Isaac Gutierrez

Graduate Student

Isaac entered the Ph.D. program at Vanderbilt in the fall of 2022. He completed his B.S. in Biology and Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2019. During his academic career he participated in paleontological and bioarchaeological projects in Madagascar, New Mexico, U.S.A., and Peru respectively. These experiences have motivated Isaac to utilize bioarchaeological methods to research ancient social identities in their many forms; how they can be transformed and manipulated during life and after biological death.

His graduate research investigates the formation and maintenance of social identities for communities living in central Mexico during Spanish colonization. Isaac’s research works towards a holistic approach, integrating information from osteological analysis with investigations of archival records and ethnographic accounts from local communities. He aims to unify these quantitative and qualitative pieces of evidence into detailed osteobiographies of individuals, contextualized within their populations. With this approach, Isaac’s research strives to reframe critical colonial encounters as formative processes in constant negotiation of group and individual social identity, with tangible impacts on modern populations.