Rebecca Dean
@rmdean.bsky.social
Anthropologist (archaeology, biological anth, ecology). Director of Assessment and Data Analytics. Former Michigan diaspora now home but missing Minnesota. UMich grad working at MSU. Never speaks for MSU.
Pinned
Rebecca Dean
@rmdean.bsky.social
· Sep 21
and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
A non-inclusive list of reasons I might not have responded to your email (yet):
1/endless
1/endless
February 13, 2026 at 11:55 PM
A non-inclusive list of reasons I might not have responded to your email (yet):
1/endless
1/endless
Reposted by Rebecca Dean
Curling doesn't necessarily have to be just a winter sport.
February 12, 2026 at 10:22 PM
Curling doesn't necessarily have to be just a winter sport.
Exciting news! I'm one small cog in a large group that won the 2026 SAA Outstanding Public Archaeology Initiative Award! It's for our book A Practitioner’s Guide to Public Archaeology. 🎉
February 12, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Exciting news! I'm one small cog in a large group that won the 2026 SAA Outstanding Public Archaeology Initiative Award! It's for our book A Practitioner’s Guide to Public Archaeology. 🎉
Reposted by Rebecca Dean
Proud that after five years of careful analysis and discussion our paper "Lasting Lower Rhine-Meuse forager ancestry shaped Bell Beaker expansion" has now been published.
Lasting Lower Rhine–Meuse forager ancestry shaped Bell Beaker expansion - Nature
A distinctive population with high hunter-gatherer ancestry persisted 3,000 years later than in most European regions, contributing to later Lower Rhine–Meuse Bell Beaker users.
doi.org
February 11, 2026 at 4:15 PM
Proud that after five years of careful analysis and discussion our paper "Lasting Lower Rhine-Meuse forager ancestry shaped Bell Beaker expansion" has now been published.
My children had never heard 99 Luftballons!
February 11, 2026 at 11:52 PM
My children had never heard 99 Luftballons!
Reposted by Rebecca Dean
I have a bunch of new stuff to upload so uhh. Store is 20% off, including the sterling section, all day. LGBTQIA+ staffed and owned, we ship for free over $50 in the US.
Thanks for the shares and peeks!
www.peculiarityshop.com
Thanks for the shares and peeks!
www.peculiarityshop.com
February 11, 2026 at 5:31 PM
I have a bunch of new stuff to upload so uhh. Store is 20% off, including the sterling section, all day. LGBTQIA+ staffed and owned, we ship for free over $50 in the US.
Thanks for the shares and peeks!
www.peculiarityshop.com
Thanks for the shares and peeks!
www.peculiarityshop.com
Reposted by Rebecca Dean
Hey y'all.
A South African dev released a blackity black game during BHM and it's currently getting the usual suspects in the reviews.
Imma grab this up myself anyway, but can we all be some chums and help push the racists out of the reviews? 🙂
A South African dev released a blackity black game during BHM and it's currently getting the usual suspects in the reviews.
Imma grab this up myself anyway, but can we all be some chums and help push the racists out of the reviews? 🙂
“Please enjoy the museum”:
Relooted is OUT NOW!
Please share!
Relooted is OUT NOW!
Please share!
February 10, 2026 at 10:05 PM
Hey y'all.
A South African dev released a blackity black game during BHM and it's currently getting the usual suspects in the reviews.
Imma grab this up myself anyway, but can we all be some chums and help push the racists out of the reviews? 🙂
A South African dev released a blackity black game during BHM and it's currently getting the usual suspects in the reviews.
Imma grab this up myself anyway, but can we all be some chums and help push the racists out of the reviews? 🙂
I am, unsurprisingly, bang in the middle of the archaeologists
I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself!
bluesky-map.theo.io
I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail
bluesky-map.theo.io
I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail
Bluesky Map
Interactive map of 3.4 million Bluesky users, visualised by their follower pattern.
bluesky-map.theo.io
February 9, 2026 at 4:54 PM
I am, unsurprisingly, bang in the middle of the archaeologists
I’m honestly surprised. I figured they wouldn’t go after the workers needed for the bottom line of their supporters’ businesses. I’ll be interested in seeing if it shifts attitudes in my small MN town if the dairies get raided. The immigrants are backbones of society and industry there.
ICE sacked some tiny Idaho town and deported ~4 percent of the population at a stroke, it's liable to collapse the local economy www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/u...
A Raid in a Small Town Brings Trump’s Deportations to Deep-Red Idaho
www.nytimes.com
February 9, 2026 at 4:37 PM
I’m honestly surprised. I figured they wouldn’t go after the workers needed for the bottom line of their supporters’ businesses. I’ll be interested in seeing if it shifts attitudes in my small MN town if the dairies get raided. The immigrants are backbones of society and industry there.
I’ve been wondering about this since my mom broke her leg a year ago. So many of her health care workers — the ones who do the critical but lower-paying jobs — were immigrants
"The [nursing home] director said many of her Jewish residents were distraught at the prospect of losing their Haitian caregivers—and asked if they could hide them, as some gentiles had done for Jews during the Holocaust."
www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-atta...
www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-atta...
Why Trump’s Attack on Refugees Could Hurt Grandma
It’s immigrants from ‘shithole’ countries who care for our elderly, and nobody’s lining up to take their place.
www.thebulwark.com
February 9, 2026 at 4:33 PM
I’ve been wondering about this since my mom broke her leg a year ago. So many of her health care workers — the ones who do the critical but lower-paying jobs — were immigrants
Read the freaking room, NYT.
Cafes across the U.S. are embracing the low- and no-caffeine lifestyle, with options that are a far cry from dusty tea bags and rewarmed decaf. nyti.ms/3XKlqoj
February 9, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Read the freaking room, NYT.
I in no way resent the hour I am spending -- once again -- doing this on-line "sexual misconduct training", since clearly having everyone do this regularly at multiple institutions keeps predatory members of academia from...wait, I'm hearing something in the distance. Sounds like..."yepsteen flies"?
February 8, 2026 at 8:46 PM
I in no way resent the hour I am spending -- once again -- doing this on-line "sexual misconduct training", since clearly having everyone do this regularly at multiple institutions keeps predatory members of academia from...wait, I'm hearing something in the distance. Sounds like..."yepsteen flies"?
Reposted by Rebecca Dean
Gift article about the turmoil in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in MN. Case study about how Trump‘s efforts to achieve political domination are destroying our best institutions.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/u...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/u...
Prosecutors Began Investigating Renee Good’s Killing. Washington Told Them to Stop.
www.nytimes.com
February 7, 2026 at 1:26 PM
Gift article about the turmoil in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in MN. Case study about how Trump‘s efforts to achieve political domination are destroying our best institutions.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/u...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/u...
I can’t get over the “rules barring political symbolism”. What is a flag if not political symbolism?
I cannot sufficiently underline how despicable it is that the IOC has required Haitian Olympic athletes to remove an image representing the leader of the Haitian Revolution (against SLAVERY) from their uniforms.
February 7, 2026 at 1:24 PM
I can’t get over the “rules barring political symbolism”. What is a flag if not political symbolism?
Reposted by Rebecca Dean
Hooray, my shirt arrived in time for the state Dem convention in a couple weeks
February 7, 2026 at 12:13 AM
Hooray, my shirt arrived in time for the state Dem convention in a couple weeks
I'm reading about autism, ADHD, and neurodiversity in general. I know jack about psychology, so take this with a grain of salt, but I feel like these diagnoses are more like sexing a skeleton than, say, testing a virus or even diagnosing migraines. Yes, that was a very niche analogy. Bear with me.
February 6, 2026 at 11:36 PM
I'm reading about autism, ADHD, and neurodiversity in general. I know jack about psychology, so take this with a grain of salt, but I feel like these diagnoses are more like sexing a skeleton than, say, testing a virus or even diagnosing migraines. Yes, that was a very niche analogy. Bear with me.
Reposted by Rebecca Dean
*Almost* true. Cats ambled into Europe millennia earlier then demanded to be let out again.
Cats Migrated to Europe 7,000 Years Earlier Than Once Thought
Cats Migrated to Europe 7,000 Years Earlier Than Once Thought
The animals were imperfect,
long-tailed,
unfortunate in their heads.
Little by little they
put themselves together,
making themselves a landscape,
acquiring spots, grace, flight.
www.openculture.com
February 5, 2026 at 4:15 PM
*Almost* true. Cats ambled into Europe millennia earlier then demanded to be let out again.
Hubby and I got a letter telling us we should encourage 16yo to take AP classes. (It's something sent to all MI kids based on PSAT scores.) I literally LOLed. Mostly we try to keep him from taking too many. He's a sophmore and has taken/is taking:
AP Physics
AP Calc AB
AP World History
AP CSci
AP Physics
AP Calc AB
AP World History
AP CSci
February 5, 2026 at 3:58 PM
Hubby and I got a letter telling us we should encourage 16yo to take AP classes. (It's something sent to all MI kids based on PSAT scores.) I literally LOLed. Mostly we try to keep him from taking too many. He's a sophmore and has taken/is taking:
AP Physics
AP Calc AB
AP World History
AP CSci
AP Physics
AP Calc AB
AP World History
AP CSci
Reposted by Rebecca Dean
I've been working on how we measure "belonging" in higher ed, so here is part 1 of my Thoughts on Belonging (tm):
Being neurodivergent affects my understanding of belonging. I literally cannot conceive of being wholly myself without a need to mask in any public context. Yet I live in community.
Being neurodivergent affects my understanding of belonging. I literally cannot conceive of being wholly myself without a need to mask in any public context. Yet I live in community.
February 4, 2026 at 2:32 PM
I've been working on how we measure "belonging" in higher ed, so here is part 1 of my Thoughts on Belonging (tm):
Being neurodivergent affects my understanding of belonging. I literally cannot conceive of being wholly myself without a need to mask in any public context. Yet I live in community.
Being neurodivergent affects my understanding of belonging. I literally cannot conceive of being wholly myself without a need to mask in any public context. Yet I live in community.
My tiny former town in rural MN (<5k, 2 hours outside of Fargo) has had c. 75 people standing in protest at one of the two town stoplights on every Tuesday since Good’s killing. In the cold and snow and the electorate that voted Trump 62/38. Mad respect.
February 4, 2026 at 1:12 PM
My tiny former town in rural MN (<5k, 2 hours outside of Fargo) has had c. 75 people standing in protest at one of the two town stoplights on every Tuesday since Good’s killing. In the cold and snow and the electorate that voted Trump 62/38. Mad respect.
My teenagers were in hysterics over this. 🤣🤣
February 3, 2026 at 3:03 AM
My teenagers were in hysterics over this. 🤣🤣
Lots of useful materials and general wisdom about how to raise your child to be safe and exert agency. Wish there was more about how to negotiate that with your aging parents.
February 2, 2026 at 10:00 PM
Lots of useful materials and general wisdom about how to raise your child to be safe and exert agency. Wish there was more about how to negotiate that with your aging parents.
Reposted by Rebecca Dean
Academics vying for a spot in Epstein‘s world. There are so many. I feel the need to make a thread, so I don’t keep confusing them. 1/
January 31, 2026 at 9:02 PM
Academics vying for a spot in Epstein‘s world. There are so many. I feel the need to make a thread, so I don’t keep confusing them. 1/