Program Codes:
CGRFBA
Graduate Certificate
Availability: campus
The one-year Graduate Certificate Program in Forensic and Biological Anthropology is available to students wishing to enhance their undergraduate education with courses and hands-on training in preparation for professional careers or graduate school. The certificate program is particularly useful for students interested in acquiring practical experience in the specific methods and theory of forensic anthropology; however, the certificate is also appropriate for applicants interested in careers in medicolegal death investigation, biological anthropology, bioarchaeology, anatomy, or other closely related fields.
Students will work with faculty to construct a personalized curriculum of at least five (5) courses from the current Mercyhurst graduate catalog. To receive a certificate, students must receive a B or above in each the five courses. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in actual forensic cases conducted by the Mercyhurst Forensic Anthropology Laboratory. Students are eligible to work in the field if they are enrolled or have completed Forensic Archaeology/Lab (ANTH 510/511). Students may participate in the laboratory analysis of remains if they are enrolled, or have completed ANTH 510/511 or ANTH 520/521. Rare exceptions to these requirements may be made on a case-by-case basis. The department faculty will also be available to mentor students and assist with developing applications for jobs or graduate school.
The evaluation of applications will be based on undergraduate record, a personal statement, and three professional references. The top candidates based on submitted applications will offered a video, phone, or in-person interview which will contribute to the final admissions decision. Ideal candidates for the certificate program are students with strong academic records and letters of recommendation, who are simply lacking the requisite courses or experience needed for acceptance into the master’s program. The certificate is also useful for students who have had some coursework or experience in the field, but have yet to identify a particular area of interest or research.
Students in the certificate program will be working closely with both the faculty and M.S. students, so strong applications should also show that the candidate will be able to work well with others as a member of a team. Further application instructions can be obtained by visiting the graduate admission webpage or contacting the Mercyhurst Graduate Admissions office.
This course will cover the basic principles of forensic anthropology including but not limited to its historical background, the role of the forensic anthropologist in a forensic context, expert witness testimony, multidisciplinary interactions with law enforcement and other forensics experts, ethics in forensic science and anthropology, and the new direction of standardization and accreditation in the field. Additionally, students will learn protocols, procedures, and skills specific to forensic casework in the Mercyhurst Forensic Anthropology Laboratory such as forensic imaging and casting of specimens.
This course will provide students with a working knowledge of how to document forensic context from a variety of outdoor forensic scenes. The course will consist of Lecturetures and hands-on activities, supplemented with examples from forensic cases. The goal of the course is to introduce students to basic forensic archaeological recovery principles, methods, and practices. Hands-on activities in site mapping using a variety of instruments, proper excavation methodologies and biological physical evidence colLecturetion will be used.
ANTH-511
ANTH-510
This course provides in-depth training in the field of osteology?the study of human bones and teeth. Students will learn to identify complete and fragmentary elements of the human skeleton by sight, as well as touch. They will learn to recognize key anatomical features and relate these to corresponding soft tissue structures. Introductory Lecturetures will deal with growth and development of osseous and dental structures, human biological variation, and factors that modify the skeleton before and after death, including trauma, pathology, and taphonomy. This course provides a strong foundation for advanced anatomical and anthropological studies in forensic anthropology, bioarchaeology, paleoanthropology and medical fields.
ANTH-521
ANTH-520
This course is a foundational introduction to the theory and methods of the human skeletal biological profile. Lecturetures include a survey of the history, key theoretical issues, and primary methods used for the estimation of age, sex, ancestry, and stature. Labs will provide basic training in the tools, methods, and software used by forensic anthropologists to perform skeletal analyses. Students will learn to apply traditional metric and non-metric methods, as well as be introduced to newly developed methods and current research trends. Throughout the course, students will be asked to critically review primary research articles. Analysis of a mock case throughout the term will evaluate each student?s proficiency with various techniques, their ability to work in a team, and their written and oral communication skills. This course provides a strong foundation for advanced study and practice of methods for analysis of the skeletal biological profile.
ANTH 520
ANTH-531
ANTH 521
ANTH-530
This two-course sequence (ANTH 535/ANTH 536) follows the development of the human species from our remote primate forbearers through the appearance of fully modern Homo sapiens. The student is familiarized with the methods and the data of human paleontology and comparative primatology and is shown the complex relationships, which exist between biological and cultural evolution. Part focuses on primate evolution and the evolutionary history of Australopithecines.
Part II will deal with the biological and cultural history of the genus Homo from its roots in the Plio-Pleistocene through the Holocene until the Neolithic.
ANTH 535ANTH
The goal of this course is providing the student with an in depth understanding of formal hypothesis testing and the general principles underlying parametric statistical methods. The student will not only learn the practical applications of the methods discussed in class but will also learn to interpret and evaluate the result of hypothesis tests carried out with any other method. The course will also serve as an introduction to experimental design. The skills obtained from this course will form the basis to learn more advances statistical methods and research techniques in the natural sciences.
The course will provide an overview of forensic investigative techniques used toprocess various types of indoor crime scenes. Evidence identification, collection,preservation and submission protocols, proper use of standards, chain of custodyissues, and crime scene reconstruction techniques will be discussed in the course.In addition, the role of the crime scene technician as an expert witness will beexplored.
This course examines the forensic application of death investigations, utilizingtechniques and methodologies introduced in prior Forensic Science courses. Thefocus of the course will be on examining important similarities and distinctionsamong homicide investigations and various other manners of death: suicide, natural, accidental and equivocal deaths. The course will concentrate on the sceneexamination, documentation of the death scene, exploring the various analyses oftime since death, and when appropriate, postmortem interval and investigativeprotocols and procedures.
This course discusses all aspects of zooarchaeology and provides a foundation incomparative osteology and the evolutionary perspectives of zoology. Students willlearn to conduct faunal analyses, and how faunal remains can be used to interpretdiet, seasonality, and socioeconomic factors of past societies. Students will alsolearn how knowledge of faunal remains aids in making the distinction betweenhuman and non-human skeletal remains in a forensic context.
ANTH-566
ANTH-565
This course covers the phenomenon of human growth, how growth anddevelopment can be measured, the molecular basis of growth, secularchanges, genetic and environmental effects on growth, and applications to ageestimation in subadults.
ANTH-500, ANTH-510, ANTH-570
In this course, the student will assess the critical components of each sectionof a forensic anthropological case report and learn how to write reportssuitable for presentation in professional settings. As part of this course,the student will be responsible for writing report sections of active forensiccases, as well as critically evaluating reports from previous cases. Oldcases reports will be reviewed for fixed components, as well as variationsmade over time. Recommendations will be made for improvements to theexisting case report template. Discussions will be held regarding care reportformat recommendations by the American Academy of Forensic Sciencesand American Board of Forensic Anthropologists. At the completion of thecourse, the student is required to submit an independently written full casereport and a folder containing all bench notes and related documentationthat contributed to the report, similar to what is required for ABFA boardcertification.
Students will be presented with details of pathological conditions that affectthe human skeleton. Discussion will begin with the basics of alteration of boneresulting from osteoblastic or osteoclastic activity and end with discussion ofspecific bone diseases, analyzed and described from gross, histological andradiographic perspectives.
ANTH 520/521ANTH
ANTH-621
ANTH-620
This course examines, in detail, the skeletal manifestations of injuries occurring near or at the time of death. Topics to be discussed include: blunt force trauma, gunshot/ballistic trauma, sharp force trauma, burned bone trauma, and bone fracture healing. An emphasis will be placed on bone biomechanics.
ANTH-631
ANTH-630
This course is aimed at introducing students to the different methods and techniques of forensic odontology and specifically in the areas of dental age estimation, individual identification, bitemark analysis and the role of dentistry in the disaster victim identification. At the end of this course the student should be able to understand the process of dental identification by dental means. The class will consist of lecture presentations, hands-on laboratory sessions and interactive discussions on the different topics covered. No previous courses are required.
The goal of the course is to provide students with details of the field of forensic taphonomy as currently configured. As there is a dearth of good forensic taphonomic research, this course will provide students with an opportunity to explore their particular interests in forensic taphonomy by conducting extensive literature reviews of the topics of their choice during each week?s focus. Those students interested in conducting research through a Master?s thesis in a forensic taphonomy will be given wide latitude to explore the topic and create an extensive bibliography. The final product for those students will be a literature review, final research design, and data colLecturetion.
ANTH-641
In this course the student is expected to master multivariate statistical techniquesemployed in biological and forensic anthropology. The course covers moreextensive evaluation of principal components analysis, and explores furthermethods of statistical classification, cluster analysis, logistic regression, transitionanalysis, and resampling.
ANTH-550