Ph.D. 2017, Anthropology, Southern Methodist University
M.A. 2012,  Anthropology, Southern Methodist University
M.A. 2006, Anthropology (focus on Archaeological Geology), Texas A&M University
B.A. 2001, Anthropology, History, and Archaeological Studies,  University of Texas at Austin

Illinois Experts Profile

Dr. Aiuvalasit joined ISAS as an Assistant Research Scientist, Environmental Archaeologist in 2019. His research focuses on the study of archaeological site formation processes, and understanding how social institutions and land management practices influence the resilience of communities - both cultural and natural - to climate change. Using geoarchaeological methods and geospatial analyses, his interdisciplinary research incorporates archaeological, ethnographic, geological, and paleoenvironmental datasets. He has over twenty years of experience working on applied and academic research projects across the Eastern U.S., Texas, and New Mexico, as well as in Central Mexico.

Dr. Aiuvalasit is the Director of the Environmental Archaeology Laboratory at ISAS.

2024   Aiuvalasit, M., J. Lambert, A., White, and T. Pauketat (eds.) An assessment of the impacts of climate change on cultural heritage in Illinois. Illinois State Archaeological Survey. https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125136

2023   Aiuvalasit, M.J.  and I.A. Jorgeson. Combining Paleohydrology and Least-Cost Analyses to Assess the Vulnerabilities of Ancestral Pueblo Communities to Water Insecurity in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico. American Antiquity 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2023.67 

2022   Neely, J. A., M.J. Aiuvalasit, and Barbara M. Winsborough. Relict canals of the Tehuacán Valley, Mexico: A Middle-to Late-Holocene dryland socio-hydrological system. The Holocene 32(12): 1422-1436. https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836221121774

2021   Roos, C. I., C. I., T. W. Swetnam, T. J. Ferguson, M. J. Liebmann, R. A. Loehman, J. R. Welch, E. Q. Margolis, C. H. Guiterman, W. C. Hockaday, M. J. Aiuvalasit, J. Battillo, J. Farella, C. A. Kiahtipes. Native American Fire Management at an Ancient Wildland-Urban Interface in the Southwest US. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118(4): e2018733118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2018733118

2021   Skousen, B. J., and M. Aiuvalasit. Questioning the Native American Population Rebound in the Horseshoe Lake Watershed from AD 1500 to AD 1700. American Antiquity 86(1): 199-202. https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2020.74

2020   Brelsford, C., M. Dumas, E. Schlager, B. Dermody, M. Aiuvalasit, …. & S. Zipper. Methods for understanding how complex social and hydrological systems can contribute to Sustainability Science. Ecology and Society 25(2): 23. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11515-250223

2020   Aiuvalasit, M., Riley, T., and J. Schuldenrein. Multi-proxy evidence for rapid and enduring prehistoric anthropogenic vegetation change during the Late Holocene from an oxbow of the Mississippi River, Wapanocca Bayou, Arkansas, USA. Geoarchaeology 35(3), 351-365. https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.21773

Register of Professional Archaeologists
Society for American Archaeology
Geological Society of America
Illinois Archaeological Survey