1. Velasquez 1
Anthropology Capstone
Scoggin
Fantasy Proposal
Executive Summary
My main purpose of putting forth this proposal is to obtain a fellowship here at
Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) so that I may pursue a Doctor of Philosophy degree
in Anthropology. My ultimate goal is to be able to pass on my knowledge to fellow Biological
Anthropology studentsthrough teaching all the knowledge I have acquired in Human Anatomy,
Osteology, Classic Roman Archaeology and general Anthropological Theory.
Background
I have spent much of my academic career enveloped within the Biological field studying
Human Anatomy, Osteology, and Medicine. It was not until roughly three years ago that I was
given the opportunity to study under Doctor Kristina Killgrove of the University of West Florida
where I was able to further enhance my existing knowledge of osteology, this time in an
archaeological setting among the several sites in Rome (see: CaselBartone and
CastellaccioEuroparco). As Doctor Killgrove was heavily involved in her own project, the
“Roman DNA Project,” Doctor Killgrove was a major proponent of using isotopes in order to
discern new, groundbreaking data about past Roman remains, specifically, isotopic analysis
dealing with the migration and dietary needs of former Roman citizens dating back to around 1
A.D. to 3 A.D. Using these techniques, she was able to obtain large amounts of data that had
never been seen or even analyzed previously. Among several of her other interests, this is what
initially attracted me to the program at West Florida. Along with this new found knowledge, I
also spent time working in the Academic Teaching Facility on the campus of University of West
Florida, helping as a teaching assistant in the Biological Anthropology Lab, working with both

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Graduate and Undergraduate students to help identify bones and understand what may have
happened to them either before or after expiration.
Projected Dissertation
My main purpose of applying to your program at Penn State is my hope of being able to study
under Doctor Tim Ryan. During my time as an undergraduate student at Humboldt State
University, I and a fellow Anthropology student conducting a cross-discipline study with our
schools Kinesiology Lab in order to observe bipedal locomotion in students who carry a weight-
bearing load. While one purported theory on why primate tool use evolved revolves around the
ability to stand upright, my research partner and I wanted to observe how this ability to use tools,
specifically, to carry loads on our dorsal regions, may be affecting our ability to walk upright.
Doctor Ryan’s research in skeletal morphology and comparative anatomy follows a similar path
of research that I would like to continue pursuing.
While mine and my partners research produced some new information on what effects
dorsally applied weight have on individuals, we briefly discussed that the research could be
expanded to other regions of the body, such as the effects of bearing weight in both the
torso/abdomen region, as well as applied on over the cranium. Our research falls along the same
lines of what Herbert Elftman conducted during the 1930’s when he observed that rotation of the
body had no direct involvement in forward movement, but rather helped indirectly through the
swinging momentum created by arm swing (Elftman 1938). During our research, we observed
that upper arm movement had a slight increase when weight was applied (Velasquez and Meyer
2012). I believe through Doctor Ryan’s guidance (along with other professors in the department)
we would be able to expand on this data and learn more about how bipedalism evolved as well as
the implications it poses to modern day populations of primates.It is my hope that I will be able

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to draw comparisons between my work with Doctor Killgrove, Doctor Justus Ortega, and Doctor
Ryan to gain a better insight into how bipedalism has varied over the years and what causes and
stressors there may have affected this.