Derek Boyd

I am an Assistant Professor of Biological Anthropology and Co-Director of the Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

 

As a founding member of the Respiratory Bioarchaeology Network, I study respiratory conditions that trigger inflammation in the upper and lower respiratory tracts, specifically maxillary sinusitis and pleural disease. My research explores how changing social and environmental conditions associated with industrialization and urbanization shape respiratory disease burden.

 

Starting from the perspective that inequality harms health, my current research applies a biocultural and intersectional lens to evaluate the overlapping and interdependent effects of classism, sexism, and regional inequality on respiratory disease burden among English adults during the Industrial Revolution (18th-19th centuries). This work incorporates advanced computational methods, which allow me to combine demographic and pathological data collected from archaeological human skeletal remains with historical documents, such as mortality data and parish records, to quantify disease burden across social locations that are rarely considered together.

 

To date, I have analyzed the skeletal remains of adults from industrial-era Barton-upon-Humber, London, North Shields, Sheffield, and Wolverhampton. I have also gathered cause-of-death data from the London Bills of Mortality (1700-1799) and the Registrar General’s Annual Reports (1838-1842). Data collection is ongoing. 

 

For additional information regarding my research program, please visit my website.

 

Major respiratory-related research projects:

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2016-Ongoing – Respiratory disease in industrial-era England (18th-19th centuries)

(Funded by the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and the AABA Cobb Professional Development Grant)