William & Mary Anthropology Alumna Taylor Callaway Appointed Assistant Professor at James Madison University

Dr. Taylor Callaway, a recent alumna of William & Mary’s Anthropology doctoral program, has been appointed an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at James Madison University, to start in the fall.

In December of 2025, Callaway defended her dissertation, titled “The Archaeology of Gathering: Feasting and Commensalism in the Woodland Tidewater.” Her dissertation research focused on the practices and effects of feasting in the Tidewater region from the Middle to Late Woodland period, circa 500 BCE to 1600 CE, a period of significant sociocultural change for the Indigenous peoples living in the area. In her words, her dissertation highlighted that in the Tidewater region, “traces of Native American feasting remain embedded in the landscape still, in the form of massive shell middens and extensive sub-ground pits.” Her archaeological investigation illustrated how “among the traces of plants, bone and ceramic vessels, we find material testimony to the power of food.” In recognition of her study, Callaway was recently awarded William & Mary’s 2026 Distinguished Dissertation Award in the Humanities & Humanistic Social Sciences.