Sylvia Cheever

PhD Candidate (Bioarchaeology; Andean archaeology; biosocial determinants of health)

Specializations

Bioarchaeology, Andean Archaeology, Toxicity, Heavy Metals, Extraction/Mining, Biosocial Determinants of Health, Stable Isotopes, Affect, Materiality

Sylvia (she/her/ella) began her Ph.D. at Vanderbilt in the fall of 2020 as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. She graduated with general and departmental honors from the University of Chicago in 2018, where she received a BA in Anthropology. While in Chicago she volunteered her time and osteological training with the Field Museum’s Collaborative Curation Program implementing ethical care practices for NAGPRA-listed Ancestors awaiting repatriation.

Prior to beginning her doctorate, Sylvia worked for two years as an archaeologist at the Center for American Archeology in Kampsville, IL where she conducted collections research, excavated, taught field school programs, and developed K-12 archaeology curriculum. She also served as assistant research and teaching staff on the Proyecto Arqueológico Corral Redondo based out of Iquipi, Peru (PI: Dr. Maria Cecilia Lozada) for two seasons—an experience which spurred her interest in the Peruvian Andes. 

Sylvia's graduate research focuses on health disparity in relation to natural resource extraction through a historical and holistic lens. Her dissertation uses osteobiographical techniques, isotopic chemistry, and trace element analysis to quantify and characterize the distribution of toxic burden associated with cinnabar (mercury) mining among pre-contact and colonial era communities in the central highlands of Peru. The goal of this work is not only to examine the long-term health impacts of toxic mercury exposure in these extractive contexts, but to analyze the personal, cultural, political, and spatial dimensions of toxic experience within Indigenous Andean societies in the pre- and peri-colonial eras. She hopes that the quantitative dimensions of her work will establish heavy metal baselines that may aid in the archaeological identification of colonial mitayos (conscripted Indigenous mine laborers) in contexts removed from the mines themselves. Sylvia is broadly interested in developing novel and multi-disciplinary frameworks to study toxic 'affect' in the past that account for the ways toxic environments may have been experienced by individuals and communities. 

Sylvia has worked as an associate bioarchaeologist on the Proyecto Rutas de Cinabrio (PI: Dr. Michelle Young) since 2023. She has also worked on the Phaleron Bioarchaeological Project (PI: Dr. Jane Buikstra) at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and continues to collaborate with the Center for American Archeology as a field methods instructor for adult field schools and CRM job training programs. She uses her many years of experience in public-facing and community-engaged archaeological projects and education programs to prioritize accessibility, intelligibility, and service in her research practice.