Alice Toso

Prof. Alice Toso is a Junior Professor in Bioarchaeology at the University of Bonn's Bonn Center for ArchaeoSciences (BoCAS) and the Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology. Her work explores social inequalities, identity formation, and human-environment interactions through biomolecular and bioarchaeological methods. She specializes in childhood studies, urbanization in the Mongol Empire, transatlantic mobility, and Saxon heritage in Romania.

Educated at the University of Bologna (BSc, cum laude), Durham University (MSc), and the University of York (PhD), she has held postdoctoral roles at institutions in Spain and the UK. Her research is supported by grants including DFG FOR 5438 (Mongol Empire lifeways) and a Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellowship (transatlantic diet studies).

Key research themes include: (1) Childhood diets in medieval Portugal and Brazil via stable isotopes, (2) Urbanization dynamics in 13th-century Mongol cities, and (3) Medieval Transylvania ethnic identity through biomolecular analysis. She recently co-organized a session at the European Association of Archaeologists conference (2023) on Romanian migrations.

Notable awards include the Marie Skłodowska Curie Individual Fellowship (2018–2021). Her lab collaborations include the University of Coimbra (Portugal), University of Bucharest (Romania), and the University of Barcelona. Current projects aim to bridge archaeological data with modern conservation challenges in the Neotropics.