Kahn holds a bachelor's degree from Indiana University and is studying at UB under Professor Barbara Tedlock, who, with her husband, ethnopoeticist Dennis Tedlock, is co-editor of American Anthropologist, a journal of the American Anthropological Association. Kahn is conducting ethnological research in the Guatemalan coastal town of Livingston with ethnic groups in the region, including the Garifuna, a group descended from the survivors of a shipwrecked slave ship who settled more than 100 years ago along the coasts of Honduras, Guatemala and Belize. She is also working with three Mayan groups. She is analyzing how these cultures construct their group identities and histories and relate to the land. Among the unusual aspects of her work is the use of video. She will train the subjects to produce videotapes that represent their perspectives on the world.

Zielinski received his bachelor's degree from Marian College in Indianapolis. He is working toward a doctorate in anthropology and archaeology under Professor Vance Watrous, an art historian and archaeologist, and Sherman Milisauskas, professor and chair in the UB Department of Anthropology.

Subject of Zielinski's research is cyclopean Minoan architecture built in 2000-1500 B.C. on the island of Crete. The name "cyclopean" is a reference to the "Cyclops" of Greek myth and defines a style of construction marked by the use of large, irregular blocks of stone without mortar. Zielinski's dissertation will address what cyclopean architecture represented to the ancient Minoan culture.

Enrolled in a year of study and research at the American School of Archaeology in Athens, he is in Crete to survey the island's cyclopean architecture, plus the masonry of ancient Minoan palaces and other constructions.