Shannon Monroe researches Medieval Central Asian history, using bioarchaeology to elucidate the lives of past populations. She is currently writing her doctoral dissertation “Exiting the Silk Road: Osteobiographies and Microhistory of Medieval Central Asia (10th-14th c. CE)”. This project aims to understand more clearly life in medieval Central Asia from a microhistorical (especially with regard to “homeplace” and “displacement”) and bioarchaeological approach, evaluating human remains from the Samanid/Early Muslim period cemetery of Bukhara’s Shahristan alongside historical and archaeological evidence for the city’s past. It additionally seeks to develop the osteobiography as a research method using the modes of historical emplotment proposed by Hayden White, in conjunction with experiments in the “choose-your-own-adventure” structure theorized by scholars of interactive theater, literature, and gaming. Finally, the dissertation will compare results of a population-level study of the Bukhara cemetery to results from an osteobiography series, in order to discern the advantages and disadvantages of the osteobiography as a research method in experimental history writing for the study of medieval Central Asia, especially considering the call for microhistorical and/or microregional approaches to the region.
Monroe graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Classics & Archaeology and Modern Languages (French and Chinese) from Loyola Marymount University in 2018. While there, she mentored students as an Honors Program Writing Fellow and Teaching Assistant in “Honors Research and Exhibition” and “Archaeological Research Methods.” She also worked as a Rains Research Assistant to Dr. Caroline Sauvage (Archaeology) for three years. She gained two seasons of field experience in China and Mongolia as a student of the Yangguanzhai Archaeology Field School and the Western Mongolia Archaeology Project.
While at ISAW, Monroe has worked as a team member of the international Mogou Bioarchaeology Project, which collects and analyzes skeletal data from the Qijia-period and Siwa-period (Bronze Age) individuals of what is now northwestern China. She was a founding member of the ISAW student council and served as its secretary throughout 2019. She has served with the Dorothy Day Hospitality House in Danbury, CT, and is concerned about matters of food justice, soil health, and urban walkability, and their relationship to the wellbeing of vulnerable populations. At present, she is a Core Team member of the advocacy group Strong Towns Steubenville, which promotes walkability, cycling infrastructure, incremental housing development, financial transparency, and human-centered urban design.
She has experience teaching recitations for the NYU undergraduate Core Program courses “The Silk Roads and Central Asia,” and “Scientific Traditions in Ancient Civilizations.” She is deeply interested in pedagogical traditions which emphasize outdoor, experiential, reverent, and place-based learning, as well as the inextricable bond between art and science. She is supported in her work by her husband Paul, and their three daughters, Juniper, Magdalena, and Josephine.