Nationality: Tanzanian

Institution:  Arizona State University

Department: School of Human Origin and Social Change, Institute of Human Origins

PAST programme support: Conferences and workshops: EAAPP (East African Association of Palaeoanthropology and Palaeontology)

Project title: High-Resolution Reconstruction of Vegetation Distribution through Phytolith Assemblages in the Kisese II Rockshelter, Dodoma Region.

Husna Mashaka, originally from Tanzania, is interested in Paleobotany, Paleoecology, Paleoenvironments, and community archaeology.

Currently a PhD student in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and the Institute of Human Origins, she holds a BA in Heritage Management from the University of Dar es Salaam and a Master’s degree from the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. For her Master’s, she researched how humans and climate contribute to vegetation changes by studying the correlation between phytolith assemblages and above-ground vegetation cover. Currently, she examining the paleoecology and human-environment interaction during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene at the Kisese II rock shelter in north-central Tanzania.