Marieka Brouwer Burg is an anthropological archaeologist who specializes in landscape archaeology by harnessing interdisciplinary methods and data to address questions about dynamic human-environment relationships. She received her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her M.A. (2007) and Ph.D. (2011) from Michigan State University. She has been involved in research in North America, Central America, and Europe. She is primarily focused on investigating hunter-gatherer land use strategies and interactions within changing landscapes. Marieka received a Fulbright fellowship to study at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, the Groningen Institute of Archaeology at University of Groningen, and the Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University. Her current research in Belize continues to probe the effects of paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic change on past human land use and decision-making. To do this, she conducts archaeological field research that is enhanced by Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based geospatial modeling of human-environmental interactions. Marieka is the PI of the collaborative NSF Senior Archaeology award Investigating Adaptive Strategies in Variable Environments (2021–2024, $152,092), which is investigating Archaic period (~2500–900 BCE) occupations on and around the island of Crooked Tree in Northern Belize. This research is evaluating a wide range of hyper-local Archaic adaptations to a diverse landscape using multidisciplinary means, including paleoecological analyses, augering and coring campaigns, systematic surveys and test excavations, materials analysis, geospatial modeling, and radiometric dating. Marieka has worked with colleagues on the Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) project as a senior researcher since 2010, and recently became Co-Director of this project.

In addition to research, Marieka is strongly commitment to excellence in teaching and promoting student engagement through out-of-the box methods and experiential learning. As part of her pedagogy, she facilitates student-driven and joint faculty-student research through her role as Co-Director of the Digital Anthropology Laboratory in the Department of Anthropology. She is also an advocate of community-based archaeology and a member of the UVM Indigenous Peoples’ Working Group.