Dr Justyna Miszkiewicz

Dr Justyna Miszkiewicz is a biological anthropologist who specialises in studying the skeletal tissue.  

Dr Miszkiewicz's primary research interest is to reconstruct past human adaptation (mainly in the context of behaviour/ biomechanics) from archaeological skeletal remains (bioarchaeology). Secondarily, she aims to further our understanding of skeletal growth and metabolism in humans and other vertebrates (skeletal biology). Justyna's methodological specialism lies in histology, but she also has experience in experimental biomechanics, x-ray imaging and micro-CT.

Dr Miszkiewicz received her PhD (2014) in Biological Anthropology from the University of Kent, where she also held a fixed-term (2013-2014) lectureship in the same discipline. Her postdoctoral research experience (2015-2016) was in bio-medicine/skeletal biology and bioarchaeology. Justyna was a member of the Molecular Endocrinology research group at Imperial College London assisting on a Wellcome-Trust-funded project (OBCD) on osteoporosis (using the mouse model), and investigating medullary bone growth in the Japanese quail. Dr Miszkiewicz also undertook research for the Skeletal Biology Research Centre at Kent, exploring skeletal muscle site morphology and bone growth in ancient humans. 

Dr Miszkiewicz is currently a Lecturer in Biological Anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra.

As an Honorary Research Associate at Kent, Dr Miszkiewicz collaborates on research projects primarily within the Skeletal Biology Research Centre with Dr Patrick Mahoney. Some of their work has recently focused on inferring behaviour from ancient human bone histology and investigating human skeletal biorhythms.  

Dr Miszkiewicz has worked as an assistant osteologist and later as an osteologist (2008-2013) for Kent Osteological Research and Analysis, examining adult and juvenile human skeletal remains (including cremations) using forensic and archaeological osteological techniques.