Megan Anne Conger

Megan Anne Conger's current research considers how relationships between Indigenous communities in Southern Ontario changed over the course of the 16th and 17th centuries.  In particular, she is investigating the differential timing of early interactions between European settlers and people in Native communities, considering the possibility that Native communities engaged in these interactions in a variety of ways other than simple acceptance or rejection. Her work integrates traditional trade good analysis (glass beads, metal artifacts) with Bayesian Chronological Modeling and AMS radiocarbon dating. Her research bridges prehistoric and historic archaeologies and is rooted in both world-systems and postcolonial intellectual frameworks. 

Megan has extensive experience analyzing museum collections and working in museums and repositories in the Canada and the US. Her analytical skills include geophysical survey, soil chemistry, and faunal analysis. She has international fieldwork experience in Canada (Ontario) and Mongolia (Khovsgol Province), as well as domestic experience in New York, Georgia, Illinois, and New Mexico.  She is currently a research assistant on Dating Iroquoia, an NSF-funded effort between University of Georgia and Cornell University which is refining archaeological chronologies across southern Ontario and New York State using Bayesian Chronological Modeling of high-precision AMS radiocarbon dates.