Carly Whelan

Carly Whelan is a faculty member in the Anthropology Department at California State University, Chico, where she serves as Certificate in Cultural Resource Management Co-Coordinator, Director of the Northeast Information Center (NEIC), and Director of the Archaeological Research Program (ARCH Lab). Her academic journey includes a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin (2006), followed by an M.A. (2010) and Ph.D. (2016) from the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Whelan's research examines pre-contact lifeways of California's indigenous populations, with particular focus on subsistence economies, settlement patterns, and exchange networks in the central and northern Sierra Nevada. She investigates how women shaped these systems, employing economic modeling, experimental archaeology, lithic artifact analysis, and raw material sourcing. Much of her current work centers on acorn storage economies, establishing field sites in the Sierra Nevada foothills to examine shifts in storage practices over time.

Her publication record reveals a consistent thematic focus on hunter-gatherer adaptation strategies, particularly food storage systems and gender dynamics in foraging societies. The 2022 collaborative work on California and Great Basin archaeology demonstrates her engagement with broader theoretical frameworks, while her influential 2013 article on women's foraging opportunity costs established her innovative approach to gender analysis in archaeological contexts. Her methodology frequently integrates experimental techniques with traditional archaeological analysis.

As NEIC Director, Dr. Whelan oversees a critical resource housing records for over 40,000 archaeological sites in northeast California. She teaches a comprehensive range of anthropology courses from introductory archaeology to advanced field methods, including ANTH 112 Introduction to Archaeology, ANTH 362W California Indians, and ANTH 602 Seminar in Archaeology. Her leadership in the ARCH Lab supports hands-on archaeological research and training for students.