Lauren E. Kohut

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Anthropology Department at Vanderbilt University. I am a broadly trained anthropological archaeologist with more than a decade of research experience in Peru, Mexico and the United States. My research focuses on the dynamics of human-landscape interaction as it relates to the formation of complex political communities. Methodologically, my research employs Geographical Information Systems and spatial analysis to devise quantitative and systematic methods for tracing these relationships through time.

At the heart of my research is a desire to understand how societies are shaped through their interactions and perceptions of landscapes and the environment at multiple scales. My work seeks to bridge interpretive landscape approaches and quantitative environmental modeling by developing computational methods that incorporate human-scale variables—such as visual perception and mobility—into the study of humans and their environments. My ongoing research examines how the dynamics of this interaction were shaped by warfare and ecological change in the Colca Valley of the southern Peruvian highlands.

I am currently the research assistant for the Spatial Analysis Research Laboratory in the Department of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University.