Michael Fedoroff

Michael Fedoroff is a Second year Anthropology PhD student at the University of Alabama with research interests in Indigenous life ways and cultural revitalization programs. His focus area has been in the Southeastern region of the United States with an emphasis on the Piney Woods.  His Master’s work examined earth-oven technology in the Pine Hills of Mississippi in order to explore links between culture and technology during the Archaic/Woodland periods.  This project led to his keen interest in plants as cultural keystone species and the importance of Indigenous collaboration.  Michael has spent the past 10 years collaborating with Tribal groups on ancestral homeland research involving ancient cooking technologies, and his current work is focusing on Choctaw lifeways with an interest in how plants and the environment shape worldviews, non-human agency, and technology.     His research framework is collaborative and involves both ethnographic and archaeological approaches to questions of import to the Choctaw. Mike is a disabled Army combat veteran who spends much of his free time with his lovely wife Kelsey building Legos with his three children Lily, Rory, and Owen.