Maria Rosado, Ph.D. is a professor of anthropology at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ, and serves as coordinator of the anthropology program, which is a newly created major.
An anthropologist interested in bioarchaeology of Native South Americans, paleopathology and forensic anthropology, Dr. Rosado brought the anthropology program to life at Rowan University.
Beth Dombkowski:
Hello, my name is Beth Dombkowski, and I'm coming to you from the Office of Admissions at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. And welcome to Rowan Confidential. I am here today with Dr. Maria Rosado. Welcome.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Thank you very much. And good afternoon.
Beth Dombkowski:
Good afternoon. Dr. Rosado has been at Rowan for 25 years. She was in the geography and anthropology departments, before anthropology was moved to sociology and anthropology. But now you have a standalone major in anthropology-
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Yes, we do.
Beth Dombkowski:
Wonderful. And a minor that's been in existence since '97. Dr. Rosado has a Bachelor's of Arts in microbiology, a Master of Arts in anthropology, and a PhD in anthropology, all from Rutgers University. And you came here to build the program in anthropology, correct?
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
I was hired in '93 at the time. There was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Bartelt, and of course the people, my colleagues in geography, they wanted to build anthropology.
Beth Dombkowski:
Okay.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Anthropology had only a few courses and they wanted to build it up. So two of us were hired. And I was hired specifically because they wanted somebody to teach biological anthropology, and also archeology. Because I'm also, I'm trained in archeology as well.
Beth Dombkowski:
Oh, wonderful.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
So we were hired for that, and that's why mainly we came here. It was an opportunity to create a minor and a major. We were told that would be the case. The major, of course, took us a little bit longer-
Beth Dombkowski:
Took a couple of years.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Because of all the processes that have to take place and because of the changes in the direction of the university.
Beth Dombkowski:
Sure.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
We do have the minor, and the minor has been actually very successful. And now we foresee the anthropology major being very successful as well. We just started this semester officially, and we already have 15 students.
Beth Dombkowski:
Oh, my goodness. That's great.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
So we think we're going to be growing quite a bit. That's out hope.
Beth Dombkowski:
Yeah, absolutely. So how did you come to anthropology? Because it sounds like you studied a couple different things and, okay.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Well, I was always interested in science and nature, and particularly there was always an interest in humans. And I've always had an interest in diseases. In fact, at one point in my freshman year at Rutgers, I thought I would go into medicine. But then I got very interested in microbiology, and then I continued with that. And a lot of biology, of course, I had to have a lot of biology.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
But in my senior year, I had to finish up the courses for a minor. I also had a minor in French, and I was majoring already in biology/microbiology. So I really liked anthropology, because it answered for me other questions. And for me, it's questions that many people have, including our students here at Rowan, is who we are, and where do we come from.
Beth Dombkowski:
Oh, interesting.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
And I began to explore that through additional courses. And one of those courses was on physical anthropology, human evolution, which was taught by a very prominent anthropologist on record, who's still there. And in fact, she became my advisor later for my PhD dissertation. And so I was just intrigued by humanity and cultures, and the cultural evolution, and how did we get to be to this present, or at least this time, present condition.
Beth Dombkowski:
So you didn't even come to anthropology until towards the end of your undergraduate career?
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Yeah. Exactly. And I couldn't change majors at the time. I had received a scholarship and I had to finish.
Beth Dombkowski:
Okay.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
So I made the decision to keep taking the courses, take more and more courses, and then apply to graduate school. And in '84 I applied. I had taken already many courses in anthropology at night while I worked. And then I earned another scholarship. They had other scholarships at the time. And that carried me through five years. The other two to three years my husband helped me, put me through, because normally, for a PhD in anthropology, and in many other disciplines, it's quite long. So then I started in anthropology as a full time student in '85 at Rutgers.
Beth Dombkowski:
Okay, wow. And what kind of work were you doing after you graduated college before you became full time?
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Well, I worked at UMDNJ for a bit, and I worked, in the interim years, I worked in labs at Rutgers even. I really love Rutgers. It's my Alma Mater. I had a very good experience there. And so I was hired in one of the labs there for a year, and then the rest I worked at UMDNJ when it was separate from Rutgers. So then I applied to the anthropology PhD, and then I went full time. I stopped working. I just did it full time.
Beth Dombkowski:
That's great. It's nice that you were able to do that. That's wonderful. So what is it that wakes you up in the morning? What is your passion? What inspires you?
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Oh, being in the classroom.
Beth Dombkowski:
Really?
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Oh, yeah. I mean, the research part too, of course, because both of them, from a pedagogical point of view, and from a research, scientific points of view, they are processes of discovery. And so I get very, very happy when I go into my classroom, and we have this back and forth of questions. We have activities and students ask more questions. And then the same for research, because research is a tool for obviously learning as well, and when I work with students in particular. So it's a process of learning and discovery, which really gets me happy in the morning in coming here.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
So I've always been very happy here, and I suspect it will be the same until the day I have to retire. But I have always loved the support that we have here, to work with our students, and the focus on students, because since I came here, my colleague and I, with whom I was hired, we were told by the dean, the focus is on students. And I wanted that. I wanted a place like that, where I could build something, and to have the focus on students, to help them learn as best as possible.
Beth Dombkowski:
So I know that you're doing your own research, and I know you involve students in that. What are you studying now? What are you interested in?
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Well, yeah, because in anthropology, since I was so interested in humans, it took me ... and anthropology's got four subdisciplines. So I went into biological physical anthropology. There's also linguistic, cultural, and archeology. I'm also trained in archeology within that. But my focus was more biological, and I studied quite a bit of ancient diseases. I had courses, it's called Paleo Pathology.
Beth Dombkowski:
Oh, interesting.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
I had courses in bioarchaeology, as a graduate student. In fact, I did projects in bioarcheology. So little by little, I started narrowing down to bioarcheology, ancient diseases, human skeletal remains. So that drove me more and more into that direction, because in physical anthropology, there are many subfields. Anyway, so I went in what today is called bioarcheology, but with a focus on ancient humans. And by ancient, I'm meaning only a few thousand years ago, or hundreds of years ago. And I was very interested in looking at markers of diseases on bones, and that's part of bioarcheology.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
So what happened is that in '88 I happened to go to Chile, where I was born, and I went to visit our [casa de 00:07:55 foreign language (Spanish)] my grandmother, and we were in a Northern city of Chile called La Serena. And that city has a museum, a very prominent famous museum, the Archeology Museum of La Serena. And this was in '88, and I had just finished working in Mexico, trying to narrow down my thesis, my dissertation project, and I went into this museum, and lo and behold, I saw things that I thought, "Oh, this could be a really neat place to come and study."
Beth Dombkowski:
Oh, interesting.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
They have human remains here. So I talked to the people there briefly. Then came back to the US. Talked to my advisor. We wrote the letters. You know, back in the day we didn't have all the email and all that we do now. We had to do it everything by letters.
Beth Dombkowski:
Absolutely.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
So anyway, we sent the letters with proposal, because I had learned that they had human skeletal remains from different time periods, which I thought would be great for my dissertation, since I was comparing disease patterns among populations. So they accepted me, they accepted my project. So I went back over there, and it just turned out to be, that is the country where I was born, but the museum has over 1500 human skeletal remains.
Beth Dombkowski:
Oh, my goodness.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
We've been studying them since '88, since I went. I went back in '88.
Beth Dombkowski:
So you're still working with them?
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
We're still working. And what happened is, in the year '99, I proposed to Dr. Dean Harper, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. I said, "Could we build an arrangement with the museum, because I really would like to take students?" And he said, "Absolutely. What do we need to do?" Well, they need a letter of interest. So he wrote a letter to get back to them, because I had kept going back on my own for my own research. And they accepted it. And since that happened then in 2000, and since the year 2000, I have been bringing students.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
I started with one student. And normally I don't take more than four or five, because they have to work in a lab and everything has to be controlled. We are dealing with ancient Native American remains, human remains. And we have to follow obviously the protocols, the laws, the ethics, everything that has to deal with examining human remains. So ever since then I've been doing this, and I've done with students 18 trips since the year 2000.
Beth Dombkowski:
Oh, my goodness. How long are the trips? Is it a semester? Is it just-
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
No, they are only about two to three weeks, because we go there, I have to send a proposal with what we're going to examine, and I know what collections they have, what time periods. And so I have to tell them, I have to say, "Please have these collections that we're going to examine." This year we're going to examine trauma, whatever trauma we find. So every year we try to do something different, to collect knowledge about diseases, trauma, and whatever was going on in the skeletons of those people when they lived.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
And so the students have been going. And then they have to go to STEM, they have to present there what they found, at STEM. I also take them to Sigma XI at St. Joseph's University. And then, since last year, they have also presented at the Bioarcheologists' Northeast Regional Dialogue.
Beth Dombkowski:
And these are undergraduate students?
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
These are undergraduates. And they present their research with me there. And I'm their advisor who helps them with that. And they present there. And the only reason I'm not presenting this year, is because this summer I didn't travel. I normally go in August. And then I couldn't be of a medical issue. So I skipped this year, but I'm headed back next year. And I already have four students.
Beth Dombkowski:
Oh, my goodness. You have them already?
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
I already have four students who are definitely going, and these are anthropology majors. And that's the other thing. It relates, obviously, completely to the anthropology major, because in anthropology we offer experiential learning. And this is part of the experiential learning. Research is one of them. And this, of course, helps them with resume building, and their scientific skills, and all kinds of other research skills. So in all, it's a really nice package.
Beth Dombkowski:
That sounds wonderful. Yeah. And this is a new major here at Rowan?
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Yes. The major, it has four subfield tracks. In all of them, we carry out research. I happen to be the mentor for the physical forensic and physical anthropology subfield track. And the students who are in that are the ones who travel with me.
Beth Dombkowski:
And what types of opportunities are there for the students in the other tracks?
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
In the other tracks, we have the archaeology and resource management, the management of cultural resources, and archaeology. So within that, Dr. Hill, my colleague and friend, is preparing a course to Egypt. So that will be coming, not this winter session, but the following winter session.
Beth Dombkowski:
Oh, wow.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
And then we have a colleague who does medical anthropology. And then she does all kinds of research on medical systems, and how medicine is practiced, and how students can apply that for, particularly for students who go to medical school. So then we have ... the other track is ... well then, there's the archeology and the cultural resource. And that has to do, we have our collections of Native American artifacts. And those are going to be part of the museum. So it ties into how do we do exhibits, how do we work with collections. And so students get involved in all of this.
Beth Dombkowski:
So the museum, tell me about that.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
The museum was created, I'm the founder of it. It was in 2011. I decided I was going to create a museum one day. So I put it together in paper. I wrote the proposal to the dean at the time, and I sent that. I said, "This is what I will need." And I started working that one year from all through 2011, I worked with one student to just start organizing the collections. We have quite a lot in there. Some of them are natural. Most of them are copies, but they're really good copies. And they're, for example, the copies of the large animals, the megafauna, which we have on display.
Beth Dombkowski:
And this is here on campus?
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Right there on campus.
Beth Dombkowski:
Right there.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
And it's Robinson 205, but we call it Museum of Anthropology at Rowan University, or MARU.
Beth Dombkowski:
Oh, how cool.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
And so I thought, okay, let's just get this going, organize it. And then the following year, we hired Dr. Hill. And she's an expert on museum and museology, museum studies. So she began to create all the exhibits. We already had something. So she went on, and with her course, she created museum studies course. And with those students, have been creating the actual exhibits. And then in the webpage, they are becoming our galleries also. So people can go. We open the museum to the public on Fridays, because during the other days it's being used as a classroom.
Beth Dombkowski:
Sure.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
But in that museum we have a collection of human evolution casts. These are really good exact copies, because those we can't have the originals, nor would we want to. Those belong in the countries where they have been discovered.
Beth Dombkowski:
Absolutely.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
So we just stick with the really good copies, and they're used also for teaching.
Beth Dombkowski:
So if somebody wants to stop by the museum on a Friday, what time are they-
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
10:00 to 3:00.
Beth Dombkowski:
10:00 to 3:00.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
We have a docent student who will be giving tours. I'll be there. I do research there on Fridays with other things, with Dr. Hill, that pertain to museums. But I will be there sometime, 'cause I'm also advisor for a certificate in forensic study, so I have to see students for that. But the docent will be there, showing people what we have.
Beth Dombkowski:
And it's open to the public and you can stop by.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
And it's open to the public, yeah. In fact, I have had a through, in various summers, since 2002, I've had little kids from kindergarten come in. Then we've had family weekends. So we've been doing that for a while, no, not for a while. This will be the third year, where parents come, as you know, and the students come with their parents and do a tour, and that we provide them information on what the museum is all about, and what we want to do with it, which is to expand it. So the next step is to actually get a room.
Beth Dombkowski:
That's amazing. I haven't been over. I need to get over there and take a look.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Yeah, please do. We will be happy to share with you what we have.
Beth Dombkowski:
And Friday is coming up. That would be great. So one last question.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Yes.
Beth Dombkowski:
Why Rowan?
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Well, when I came here, when I was interviewed, I have to admit, I met a lot of people here, and the students, those days that I came because I was asked to come to meet with the geography people. And then I met, of course, with the dean. And I liked the friendliness here. People were very friendly, extremely friendly. Not that they are not in upper Northern New Jersey, but I don't know, something about, a different kind of friendliness there.
Beth Dombkowski:
It is. It's a different culture in South Jersey, yeah.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
It's a different culture. I really like where Rowan was situated. But most of all, I liked what Rowan was doing, in growing its education. I really liked that, and I liked the opportunity that I could be part of something that was growing. And in this case, when I was told, "Well, if you're hired, you will be hired to grow anthropology." I thought, "This is great."
Beth Dombkowski:
Perfect.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
So it all fell in. There were many reasons, but the most important one is I like what Rowan at the time, Rowan College, at the time, was doing to add curriculum, to add majors, minors, and what have you. And I wanted to be part of that.
Beth Dombkowski:
That's great.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
So for me, it was a great opportunity.
Beth Dombkowski:
Wonderful. Thank you so much for coming by and talking to us today. This has been Dr. Maria Rosado, and this is Rowan Confidential.
Maria Rosado, Ph.D.:
Thank you.