Raymond Whitlow is a Ph.D. student and IGERT Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University at Buffalo. He graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Anthropology and History from Luther College in 2006. He is currently completing his second year of coursework.

His regional interest is in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of Southeastern Europe, in particular the Chalcolithic cultures in Northeastern Romania, Moldova, and the Ukraine. He is interested in the changes in social interactions associated with settlement patterns. The shift from tell to ‘flat’ sites, the presence of bounding features such as walls and ditches, the sudden increase in settlement size in Moldova and the Ukraine, and the organization of houses may all have an effect on how individuals, families, neighbors and communities relate to one another. He is attempting to approach these issues from two directions, combining landscape archaeology and embodiment concepts.

Last summer he participated on West Mound Excavation at Catalhoyuk under the direction of Dr. Peter Biehl, where he plans to return this summer. He also has excavation experience in Romania and North America.