Elyse M. Adams

Program Coordinator

Archaeology, Bioarchaeology, Paleopathology, Osteology

Elyse began her role as the Program Coordinator for the Institute for Immigration Research in August of 2024. In this role, she collaborates with the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) team providing operational and administrative support for the IIR, coordinating IIR sponsored events and supporting IIR initiatives.

After receiving a BLS in Historic Preservation from the University of Mary Washington in 2016, Elyse worked in professional archaeological settings in both museums and cultural resource management firms for six years before choosing to move forward with graduate school. Elyse received her MA in Anthropology with a Bioarchaeological focus in 2025 from George Mason University’s Sociology and Anthropology department. Her current research interests include the bioarchaeological perspective and examination of the human skeleton to explore the complexities of health and biological stressors on past populations. Her thesis work involved the examination of periostosis of the tibia as a skeletal indicator of biological stress, and comparing these data to socioeconomic and political changes in pre-contact and post-colonial populations recovered archaeologically along the north coast of Peru.

Selected Publications

The Archaeology And Forgeries Department: A Novel Interdepartmental Approach For Obtaining Historically Accurate Reproductions At George Washington’s Boyhood Home. Mara Kaktins, Elyse Adams, Judith Jobrack, Meghan Budinger. 2020 ( tDAR id: 457435)

Education

MA in Anthropology from George Mason University, December 2025.

BLS in Historic Preservation from the University of Mary Washington, December 2016.