Biography
- PhD Archaeology, Encounter Project, University of Cambridge, UK, 2019—Present
- MSc Computational Archaeology (Distinction), University College London, UK 2016—2017
- BA Anthropology, Minors in History and Middle Eastern Languages, McGill University, 2010—2014
Research
I am a computational archaeologist, with interests in the use of quantitative analysis, modelling in archaeology, and cultural evolution. I am a part of the Encounter Project, which is looking at the Jomon-Yayoi transition in Japan and the migration of people and culture occurring throughout this period. My part in the project is to explore the environmental conditions at the Jomon-Yayoi transition. I will be analysing climatic, soil, and pollen data to reconstruct landcover during the period, as well as modelling the suitability and productivity of rice and millet agriculture throughout Japan and its relation to demography during this transition.
I have previously modelled urban tissue using cellular automata based on theories of Medieval Islam architecture and compared with that of the Early Islamic city of Merv, Turkmenistan.
Key Publications
Russo, S. G., & Brainerd, L. M. (2021). Introduction: Resilience and its dissociative disorder from an archaeological perspective. Resilience & Archaeology, 36 (1), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.79039
Teaching and Supervisions
Teaching assistant and supervisior of the module A11/B5: From Data to Interpretation / Foundation Statistics 2020-2022
Cambridge Digital Humanities workshop instructor, "Harvesting Cultural Data and Visualising Historical Flux", Lent 2023
Supervisors: Dr Enrico Crema, Dr Akihiro Yoshida (Kagoshima University)
Advisors: Dr Marco Madella (University Pompeu Fabra)
Other Professional Activities
Cambridge Digital Humanities Methods Fellow, 2022-2023
Member of Newnham College