Victoria Dekle

Research Interests:
Pottery Analysis
Science and Technology Studies
Anthropological Archaeology
Society and the Environment
identity
Education

Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Kentucky, In Progress
M.A., Anthropology, University of Kentucky, 2012
B.A., Anthropology, University of Georgia, 2007 (Minor: History, Certificate of Archaeological Science)

Research

My dissertation research examines Late Archaic (6000 - 3100 B.P.) identity along the Lower Savannah River Valley in Georgia and South Carolina. I am interested in the ways that people express and experience their identity in and through the material world,  particularly in the distant past. I further seek to challenge traditional assumptions of environmental adaptation within hunter-gatherer life and I argue that identity-based research is one way to open our expectations and limit our biases towards mobile and semi-sedentary peoples. Most of my work emphasizes identity through the early ceramic technologies in the southern Atlantic coastal plain (particularly the traditional Stallings and Thoms Creek typologies), but I also incorporate information on settlement patterns, mortuary practices, and other material technologies to widen our understanding of life in the Late Archaic.

I also have many interests in Southeastern archaeology, coastal archaeology, and social theory that are outside Late Archaic human settlement. My research interests include but are not limited to Native American culture and history, the archaeology of childhood, ceramic technology, landscapes and settlement patterns, and Science and Technology Studies (STS). Although I specialize in archaeological research, I consider my interests and research to be multidisciplinary and fundamentally grounded in social theory. My graduate education here at the University of Kentucky has introduced me to some wonderful opportunities for connecting archaeological research of ancient history to human socialization in all times and places, especially through the coursework and comradery in the Department of Anthropology and the Political Ecology Working Group (PEWG).

Please check out some of my former and in-progress publications and presentations for more information. Some of these documents are available on my academia.edu page: https://uky.academia.edu/VictoriaDekle

Graduate Training

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky

Feature Stories for the College of Arts & Sciences

Stories Related to Anthropology:

"The Importance of Coffee and Still Mornings: Working on her Ph.D. in Anthropological Archaeology, Viki Dekle Shares Insight on the Juggling Act of Graduate Life." March 4, 2013. Solicited by the Dean's Office of the College of Arts & Sciences, University of Kentucky.

"Choose Your Own Adventure: Anthropology Students have Plenty of Room to Explore Options in their Field." April 5, 2013. Solicited by the Dean's Office of the College of Arts & Sciences, University of Kentucky.

Other Feature Stories:

"Waking Up is Easy: Cadet Dahlia D'Arge is Dedicated Around the Clock to her Goal of Becoming a Lawyer in the United States Army." March 22, 2013. Solicited by the University of Kentucky Army ROTC.

"More than just a Second Language." January 18, 2013. Solicited by the University of Kentucky Department of Hispanic Studies.

"Compassionate Education: Geography Graduate Raven Newberry Reflects on Her Degree as a Way to Promote Higher Education for All." December 3, 2012. Solicited by the University of Kentucky Department of Geography.

"A Full Bookshelf for the Gender and Women's Studies Department in 2012." October 22, 2012. Solicited by the University of Kentucky Department of Gender and Women's Studies.

 

 

Selected Publications:

Dekle, Victoria G. (2013)  Ritual Life and Landscape at Tunacunnhee. In Landscapes and People in the Early and Middle Woodland Southeast, edited by Alice P. Wright and Edward Henry, pp. 196-203. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

Dekle, Victoria G.(2011)  New Considerations of Old Distribution: Site Occupations at the Deptford Site (9CH2), Chatham County, Georgia. SAA Archaeological Record 11(5):27-29.

Moore, Christopher R. and Victoria G. Dekle (2010)  Hickory Nuts, Bulk Processing, and the Advent of Early Horticultural Economies in Eastern North America.  World Archaeology  42(4):595-608.

Dekle, Victoria G. (2010)  The Deptford Site: Reconfigured and Reconsidered.  Early Georgia 38(2):185-203.

Dekle, Victoria G. (2007)  Making Sense of a WPA Excavation: An Archaeological Reassessment of the Collections from the Deptford Site (9CH2) in Chatham County, Georgia. Unpublished Honors Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Unievrsity of Georgia, Athens. 

 

In Preparation:

Meyers, Maureen S., Anthony Boudreaux, III, Stephen Carmody, Victoria G. Dekle, Elizabeth Horton, and Alice P. Wright (in progress) What Happens in the Field?: A Survey of Sexual Harassment in Southeastern Archaeology. (Preliminary results were recently mentioned in Issue 519 of Nature: http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7542-251a)

 

Select Presentations:

Dekle, Victoria G. (2013) "Artistic Style and Identity among the Late Archaic Peoples of the Southern Atlantic Coast. Paper presented at the 79th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Austin, Texas. April 2014.

Dekle, Victoria G. (2013) "Bone Pin Design and Late Archaic Regional Connections across the Southern Atlantic Coast." Paper presented at the 70th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Tampa, Florida.

Dekle, Victoria G. (2012)  "The Political Ecology of Archaeological Climatic Research." Paper presented at the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference. University of Kentucky, Lexington.

Dekle, Victoria G. (2011)  "Predictions for Political Ecology Studies in Southeastern Archaeology: Implications of the Climatic Narrative." Paper presented at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Jacksonville, Florida.

Dekle, Victoria G. (2011)  “The Climatic Narrative and Archaeology’s Use of the Past: Sea Level Rise on the Southern Atlantic Coast.”  Paper presented at the 1st Annual Meeting of the Dimension of Political Ecology Conference, University of Kentucky, Lexington. 

Dekle, Victoria G. (2010)  “Ritual Life and Landscape at Tunacunnhee: Ideology and Politics at a Middle Woodland Site in Northwest Georgia.”  Paper presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeology Conference, Lexington, Kentucky.  

Dekle, Victoria G. (2009)  “The Deptford Site: Reconfigured and Reconsidered.”  Paper presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeology Conference.  Mobile, Alabama.