Rate My Professor Katherine Adelsberger

Katherine A. Adelsberger is Professor and Chair of Environmental Studies at Knox College, holding the Douglas and Maria Bayer Endowed Chair in Earth Science since 2008. She earned a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis in 2008, an A.M. from the same institution in 2005, and a B.S. in Anthropology and Geology, summa cum laude, from Beloit College in 2002. As a geoarchaeologist, Adelsberger investigates the geologic dimensions of human-environment interactions, including site formation and taphonomic processes at archaeological sites, paleoenvironmental reconstructions during human history, and societal responses to environmental change. Her research encompasses desert pavement development, spring deposit identification, and ancient river paleochannel mapping. She co-directs the Dhiban Excavation and Development Project in Jordan since 2009 with colleagues from UC Berkeley and the University of Liverpool, and serves as geologist for NYU Excavations at Amheida in Egypt since 2010. Additional fieldwork includes the Dakhleh Oasis Project in Egypt from 2004 to present, Abydos Survey for Paleolithic Sites from 2005 to 2008, Kharga Oasis Prehistory Project from 2004 to 2008, and the Tensas Basin Coring Project in Louisiana from 2004 to 2008.

Adelsberger's contributions include key publications such as "Desert pavement development and landscape stability on the eastern Libyan Plateau, Egypt" (Geomorphology, 2009, with J.R. Smith), "Paleolandscape and paleoenvironmental interpretation of spring-deposited sediments in Dakhleh Oasis, Western Desert of Egypt" (Catena, 2010, with J.R. Smith), "Basin-scale reconstruction of the geological context of human settlement: an example from the lower Mississippi Valley, USA" (Quaternary Science Reviews, 2008, with T.R. Kidder, L.J. Arco, and T.M. Schilling), "Sedimentology" in Encyclopedia of Geoarchaeology (Springer, 2017), and "Construction and Deflation of Irrigation Soils from the Pharaonic to the Roman Period at Amheida (Trimithis)" (Géomorphologie, 2016, with J.-P. Bravard et al.). She has received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2003-2008), Geological Society of America Student Research Grant (2007), Claude C. Albritton, Jr. Award from the GSA Archaeological Geology Division (2007), and Douglas C. Kellogg Award from the Society for American Archaeology Geoarchaeology Interest Group (2007). At Knox College, she secured an NSF Major Research Instrumentation Grant in 2014 and multiple Knox Faculty Research and Creative Work Grants. Adelsberger teaches geoarchaeology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and geographic information systems, and has served on committees for the Geological Society of America and Society for American Archaeology.