Margaret Schoeninger


Margaret J. Schoeninger is an American anthropologist. She is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at The University of California San Diego, and until recently she was a Co-Director for the Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropology, or CARTA. Her research is primarily focused on the evolution of the human diet and what this information can tell us about other aspects of human evolution.

Early life and education

In 1970, Schoeninger received her B.A. degree in Anthropology from the University of Florida, and her M.A. degree in Anthropology from the University of Cincinnati in 1973. She then received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1980.

Contributions to anthropology

Schoeninger is mainly interested in the changes that the human diet underwent through time and how diet has evolved in relation to other evolutionary changes. She researches this by looking at subsistence strategies and their anthropological connections. Schoeninger has published upwards of 60 research papers that investigate the isotopic ratios of various elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and zinc in extinct primate dentition in order to reconstruct prehistoric human diet. Schoeninger has completed field research in North and Central America, Pakistan, India, Kenya, and Tanzania.

Awards and honors

In 1990, Schoeninger was a Smithsonian Short Term Visitor in the Conservation Analytical Laboratory. In 1993 she was awarded the Faculty Development Award from the University of Wisconsin, and the following school year she was in the Vilas Associate Professorship at the same university. From 1997-1999, Schoeninger was recognized as a Distinguished Lecturer by the scientific research honor society Sigma Xi.  In 2007, Schoeninger was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Selected publications