Tyler Ferree is a graduate student in the archaeology wing of the Anthropology Department. He is interested in the ways that human communities mediate the challenges associated with settlement nucleation and the incorporation of multiple social groups in the context of violence and migration. His current research examines how societies respond to these challenges by shifting sociopolitical organization at several scales. He uses ceramic, lithic, and architectural data to demonstrate that people in the Central Illinois River Valley altered both their quotidian foodways and their politico ritual organization in order to moderate the challenges associated with settlement aggregation during the Late Mississippian (A.D. 1300-1425) period.