Lauren Pratt

Lauren Pratt is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, specializing in early human colonization and the transition to food production in Peru's tropical montane cloud forests.

Her academic background includes:

• M.A. and Ph.D. in Archaeology from the University of Michigan (2024)
• B.A. from the University of Alabama (2016)

Dr. Pratt's research integrates Human-Environment Interactions, Peruvian Archaeology, and Computational Analysis to examine subsistence profiles and 5,500+ years of continuous human occupation in the Chachapoyas region. Her methodology combines environmental surveys with statistical modeling in R programming to reconstruct past human behavior in challenging montane ecosystems.

Her publications reveal a strong emphasis on quantitative approaches in Andean archaeology, particularly radiocarbon trend analysis, lithic technology studies, and ecological modeling of human settlement patterns across eastern Peru.

She has received significant recognition:

• National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Award (2022-2023)
• Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship (2022-2023)
• Foreign Language Area Scholarship (2020-2021)

Dr. Pratt co-directs international field teams across Peru, facilitating collaborations between Peruvian archaeologists, technicians, and global researchers. Current projects investigate the eastern Andes' role as a cultural exchange corridor between Amazonian and Andean civilizations while expanding research into southern Peru's understudied cloud forest regions.