Conflict Conference 2023

REGISTRATION OPEN! November 8-9, 2023

Never Forgotten: Conflict Archaeology and Military History at Texas A&M

Featuring multidisciplinary projects that may ultimately lead to the recovery and identification of United States service members and fulfill our nation’s promise to the fallen and their families.

The symposium will highlight research initiatives in the College of Arts and Sciences related to war and conflict, particularly the identification of missing military personnel from past conflicts. The presentations will feature multidisciplinary projects including archaeological surveys and excavations, historic and archival research, geographical analysis and data visualization, and other innovative research approaches that may ultimately lead to the recovery and identification of United States service members and fulfill our nation’s promise to the fallen and their families.

Conference Schedule

Wednesday, Nov. 8, Cushing Memorial Library

5:00pm-6:00pm Keynote Address

"The Search for the Missing: The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency," by Dr. Franklin Damann

6:00pm-7:00pm Come and Go Reception

Thursday, Nov. 9, Melbern G. Glasscock Building, Room 311

8:30am-9:00am Breakfast

9:00am-9:15am Welcome

9:15am-10:30am Panel #1: Underwater Technology

- "Preserving War Graves: Archaeological Monitoring of the USS Arizona and USS Utah at Pearl Harbor National Memorial," Dr. Katie Custer Bojakowski
- "Project Recover and the use of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles for Finding and Documenting Underwater Aircraft Crash Sites," Dr. Andrew Pietruszka
- "Excavating WWII U.S. Military Underwater Losses: A Case Study of B-24 Liberator excavated in Viterbo Province, Italy," Dr. Piotr Bojakowski

10:30am-10:45am Break

10:45am-12:00pm Panel #2: History and Archives

- "History in Action: Archival Research and the Recovery of MIA Service Members," Tristan Krause
- "When 'Leave No Man Behind' Fails – A Sociological Case Study from the War in Afghanistan," Dr. Stjepan Meštrović
- Mission #306, 18 April 1944: Researching US Military Operations in the National Archives,” Dan DeBree

12:00pm-1:00pm Lunch Break

1:00pm-2:30pm Panel #3: Terrestrial Technology

- "Veterans Legacy Geographic Information System: Citizen Science Approach to Extended Memorialization Digitally," Debayan Mandal, Dr. Lei Zou, Dr. Stacey Lyle
- "How I have captured my 'American Experience' of Exploring and Surveying with Media," Dr. Stacey Lyle
- "Advancements in near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) for rapid on-site assessment of biomolecule preservation in archaeological bone," Dr. Matt Eichenfield, Dr. Angela Perri, Dr. Matt Sponheimer, Dr. Heather Thakar
- "Radar Diagnostic Testing for Unmarked Graves," Dr. Mark Everett

2:30pm-3:00pm Coffee Break

3:00pm-4:30pm Panel #4: Undergraduate Research

- "The Duty Ours': A Preliminary Analysis for the Recovery of Aggies Missing in Action," Jackson Baker
- "Mapping World War II Aircraft Losses in Europe," Will Lourcey, Luke Miller
- The Chest Radiograph Project," Ariana Garcia, Ayden Rodriguez
- Finding Photos of the Unaccounted For," Annika Larson

Authors, Speakers, and Presenters

Dr. Franklin Damann, Director of the DPAA-Offutt Laboratory
Dr. Katie Custer Bojakowski, Instructional Assistant Professor, TAMU Department of Anthropology
Dr. Piotr Bojakowski, Assistant Professor, TAMU Department of Anthropology
Dr. Erika Bravo, DPAA Research Partner Historian, TAMU Department of History
Mr. Dan DeBree, Professor of Practice, Bush School of Government & Public Service
Dr. Matt Eichenfield, SPIE Endowed Chair in Optical Sciences at University of Arizona and Distinguished Faculty Joint Appointee at Sandia National Laboratories
Dr. Mark Everett, Professor, TAMU Department of Geology and Geophysics
Mr. Tristan Krause, Doctoral student, TAMU Department of History
Dr. Stacey Lyle, Associate Professor of Practice, TAMU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Mr. Debayan Mandal, Doctoral student, TAMU Department of Geography
Dr. Stjepan Meštrović, Professor, TAMU Department of Sociology
Dr. Angela Perri, Assistant Professor, TAMU Department of Anthropology
Dr. Andrew Pietruszka, Underwater Archaeologist, Scripps Institution of Oceanography–UCSD
Dr. Matt Sponheimer, Professor of Anthropology, University of Colorado-Boulder
Dr. Heather Thakar, Assistant Professor, TAMU Department of Anthropology
Dr. Lei Zou, Assistant Professor, TAMU Department of Geography

Mr. Jackson Baker, Undergraduate student, TAMU Department of History
Ms. Ariana Garcia, Undergraduate student, TAMU Department of History
Ms. Annika Larson, Graduate, TAMU Department of History
Mr. Will Lourcey, Undergraduate student, TAMU Department of History
Mr. Luke Miller, Undergraduate student, TAMU Department of History
Mr. Ayden Rodriguez, Graduate, TAMU Department of History