Frances Rivera, Ph.D.
Temporary Lecturer
Research in Progress
I am a Biological Anthropologist, specializing in human biology and evolution. I am interested in modern human biological diversity and variation broadly, topics in forensic anthropology as well as health and disease now and in the past. As a part of a larger project, I conducted most of my bioarchaeological field work in Turkana, Kenya, with a season in the Fezzan region of Libya, and have largely focused on Late Pleistocene and early Holocene human and faunal evolution in Africa. More recently, I completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Forensic Anthropology at the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences in Houston, Texas, where I gained valuable training and experience working alongside Forensic Anthropology Diplomates in a Medical Examiner's setting.
My doctoral work investigated cranial vault thickness variation in modern human populations and explored factors influencing its variation. I collected and analyzed cranial thickness data using both virtual and manual methods that I applied to medical computed tomography (CT) scans of crania using Amira software and to dry crania, respectively. I am currently working on a project that applies the manual methods I devised during my doctoral work to a relatively more contemporary sample population of autopsied crania to investigate whether my findings are upheld and may be applicable to a more current cohort.
Degrees
PhD in Biological Anthropology from the University of Cambridge, 2014
MPhil in Human Evolutionary Studies from the University of Cambridge, 2010
MA in Museum Studies from Texas Tech University, 2006
BA in Sociology (Anthropology minor equivalent) from St. Mary’s University, 2002
Teaching
My teaching interests are many. I particularly enjoy courses that incorporate human evolution, biology, health and disease, osteology, quirks of anatomy, history of anatomy and medicine as well as courses that incorporate practical components for hands-on learning. At Baylor, I teach courses such as Human Osteology (ANT/FORS 3331), Forensic Anthropology (ANT/FORS 4355), Human Evolutionary Anatomy (ANT/BIO 4415), and Medicolegal Death Investigation (FORS 3370). Other courses I have taught prior to my time here at Baylor, include Anatomy and Physiology I and II for Healthcare, Nutrition, Bioarchaeology: Violence and Disease in the Past, the Human Skeleton, and Introduction to Biological Anthropology.
Publications
Rivera F (in prep) How Thick-Headed Are We? Determining how thick is ‘thick’ for the human cranium. The Anatomical Record.
Mounier A, van Baelen, A, Crivellaro, F, Rivera, F, Wilshaw, A, Grun, R, Foley, R, Mirazon Lahr, M (2021) A new Upper Pleistocene hominin calvarium from West-Turkana (Kenya). Bulletins et mémoires de la Société d’ Anthropologie de Paris. Société d' Anthropologie de Paris.
Rivera F (2018) Quantitative methods in physical anthropology. In: Hilary Callen ed., International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. DOI: 10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea2096
Mounier A, Correia M, Rivera F, Crivellaro F, Power R, Jeffrey J, Wilshaw A, Foley R (2018) Who were the Nataruk people? Mandibular morphology among late Pleistocene and early Holocene fisherforager populations of West Turkana (Kenya). Journal of Human Evolution. 121: 235-253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.04.013
Rivera F & Mirazon Lahr, M (2017) New evidence suggesting a dissociated etiology for Cribra Orbitalia and Porotic Hyperostosis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 164 (1): 76-96. http://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23258
Wilshaw A, Muwonge H, Rivera F, Lahr Mirazon M (2017) Aliel: A mid-Holocene stone platform with cairn and single pillar in West Turkana, Kenya. Nyame Akuma 86: 51-59.
Mirazon Lahr M, Rivera F, Power RK, Mounier A, Copsey B, Crivellaro F, Edung JE, Maillo Fernandez JM, Kiarie C, Lawrence J, Leakey A, Mbua E, Miller H, Muigai A, Mukhongo DM, Van Baelen A, Wood R, Schwenninger J-L, Grün R, Achyuthan H, Wilshaw A & Foley RA (2016) A case of inter-group violence among early Holocene hunter-gatherer populations of West Turkana, Kenya. Nature 529: 394-398.
Mirazón Lahr M, Foley R, Crivellaro F, Maillo Fernandez J, Wilshaw A, Copsey B, Rivera F & Mattingly D (2011) DMP XIV: Prehistoric sites in the Wadi Barjuj, Fazzan, Libyan Sahara. Libyan Studies 42: 117-138.