Talia Sankari received her BS in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she focused on Biological Anthropology. In 2017, she attended a paleoanthropological field school excavating at Swartkrans Cave in South Africa under Dr. Travis Pickering. During undergrad, she also studied Spanish and European history, earning a certificate in European Studies.
Following her undergraduate education, Talia earned a Master of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Bacteriology. Her program consisted of instruction in everything from genetics, immunology, bacteriology, virology, parasitology, and even bioterrorism. Her graduate school experience inspired her interest in paleopathology, combining her microbiology expertise with her love for anthropology and bioarchaeology. For three years, Talia worked in an evolutionary biology lab at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery under Dr. David Baum participating in research exploring the chemical origins of life on Earth. Her contributions aided in publishing a 2019 paper in Life.
Talia's Syrian background has inspired her deep interest in the archaeology of the Levant, where she hopes to pursue field work during her time at ISAW. Her research will fill the gaps in existing literature with a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of remains in their burial context by employing excavation, language, textual analysis, and laboratory techniques.