Contact Information
Department of Anthropology
607 S Mathews Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801
Office Hours
Research Interests
Maya Archaeology; Human-animal interactions; Indigenous sustainability; Stable isotopic analysis; Diet and nutrition study; Zooarchaeology, Paleoenvironmental changes, Ecology.
Education
PhD Candidate, University of Illinois, 2026 (expected)
Visiting Scholar, Harvard-Yenching Institute, 2018-2019
MA, Shandong University, 2020
BA, Shandong University, 2017
Grants
2025 Forest T. Baker Award for American Anthropology
2025 Whitten Summer Graduate Research Fellowship, Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, UIUC
2024 Tinker Foundation Fellowship, Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, UIUC
2021-2025 China Scholarship Council Fellowship
2019 The Owens Fellowship in Mesoamerican Archaeology, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University
2018 Mesoamerican Archaeology Program Fellowship, Harvard-Yenching Institute, Cambridge
Courses Taught
2025 Fall ANTH 105 World Archaeology
Highlighted Publications
Wang, Yifan, Rachel Taylor. 2025. Chapter 10. Exploring Environment-Human-Animal Sustainable Relationships in Central Belize: Insights from Stable Isotope and Zooarchaeological Analyses. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology vol.19, pp.107-122.https://doi.org/10.62064/rrba.19.11;
Lucero, Lisa J., Rachel Taylor, Yifan Wang, Laura J. Kosakowsky. 2023 Denuded Landscapes and Exposed Neighborhoods: Results of the 2022 Valley of Peace Archaeology Project. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.62064/rrba.18.24