Dr. Rhonda L. Quinn
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
Damen Hall 807
Lake Shore Campus
1032 W. Sheridan Road
Chicago, Illinois 60660
773.508.3438
rquinn1@luc.edu
Rhonda Quinn studies the interaction of modern and extinct humans with the environment. Her primary research focuses on reconstructing selective pressures for the emergence of Homo and dispersal from Africa. She integrates stable isotopic systems with sedimentology and stratigraphy to elucidate hominin adaptations to environmental and climatic change. Dr. Quinn also examines resource use and mobility of anatomically modern human groups in coastal and island settings, employing bioarchaeology, zooarchaeology, and stable isotopic analysis. She has conducted fieldwork in the Turkana Basin of northern Kenya, along the Solo River of Java, on Pacific Islands and the Yucatan Peninsula.
Excavating at the Jigar site on the Solo River, Java, Indonesia
EDUCATION
2006 Ph.D. Anthropology, Certificate in Quaternary Studies, Rutgers University
1999 M.A. Anthropology, University of Florida
1997 B.S. Geological Sciences, University of Florida
1996 B.A. Anthropology, University of Florida
PUBLICATIONS
Quinn RL, B Tucker, J Krigbaum (2008) Diet and mobility in Middle Archaic Florida: stable isotopic and faunal evidence from the Harris Creek Archaeological Site (8Vo24), Tick Island. Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 2346-2356.
Berger LR, Churchill SE, De Klerk B, Quinn RL (2008) Small-Bodied Humans from Palau, Micronesia. PLoS ONE 3(3): e1780. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001780
Quinn RL, Lepre CJ, Wright JD, Feibel CS (2007) Paleogeographic variations of pedogenic carbonate d13C values from Koobi Fora, Kenya: Implications for floral compositions of Plio-Pleistocene hominin environments. Journal of Human Evolution 53: 560-573.
Lepre CJ, Quinn RL, Joordens J, Swisher CC, Feibel CS (2007) Lake-margin facies sequences from Homo erectus habitats of Koobi Fora (northwest Kenya): evidence for Plio-Pleistocene environmental, lake-level, and climate conditions. Journal of Human Evolution 53: 504-514.
Hodell DA, Quinn RL, Brenner M, Kamenov G (2004) Spatial variation of strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) in the Maya region: a tool for tracking ancient human migration. Journal of Archaeological Science 31: 585-601.
Surveying Plio-Pleistocene sediments in the Turkana Basin of Northern Kenya
IN PRESS
Quinn RL (in press) Geology and Anthropology. 21st Century Anthropology: A Reference Handbook edited by H. James Birx. SAGE Publications
Feibel CS, Lepre CJ, Quinn RL (in press) Stratigraphy, correlation, and age estimates for fossils from Area 123, Koobi Fora. Journal of Human Evolution
Jones S, Quinn RL (in press) Waitui kei vanua: Interpreting sea and land based foodways in Fiji. In, Integrating Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany: A Consideration of Issues, Methods, and Cases, edited by Amber Vanderwarker and Tanya Peres. Springer, New York 
Excavating cave deposits on the Rock Islands of Palau, Caroline Islands