Kris Bovy is an anthropologist and zooarchaeologist, specializing in the analysis of bird bones from shell midden sites in the Pacific Northwest Coast. Kris has conducted archaeological analysis and fieldwork in a wide variety of settings throughout North America. The focus of her research is on the history of human and animal interactions in marine settings. She attempts to both better understand past human behavior and generate data to address contemporary environmental and biological conservation issues.

Kris joined the faculty at URI in 2006 and has served as the Chair of Sociology and Anthropology since Fall 2019. She works closely with faculty and students in the interdisciplinary underwater archaeology minor and history master’s (archaeology and anthropology option) programs, and recently won the URI Excellence in General Education Award. Since 2019 Kris has been collaborating with Rod Mather and Catherine DeCesare (History Department) and Lorén Spears (Executive Director, Tomaquag Museum) to explore the long and complicated history of the URI campus land. Their goal is to make the Narragansett connections to this place, both past and present, more visible to the campus community. This collaboration culminated in a campus walking tour.

Kris is originally from Wisconsin and earned her B.S. in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington- Seattle. She currently lives in Kingston with her husband and two teen-aged children.

Term expires: February 1, 2026