Student Highlights: Sarah Allaun
— MEET SARAH —
Class: Graduate Student
Major: Anthropology
Sarah Allaun is a Floridian at heart currently living in Wyoming. She loves exploring the outdoors with her dog Jack. Sarah’s lifelong fascination with human behavior led her to attend the University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL for her undergraduate degree in Anthropology, focusing in Archaeology. This field blends the best of the sciences and humanities into its research. Falling in love with the field, Sarah came to the University of Wyoming in 2017 to complete her Master’s degree in Anthropology. In 2019, she completed that degree and began her Ph.D. work here in the UW Department of Anthropology.
Sarah, with her dog/supervisor Jack, sampling charcoal for radiocarbon dating at an archaeological site called Broom Creek, located near Guernsey, WY. Radiocarbon dating allows archaeologists to determine the age of archaeological sites, a critical step in learning about the first peoples in Wyoming, and elsewhere in the world.
— SARAH’S RESEARCH —
Sarah’s doctoral research looks at human colonization events across the globe – the first peoples to settle new spaces on Earth. One aspect of that research relates a simulation of the colonization of remote Pacific islands to a future colonization event: the human settlement of the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Sarah’s research explores how the movement of the human species beyond the confines of the planet can be informed by the archaeological record.
ABOUT STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS
Every year, we award fellowships to graduate and undergraduate students attending the University of Wyoming or one of Wyoming’s community colleges in order to provide them with the opportunity to do “real” research. Occasionally, we feature one of these students and their research on this blog. For more information about our student fellowships, visit our College Programs page.