Curriculum Vitae

 

Oskar Burger

University of New Mexico

MSC01-1040 Anthropology 1

Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87131, USA

oskar at unm dot edu

 

Research Interests:

§    Human impacts on ecosystems; Optimal foraging models and subsistence change; Zooarchaeology; Human/primate life history variation; Demographic processes and transitions; Anthropological approaches to conservation; Archaeological survey methods and sampling design.    

 

Education:

§    Doctoral Candidate (distinction), University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.

§    Master of Science in Anthropology (distinction), Fall 2004, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.

§    Master of Arts in Anthropology, Spring 2002, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO.

Thesis Title: A Multi-Scale Perspective for Archaeological Survey.

§    Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, Spring 1998, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY.

 

Publications in Refereed Journals:

§    Walker, R., M. Gurven , O. Burger, M. Hamilton. (in press) The trade-off between number and size of offspring in humans and other primates. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B.

§    Burger, O., L. Ginzburg (in revision) Why are most Mammals Rodent-Sized?: A Random-Walk in Generation Time Steps. Ecology Letters.

§    Hamilton, M. J., B. T. Milne, R. S. Walker, O. Burger, and J. H. Brown. (2007) The complex structure of hunter-gatherer social networks. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Vol. 274, pp. 2195 – 2202.

§    Walker, R., O. Burger, J. Wagner, and C. R. Van Rueden. (2006) Evolution of Brain Size and Juvenile Periods in Primates. Journal of Human Evolution, Vol. 51, pp. 480 – 489. 

§    Walker, R., K. Hill, O. Burger, and M. Hurtado. (2006) Life in the Slow Lane Revisited: Ontogenetic Separation between Chimpanzees and Humans. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Vol. 29(4), pp. 577 – 583.

§    Burger, O., M. Hamilton, and R. Walker. (2005) The Prey as Patch Model: Optimal Handling of Resources with Diminishing Returns. Journal of Archaeological Science, Vol. 32, pp. 1147 – 1158. 

§    Burger, O., L. Todd, T. Stohlgren, P. Burnett, and D. Stephens.  (2004) Multi-Scale and Nested-Intensity Sampling Techniques for Archaeological Survey.  Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 29, pp. 409 – 423.

 

Book Chapters and Reports:

§    Burger, O., L. Todd, P. Burnett.  (in press) The Behavior of Surface Artifacts: Building a Landscape Taphonomy on the High Plains.  In Archaeological Landscapes on the High Plains, edited by L. L. Scheiber and B. Clark.  University Press of Colorado, Boulder.

§    Burger, O. and L. Todd. (2006) Grain, Extent, and Intensity: the Components of Scale in Archaeological Survey.  In Confronting Scale in Archaeology: Issues in Theory and Practice, pp. 235 – 256, edited by G. Lock and B. Molyneaux.  Springer, New York. 

§    Pawar, S., O. Burger, B. Hallmark, G. Bagler, F. Wang, and F. Xue,. (2005) Evolution of Food-web Networks in Fluctuating Environments. Student report for the Complex Systems Summer School 2005, Beijing. On file at the Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico.   

 

Awards, Grants, and Honors:

§    6/07.    University of New Mexico RPT Grant; $1000 for fieldwork among the Hiwi foragers of western Venezuela.

§    5/07.    University of New Mexico Latin American and Iberian Studies Institute, Tinker Foundation Grant; ~$2500 for fieldwork among the Hiwi foragers of western Venezuela.            

§    3/06.    University of New Mexico Graduate and Professional Student Association; $797.00 grant to further dissertation research.

§    2006.  Santa Fe Institute; International CSSS Alumni Fellow; approximately $2500 for travel and stipend to assist with the Complex Systems Summer School 2006, Beijing.                       

§    8/04 – 6/06.  NSF Fellowship in Ecological Complexity (via J. H. Brown and B. Milne, UNM Department of Biology); tuition, stipend and limited travel funds.   

§    5/03.  University of New Mexico Graduate and Professional Student Association; $400 SRAC grant to present a research paper at the 68th Annual Meetings of the Society for American Archaeology. 

§    8/02 – 5/04.  University of New Mexico, Binford Fellowship; stipend and tuition waver for two years of graduate study. 

§    3/01.  (with L. Todd) Colorado State University, College of Liberal Arts Charges for Technology Grant; $15,334 for GPS units, lap top computers, and field accessories.

§    5/98.    University of Wyoming Department of Anthropology, Departmental Service Award.

§    10/97. University of Wyoming Student Organization Grant, $500 for Student Conference Admission Fees. 

 

Selected Professional Papers and Conference Presentations (of 25 total):

§    Pawar, S. and O. Burger. (2007) The Effects of Environmental Stochasticity on Population Interaction Webs. Paper presented at the joint meeting of the Ecological Society of America and the Society for Ecological Restoration, San Jose, California.

§    Burger, O., M. Hamilton, M. Moses, and J. H. Brown (2005) Using Allometry to Investigate Energetic Constraints on Human Demography. Paper presented at the 70th Annual Meetings of the Society for American Archaeology, Salt Lake City.  

§    Burger, O.  (2005) Prehistoric Ecological Footprints and Community Metabolism: the Case Study of El Polvorón.  Paper presented at the 1st meeting of the Society for Anthropological Sciences, Santa Fe. 

§    Burger, O., L. Todd, and P. Burnett.  (2004) A Compliment to Discovery: Evaluating the Properties of Surface Samples with Multi-Scale Methods.  Paper presented at the 69th Annual Meetings of the Society for American Archaeology, Montreal.

§    Todd, L.C., O. Burger, P. Burnett, K. Derr, W. Reitze, B. Schoville, A. Mueller, and C. Hurst.  (2004) Landscape Taphonomy and Archaeological Ecology: Integrative approaches for linking cultural, biological, and physical systems research.  Poster presented at the 170th Annual AAAS Meetings, Seattle.    

§    Burger, O., M. Glantz, R. Sulyemanov, P. Hughes, A. Schauber.  (2002) The Paleolithic Silk Road?  Preliminary Survey Results from an Uzbek-American Collaborative Effort. Poster presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Denver.

§    Burger, O., L. Todd, T. Stohlgren, P. Burnett, D. Rapson.  (2001) A Nested-Sampling Design for Archaeological Survey.  Paper Presented at the 59th Annual Plains Anthropological Conference, Lincoln.

§    Burger, O. L. Todd, T. Stohlgren, P.C. Burnett, D. Rapson.  (2001) Scale, Context, Sampling Design, and Archaeological Survey: Seeking Conceptual and Methodological Concordance.  Paper presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans.

§    Burger, O., L. Todd, and T. Stohlgren.  (2001) The Grazers and the Grazed: Interdisciplinary Research in a Grassland Setting.  Poster Presented at the 7th Annual Front Range Student Ecology Symposium, Fort Collins.

§    Burger, O., L. Todd, D. Stephens, P.C. Burnett, D. Rapson, and T. Stohlgren.  (2000) Investigating the Effects of Large Herbivore Grazing on the Discovery, Management, and Interpretation of Cultural Materials. Poster Presented at Joint Midwest Archaeological & Plains Anthropological Conference, St. Paul.

 

Recent Field Experience (USA):

§    6/07. Earthwatch Institute. Assistant field director for excavation and site mapping of the Challis Bison Kill in central Idaho, directed by Ken Cannon and Molly Boeka-Cannon. Supervised highschool aged student excavators.

§    5/06 – 7/06.  University of New Mexico.  Teaching Assistant for the archaeological field school directed by Dr. B. Huckell; near Albuquerque, NM. Supervised a small-scale archaeological survey and assisted in the supervision of excavation of a Folsom camp site (Deann’s Site).  

§    7/04 – 8/04.  Bureau of Land Management, Taos Field Office.  Archaeological Technician (GS-7); archaeological survey, site recording and testing; Upper Rio Grande, northern New Mexico.   

§    7/03 – 8/03.  Valle Caldera National Preserve.  Crew (GS-7); archaeological survey, site recording and testing; Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. 

§    5/03 – 7/03.  University of New Mexico.  Crew; excavation and mapping of the Boca Negra Wash site, directed by Dr. B. Huckel; a Folsom site near Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

§    5/02 – 8/02.  U.S. Forest Service.  Crew Chief (GS-7); site recording, survey design, report writing; Arapaho Roosevelt and Routt National Forests, Colorado and Wyoming. 

§    Summer 1999, 2000, 2001.  Colorado State University.  Teaching Assistant for the archaeological field school directed by Dr. L. C. Todd; Northwest Nebraska.  Supervised excavation at the Hudson-Meng Bison Bonebed, directed the Oglala National Grasslands Survey Project, and assisted with student research projects. 

International Field Experience:

§    3/06 – 5/06. Ethnographic fieldwork among Pume foragers of southwestern Venezuela; Directed by Dr.’s K. Kramer (NSF PI) and R. Greaves.  

§    6/05. Crew. Archaeological survey in southern Portugal; directed by Dr. J. Boone of the University of New Mexico.

§    5/01.  Crew Chief, The Paleolithic Project Uzbekistan-USA.  Survey and site testing of potential Paleolithic localities in eastern Uzbekistan; directed by Dr. Mica Glantz of Colorado State University.   

§    9/99 - 12/99.  Crew Chief, Proyecto Porco-Potosí.  Survey and excavation of the Inka/Spanish Contact Period, Porco, Bolivia; directed by Dr. Mary Van Buren of Colorado State University.  

§    2/99 - 3/99.  Crew, excavation and survey of Formative Period sites in the Santa Maria River Valley, northwest Argentina; directed by Cristina Scatolin of La Universidad de La Plata, Argentina.   

 

Teaching Experience:

§    Fall 2007. University of New Mexico, Instructor for Perspectives in Human Ecology (Anth 450/550, Bio 402/502). Designed and taught a new course on the topic of human macroecology. Seminar style augmented with lectures.

§    Spring 2007. University of New Mexico, Lab Instructor for Introduction to Biology (Bio 124). Organize and present lectures, lab exercises, and quizzes for introductory concepts in basic biology.

§    Fall 2002.  University of New Mexico, Lab Instructor for Human Evolution Lab (Anth 151L).  Organize and present lectures, lab exercises, homework assignments, and quizzes for a lab course on hominin evolution.     

 

Graduate Coursework and Training:

§    7/05.  Attended the Complex Systems Summer School in Beijing, China; sponsored by the Santa Fe Institute and the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. (I attended the school again in 2006 as staff.)

 

Anthropology:

§    ANTH 560, Proposal Writing

§    ANTH 576, Southwestern Archaeology 

§    ANTH 562, Human Life History Theory 

§    ANTH 573, Quaternary Paleoenvironments and Archaeology

§    ANTH 570, Current Debates in the Archaeology of Complex Societies

§    ANTH 579, Current Debates in the Archaeology of Simple and Middle Range Societies

§    ANTH 560, Human Behavioral Ecology

§    ANTH 574, History and Theory of Archaeology.

§    ANTH 572, Quantitative Methods for Archaeology

§    ANTH 525, Stone Age Europe

§    AP 581, Mesoamerican Civilizations

§    AP 580, Advanced Topics in Human Evolution

§    AP 542, Archaeological Theory

§    AP 480, Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory

§    AP 472, Human Adaptations

 

Other Relevant Disciplines:

§    BIOL 502, Evolutionary Ecology

§    BIOL 565, Landscape Ecology

§    BIOL 494, Biogeography

§    BIOL 503, Biocomplexity Seminar (7 semesters)

§    BIOL 565, Sociobiology/Evolutionary Ecology

§    EY 501, Community and Ecosystem Ecology

§    NR 422, GIS Applications in Natural Resources

§    NR 660, Biogeochemical Cycling of Ecosystems

§    ECON 504, Mathematical Economics (audit)

§    PHYC 581, Nonlinear Science for Mathematical Biology

§    MATH 312, Applied Ordinary Differential Equations

§    MATH 163, Calculus II

§    MATH 162, Calculus I

§    STAT 428, Data Analysis II

§    STAT 427, Data Analysis I

§    CS 151, Programming in Matlab