Dr. Tosha Dupras' Personal Page

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Hi! My name is Dr. Tosha Dupras. Welcome to my personal home page. I have been an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology , an adjunct member of the Forensic Science program, and a research scientist of Forensic Anthropology at the National Center for Forensic Science at the University of Central Florida since August of 1999. I am a physical anthropologist with two main areas of study: human diet and forensic anthropology. I study human diet through chemical methods (studying the stable isotopes of human bone, hair and tissue). The population that I have been studying is from the Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt. I have been involved in the Dakhleh Oasis Project since 1995. The Dakhleh Oasis Project is a international multidisciplinary project whose mandate is the study of human adaptation to the harsh Saharan environment. I also participate in forensic work in the central Florida area.

I grew up in a small town in north-central British Columbia, Canada, called Fraser Lake (population ~1200). Fraser Lake is a small mining and logging town. It was a great place to grow up (well... until I became a teenager)... everyone knew each other and parents did not have to worry if their children were not in by dark. I attended the same school from kindergarten to grade 12 (my graduation class had 35 students) and I have known most of my good friends for my entire life (and I am still close with most of them). My mother taught elementary grade school and my father worked as a maintence person for the local school district.

I have been interested in anthropology for most of my life. My first memory of being interested in archaeology when was my father brought me back an aminite fossil from the Badlands in Alberta, Canada. I treasured my fossil and even brought it to school for "show and tell". After that my parents bought an old abandoned farmstead from the 1930's. My brother and I spent many hours of our childhood searching through the old collapsed buildings and digging in the old garbage pits and reconstructing old china. The highlight of the farmstead was when my brother and I discovered where the previous owners had buried some of their animals... I spent hours "excavating" the stone piles and then brought the bones into our highschool biology teacher to help me identify what I had found. I am sure that Doc grew tired of me bringing in my discoveries! My parents had a small hobby farm (we had some chickens, ducks, pigs, rabbits, a dog and tons of cats) on 11 acres of land. I was not afraid to get dirty (and I still like digging in the dirt). One of my favorite pasttimes was taking off on my Honda 90 motorcycle and exploring the woods (and occasionally running out of gas and having to push my bike all the way home!). I owe a lot of my passion for Anthropology to my parents. Although we did not have everything, my parents encouraged my brother and I to be inquisitive and explore our environment, and they travelled with us as much as possible.

When I graduated from Highschool I started my university career at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia (near Vancouver). I had intended on going into law, but an extra-curricular course in Archaeology made me realize that I was not cut out to be a lawyer and that I loved anthropology. I volunteered as much as I could and ended up doing volunteer work on Forensic cases. I knew then that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. After graduation from SFU I was accepted to do a Master of Science with Dr. Susan Pfeiffer at the University of Guelph. My dissertation concerned the gross anatomy and histological structures of ribs and whether or not there were any differences between males and females. I graduated in 1995 and started my Ph.D. that same year at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. I had intended to take a year off and travel in Central and South America before starting my Ph.D. but something fell into my lap that I just could not refuse. Dr. Henry Schwarcz had a large grant to work on the dietary analysis of human skeletal remains from the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt. I had never imagined I would ever work in Egypt, but the project and timing was right, and it turned out to be a good decision.

During the last year of my Ph.D. I decided on to start applying for jobs. I was fortunate enough to get an interview and then be offered a job at the University of Central Florida before I had finished my Ph.D. I worked hard to finish up and moved down to Orlando in July of 1999. The adjustment to Florida has been interesting... a new country, new job, and definitely a new climate!

Check out my photo album by clicking on the image below.