This year, from October 17-20th, the MSUFAL attended the ninth annual meeting of the Forests, Lakes & Grasslands (FLAG), the regional forensic anthropology meeting for the Midwest. FLAG was originally created to allow students and professionals alike a chance to present research, meet, and network in a more casual atmosphere than what most large professional meetings provide. And trust us, we really take the relaxed atmosphere seriously–as FLAG is often held around Halloween, we organize an annual costume contest and presenters often give their talks in disguise!
FLAG is typically attended by the University of Indianapolis, Mercyhurst University, MSU, Western Michigan University School of Medicine (WMed), Northern Michigan University, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, as well as medical examiner offices and law enforcement agencies throughout the state of Michigan. In recent years, MSU undergraduate students have attended the daytime sessions. This year, we also welcomed first-time attendees from the Purdue University BioAnth Isotope Ecology Research laboratory (BIER lab). The MSUFAL, as one of the founding institutions of the meeting, has been in attendance for the last nine years, and we came out in full force this year with over half of our lab team attending the meeting!
On Thursday evening, we packed up our bags (some packed too many bags) and headed from MSU to the Ralph A. MacMullan Center in Roscommon, Michigan for a weekend of forensic anthropology, campfires, and endlessly-flowing coffee. We were met with a bonfire and a bevy of familiar faces upon our arrival, everyone excited to catch up with old friends in a welcoming environment. On Friday morning, our very own Dr. Carolyn Isaac kicked off the conference with her presentation entitled “The Repository for Antemortem Injury Response (REPAIR): An Online Reference of Known Time Since Fractures,” coauthored by Dr. Isaac, Dr. Jered Cornelison, and Erica Christensen. Drs. Isaac and Cornelison discussed their continuing efforts, funded by the National Institute of Justice, to create a thorough database of fractures and the known conditions of injury to assist forensic practitioners with understanding the fracture healing process and rates of fracture healing.
Dr. Joe Hefner also had the opportunity to discuss his recent research, which attempts to understand how admixture might affect craniofacial form, in a presentation entitled “A Geometric Morphometric Approach to Quantify the Impact of Admixture on Craniofacial Form.” Both talks led to interesting and engaged discussions, a feature of presentations that is often lost in large conference rooms at annual meetings with hundreds of attendees. Other talks on Friday included a discussion of skunk scavenging of human tissue and estimating PMI using stable nitrogen isotopes from maggots. After an afternoon lunch break, we reconvened for the annual bone quiz, wherein we tested our osteology skills on various examples of trauma, human vs. non-human bone, and identification of rare osseous structures. Friday evening included a delicious dinner, a bonfire, nature walks, and some last-minute costume prep for Saturday’s costume contest!
Saturday’s “Icon”-themed costume party showcased some serious creativity: Mari Isa dressed as Clippy (Microsoft Word’s favorite suggestion paper clip), former graduate student Emily Streetman dressed as the Black Madonna of Częstochowa (a Polish religious icon), Rhian Dunn dressed as Dr. Temperance Brennan from “Bones,” Dr. Carolyn Isaac would have dressed as Austin Powers if she hadn’t forgotten her costume, and Drs. Joe Hefner and Todd Fenton dressed as themselves because they “are not costume people.” In addition to the costume contest, we heard talks from MSUFAL graduate student Elena Watson (dressed as Hawkeye from MASH) about the ongoing research at Roselle, a late-Roman/early medieval cemetery in Tuscany at which Dr. Todd Fenton’s research team has been conducting skeletal analyses for the last five years. Alex Goots, dressed as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, reported on a case analyzed by the MSUFAL and discussed the dangers of cognitive bias in forensic anthropology. Dr. Carolyn Isaac closed out the meeting with a case report from her time at WMed, and she also coauthored a talk on juvenile age estimation from knee radiographs, which was first authored by Kristen Twork.
On Saturday evening, we enjoyed a delicious dinner and another night of camaraderie around the bonfire, including (for some) a rousing discussion on the intricacies of cross-stitching. I can assure you that we are a really fun bunch. Finally, on Sunday morning, we packed up our bags (far too many for three nights), said our goodbyes, and headed back to East Lansing. We were flanked as we drove south by the warm colors of fall, reminiscing on another great weekend spent at Higgins Lake, and already plotting our costumes for next year.
Authored by Alexis C. Goots