Tanya A. Faberson, Ph.D., RPA

Principal Investigator
Historic Materials Specialist
RPA Registration No. 15693

Illinois State University, B.A. Anthropology

University of Tennessee, M.A. Anthropology

University of Tennessee, Ph.D. Anthropology



Tanya Faberson holds a doctorate degree in anthropology with an emphasis in historical archaeology. She has more than 20 years field and laboratory experience in the Southeast and has supervised numerous phase I, II, and III archaeological investigations. She also has conducted extensive oral history interviews and archival research for various projects. Tanya’s research interests are focused on historical archaeology, urban archaeology, industrial archaeology, historic site preservation and restoration, social inequality and stratification, political economy, material culture studies, heritage studies, public archaeology, and social theory. Her dissertation, “In the Shadow of Greatness: The Archaeology of Capitalism, Agriculture, and the Informal Economy at Marble Springs, Knox County, Tennessee, 1847-1932,” entailed an examination of the archaeological evidence of social inequality and the political and economic milieu of the nineteenth and early twentieth century southeastern United States. Her master’s thesis examined the archaeological evidence of resistance to public health reform legislation in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Knoxville.


In her spare time, Tanya likes to spend her time woodturning (Creekview Woodshop), and she also loves knitting, reading, hiking, and spending time with close family and friends. Tanya was born in Melbourne, Australia, but grew up in Germany and southern Illinois. She also has resided in Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Kentucky.