Laura Jakubczak

Laura (Popova) Jakubczak is a Teaching Professor and Honors Faculty Fellow at Barrett, the Honors College at ASU where she has worked since 2006. She specializes in the archaeology and paleoecology of Eurasia, especially Russia. She is affiliated with the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (https://shesc.asu.edu/people/faculty) and the Melikian Center of Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies (https://melikian.asu.edu/). Dr. Jakubczak's research focuses on the ways in which pastoral communities shaped the history of the silk roads. Currently, she is an area coordinator for the LandUse6k Project (http://landuse.uchicago.edu/people/), which is part of the LandCover6K Project (http://pastglobalchanges.org/science/wg/landcover6k/intro) project. The goal of this project is to make a digital, integrative map of land cover change in the world that is linked to detailed archaeological and historical data. This map will provide policy makers and scientists a better understanding of exactly how humans have changed the world over time and how that links to climate change. In terms of teaching, Dr. Jakubczak spends most of her time teaching "The Human Event" to incoming first year students at Barrett. She also regularly teaches several upper division honors courses, including one on the archaeology of the Silk Road (Mummies, Monks, and Merchants), another on medieval archaeology of western Europe (Castles, Plagues, and Zombies), and a class on Place-making in Middle Earth and Earthsea. In terms of service, Dr. Jakubczak is passionate about recruiting students to Barrett that reflect the diversity of Arizona. To this end, she is working with NFL Players Alumni Association of Arizona, Sport Metric, current Barrett students, and valley high schools to mentor students from underserved communities through the Legend Scholars program to help them achieve their academic potential and attend ASU and Barrett (https://barretthonors.asu.edu/LegendScholars).