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Dr. Kelmelis is a biological anthropologist who specializes in bioarchaeology, paleodemography, paleoepidemiology, and forensic anthropology. Her research involves the study of human skeletal remains to reconstruct aspects of life, health, disease, identity, and demography. She integrates methods and theory in osteology, paleodemography, epidemiology, and hazard analyses to explore the interplay between human biocultural behavior and infectious disease. Her recent work has focused on exploring the consequences of demographic transitions, like urbanization and agricultural innovation, on human-pathogen relationships in medieval skeletal assemblages from Denmark. Current and on-going research includes continuing to explore mortality risk and disease in monastic, urban, and rural medieval Denmark, the application of cementochronology to reconstruct human life histories in Bangladesh, and advancing statistical models in paleodemography.
Biological anthropology, forensic anthropology, bioarchaeology, zooarchaeology, past health and epidemics, anthropological demography, and biocultural evolution.
Reconstructing life, health, disease, and demography from skeletal remains (bioarchaeology, paleodemography); hazard analyses and Bayesian statistics in human demography; cementochronology and human life histories in Bangladesh; effects of urbanization, climate change, and agricultural growth on health and disease in medieval Denmark; trauma and health in early modern Denmark.