Benjamin Schaefer

Benjamin Schaefer is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), serving as a bioarchaeologist and researcher for the Center for the Recovery and Identification of the Missing (CRIM) in partnership with the DPAA.  Schaefer has participated in partner-led projects in Germany and the Philippines.

Schaefer is a bioarchaeological and forensic anthropologist that conducts their research in Andean South America.  Their research focuses on using a variety of biomolecular methods to elucidate who, when, where, and why children were sacrificed.  Schaefer's previous research investigated psychosocial stress before sacrifice at Huaca de los Sacrificios; Their doctoral research builds on their pilot research in archaeological hormones to reconstruct the socially embodied lived experiences in the months leading up to ritual execution at Huanchaquito Las Llamas - the largest mass human sacrifice event in the Americas.

Though my main geographical interest is thematically centered in Andean Peru, I have conducted research with archaeological assemblages from the Classic and Post-Classic Maya, Imperial Rome, Early Berliner Settlements, and the Colonial Era on the North Coast in the Zaña.