Jennifer E. Mack
Lead Bioarchaeologist
Department:
SPH-Population Health Science
Email:
jmack@umc.edu
Work Phone:
(601) 815-5278
Biography
Dr. Jennifer Mack is the Lead Bioarchaeologist of the Asylum Hill Project, which is dedicated to exhuming, researching, and memorializing the individuals buried in the now-unmarked cemetery associated with the Mississippi State Asylum. Her research is conducted in consultation with direct descendants and descendant communities, with the goal of honoring the experience and legacy of the patients of the asylum, which once occupied the property that is now UMMC's campus.
Each summer, Dr. Mack teaches the Asylum Hill Bioarchaeological Field School, a program which draws anthropology students from across North America to learn bioarchaeological field and lab methods. She also oversees research projects conducted by students and staff archaeologists.
Dr. Mack has an extensive background in excavating and researching historical cemeteries in the US (including other institutional cemeteries), as well as working with human remains from archaeological sites abroad. She has 25 years of field and laboratory experience, working both in the private sector and for state institutions. Previous and current research topics include adolescent mortality and mortuary treatment, health and mortality in institutionalized populations, and the relationship between early-life stress and later life vulnerability to communicable diseases.
A native of Pensacola, Florida, she maintains her membership in the Florida Emergency Operations Response System (FEMORS), a mass-fatality response organization.
Education
| University of Exeter, PhD, Archaeology | 2020 |
| Emory University, BA, History/Art History | 1996 |
Publications
Journal Article | |
| Mack JE, Howard CM, Didlake RH Rare finding of a porcelain gallbladder in an early 20th-century asylum cemetery: Radiologic, clinical, and bioarchaeological perspectives International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. 2024; 34-3: | |
| Lillios KT, Artz JA, Waterman AJ, Mack JE, Thomas JT, Trindade L, Luna I The Rock-Cut Tomb of Bolores (Torres Vedras): An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Social Landscape of the Late Neolithic/Copper Age of the Iberian Peninsula Trabajos de Prehistoria. 2014; 282-304 | |
| Mack JE, Waterman AJ, Racila A-M, Artz JA, Lillios KT Applying Zooarchaeological Methods to Interpret Mortuary Behavior and Taphonomy in Commingled Burials: The Case Study of the Late Neolithic Site of Bolores, Portugal International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. 2016; 26-3: 524–536 | |
| Mack JE, Clarke DS Working Hard and Living Out: Adolescence in Nineteenth-Century Dubuque Annals of Iowa. 2020; 79-4:311–341 | |
| Mack JE The Sioux City South Ravine Burial Site (13WD216): The “Unknown 15” Lost and Found Journal of the Iowa Archaeological Society; 2021, Volume 68:1–17. | |
Book | |
| Lillios KT, Waterman AJ, Mack JE, Artz JA, Nilsson–Stutz L In Praise of Small Things: Death and Life at the Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age Burial of Bolores, Portugal British Archaeological Reports International Series, 2716. Archaeopress, Oxford, 2015 | |
| Lillie RM, Mack JE Dubuque’s Forgotten Cemetery: Excavating a Nineteenth-century Burial Ground in a Twenty-first-century City. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, Iowa, 2015 | |
Professional Membership and Service
| Society for American Archaeology, Member | |
| Southeast Archaeological Conference, Member | |
| Register of Professional Archaeologists, Member | |
| American Association of Biological Anthropologists, Member | |
| Society for Historical Archaeology, Member |
Community Service
| Florida Emergency Mortuary Operations Response System (FEMORS), Anthropologist | 05/2005 - Present |