Research Description

Bioarchaeologist and dental anthropologist. Research investigates past health using a life course approach. Interested in understanding the interactions between early life experiences (as represented by periods of developmental disruption captured in dental tissues) and later life health (as seen in human skeletal remains). This investigation includes a microscopic approach, as well as virtual recording. Also interested in understanding diverse aspects of population health and demography through different methodologies. These include collaboration with collaborators in ancient pathogen DNA analysis and proteomics.

Teaching Description

I teach a broad range of course in biological anthropology, including the introductory biological anthropology - archaeology course, 2nd year courses in human osteology, human evolution, evolution and human diversity, and plagues and people. I also teach upper year and graduate courses, including demography of past populations, growth and development, and scientific methods and applications in biological anthropology and archaeology. In the past, I have taught medical anthropology, anthropology of childhood, and palaeopathology. I foster a biocultural approach to past and present human populations across all courses that I teach.

Public/Media (Non-Technical) Description

Dr. Gamble studies patterns of health and (biological) stress in past populations by looking closely at the human skeleton from ancient populations and at microscopic growth and stress markers in teeth. She is interested in how early life experiences influence later life health, and in how past human populations can help us understand these relationships. She is also interested in understanding sex differences in stress and health at all stages of life as seen from the skeleton. Her work involves medieval populations in Austria and Denmark. Dr. Gamble also collaborates with ancient DNA specialists to understand infectious disease in the past, with recent focus on the Black Death in Denmark, and with proteomics specialists to improve methods for (biological) sex estimation in past populations, especially for children.