Suzanne Pilaar Birch

Photo:
Associate Professor, Geography and Anthropology
Director, Quaternary Isotope Paleoecology Laboratory
Coordinator, Georgia Museum of Natural History Internship Program

Contact info

Email:
sepbirch@uga.edu
Office:
Geography-Geography & Geology Building 103
Anthropology-Baldwin Hall 265A
Lab-Geography & Geology Building 318
Research Interests:

I have a joint appointment in Geography and Anthropology and direct the Quaternary Isotope Paleoecology Lab. My research is focused on human adaptation and resilience to climate change and natural resource unpredictability in prehistory, and how our understanding of past human response to environmental change informs current thinking about these issues. I combine archaeology and biogeochemistry to investigate changes in diet, mobility, and settlement systems in the period spanning the end of the last ice age to the arrival of farming. 

My other research interests include the initial domestication of livestock, diffusion of domesticates across Eurasia, the transition from hunting to herding, seasonality and human mobility, multispecies archaeology, and advancing methodologies in zooarchaeology and stable isotope analysis. I am an active advocate of open access publishing and online data and research sharing. I co-founded and moderate the blog TrowelBlazers, which highlights women in the fields of archaeology, paleontology, and geology. I am also an editor-in-chief of the open access journal for Quaternary science, Open Quaternary.

Google Scholar Page
Quaternary Isotope Paleoecology Lab
CV:
Pilaar Birch CV May 2025 Public.pdf (434.02 KB)
Education:
  • Ph. D. (2012), University of Cambridge, Archaeology
  • M. Phil. (2009), University of Cambridge, Archaeological Science
  • B. Sc. (2008), Rutgers University, Evolutionary Anthropology and Paleoecology
Of note:

Senior Teaching Fellowship, Center for Teaching and Learning, UGA, 2025-2026
Administrative Fellow in Inclusive Excellence, Franklin College UGA, 2024-2026
M.G. Michael Award, UGA, 2023
Willson Center Fellowship, UGA 2021
Active Learning Summer Institute, UGA 2019
Southeastern Conference Faculty Travel Award, UGA 2017-2018
Faculty Leadership Institute Fellow, UGA 2017
President’s Venture Fund, UGA 2015
Sarah H. Moss Fellowship, Center for Teaching and Learning, UGA 2015
Lilly Teaching Fellowship, Center for Teaching and Learning, UGA 2015-2016
Online Learning Fellow, Franklin College, UGA 2014

Courses Regularly Taught:
GEOG 4/6040
GEOG 8020
GEOG 1125
GEOG 4/6770E
GEOG 4/6030
Selected Publications:

Pilaar Birch, S.E., Metzger, M., Ridder, E., Falconer, S., and P. Fall. Domestic herbivore mobility and herd management at Bronze Age Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. DOI:10.1007/s12520-025-02226-2. OA

Pilaar Birch, S.E., Metzger, M., Ridder, E., Porson, S. Falconer, S.E., and P.L. Fall.  Herd management and subsistence practices as inferred from isotopic analysis of animals and plants at Bronze Age Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus. PLOS ONE DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0275757 

Pilaar Birch, S.E. and Szpak, P. 2022. “Current Developments and Future Directions in Archaeological Science” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119 (43) e2212490119. DOI: 10.1073/PNAS.2212490119 

Pilaar Birch, S.E., Boz, B., and B. Erdoğu. 2021. “Isotope paleodietary analysis of humans from Chalcolithic Uğurlu, Gökçeada Island, Turkey” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 39: 103136 DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103136

Pilaar Birch, S.E., Atici, L., and Erdoğu, B. 2019. “Spread of domestic animals across Neolithic Western Anatolia and into Southeast Europe: New  stable isotope evidence from Uğurlu Höyük, Gökçeada, Turkey” PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222319 

Pilaar Birch, S.E., Scheu, A., Buckley M. and C. Çakırlar. 2018. “Combined osteomorphological, isotopic, aDNA and ZooMS analyses of sheep and goat remains from Neolithic Ulucak, Turkey” Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. DOI: 10.1007/s12520-018-0624-8

Pilaar Birch, S.E. 2018. “Seasonal mobility and multispecies interactions in the Mesolithic northeastern Adriatic.” in S.E. Pilaar Birch (ed.), Multispecies Archaeology. Archaeological Orientations Series. London: Routledge.

Pilaar Birch, S.E. and Vander Linden, M. 2017. “A long hard road... Reviewing the evidence for environmental change and population history in the eastern Adriatic and western Balkans during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene.” Quaternary International. DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.12.035

Pilaar Birch, S.E. 2017. “From the Aegean to the Adriatic: Exploring the Earliest Neolithic Island Fauna” Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. 

Pilaar Birch, S.E. & P.T. Miracle. 2017 “Human response to climate change in the Northern Adriatic during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene” G. Monks (ed.), Climate Change and Human Responses: A Zooarchaeological Perspective. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series. New York: Springer.

Pilaar Birch, S.E. 2017. “Neolithic subsistence at Vela Špilja on the island of Lošinj, Croatia” D. Serjeantson, P. Rowley-Conwy and P. Halstead (eds.), Economic Zooarchaeology: Studies in Hunting, Herding and Early Agriculture. Oxford: Oxbow.  Chapter 30.

Pilaar Birch, S.E., Miracle, P.T., Stevens, R.E. & T.C. O’Connell. 2016.“Reconstructing late Pleistocene/early Holocene migratory behavior of ungulates using stable isotopes and its effects on forager mobility” PLOS ONE 11(6): e0155714. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155714. 

Pilaar Birch, S.E. 2015. “Diversity and demographics of zooarchaeologists: Results from a digital survey” Ethnobiology Letters 6(2): 59-67. 

Pilaar Birch, S.E. and R.W. Graham. 2015. “A stable isotope data repository as part of Neotoma, a paleoecological database” BioScience 65(10): 953. DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biv133 

Pilaar Birch, S.E. & P.T. Miracle. 2015. “Subsistence continuity, change, and environmental adaptation at the site of Nugljanska, Istria, Croatia” Environmental Archaeology 20(1):30-40. 

Pilaar Birch, S.E. 2013. “Using social media for research dissemination: The Digital Research Video Project” Internet Archaeology 35. 

Pilaar Birch, S.E. 2013. “Stable isotopes in zooarchaeology” Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 5: 81-83.

Articles Featuring Suzanne Pilaar Birch
Still image from Dr. Birch's series

Dr. Suzanne Birch Hosts a New 20- Episode Lecture Series

Dr. Suzanne Birch, Professor of Geography and

Anthropology at UGA is the narrator and primary host for

the new streaming series "Early Humans, Ice Stone and

Survival." After more than a year in the making, the 20-

episode lecture…

Dr. Birch poses with animal skulls

Dr. Suzanne Birch Authors Two New Papers

UGA Geography and Anthropology Professor Dr. Suzanne Birch has been hard at work this year authoring two new papers that have both been published within the month of October. According to a recent Franklin College press release, Dr.

Dr. Birch poses with animal skulls

Dr. Suzanne Birch Named Co-PI on National Science Foundation Grant

UGA Geography and Anthropology professor Dr. Suzanne Birch has been named Co-Principal Investigator for a substantial National Science Foundation (NSF) grant with the purpose of establishing novel data communication and networking infrastructure between…

Dr. Suzanne Pilaar Birch

A Year of Titles: Dr. Suzie Birch named Wilson Research Fellow

Suzie Birch, associate professor of Geography and Anthropology at the University of Georgia, was last year awarded the Wilson Center Research Fellowship through the Wilson Center for Humanities and Arts.

Graduate Students

Support us

We appreciate your financial support. Your gift is important to us and helps support critical opportunities for students and faculty alike, including lectures, travel support, and any number of educational events that augment the classroom experience. Click here to learn more about how to help us grow.

Every dollar given has a direct impact upon our students and faculty.