human-animal interactions, with a focus on domestication as a process. He is also interested in the construction and enforcement of gender, the construction of family and kinship structures, and environmental restoration. 

Much of Alex’s work prior to joining HRAF has been in archaeology. He underwent archaeological field training at some of the earliest settlements in South Carolina, and later found a lasting passion in zooarchaeology in his final undergraduate year. Alex has also worked with individual-based modeling systems for projects in both biology and anthropology, sparking a wider interest in utilizing statistical modeling for research. A professor suggested the Melvin Ember internship with HRAF to expand on the idea of quantitative analysis of anthropological systems.

Alex hopes to use his time with HRAF to explore the cross-cultural research being conducted worldwide and to help integrate it with the foundational resources that new anthropologists are learning from. He is especially interested in examining both new and old cross-cultural research through a lens of modern scientific understanding and academic intersectionality.