Samm is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology and working toward an Interdisciplinary Certificate in University Teaching at UGA. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and certificate in Conceptual Foundations of Medicine from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Master’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Central Florida. She has expertise in stable isotope analysis, human osteology and paleopathology, quantitative analysis, and social theory.

Samm’s research focuses how social structures and agency interact to shape human biology in the past. Her dissertation research integrates practice theory, embodiment, and structural violence to examine how military service produced Napoleonic soldier and civilian bodies, focusing on changes in diet and nutrition over the life course. She employs stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of bone collagen and carbonate and individual amino acids in bone collagen. In addition to her dissertation research, she works as an osteologist with the Dayr al-Barsha Project in Egypt where she examine human skeletal remains from Old Kingdom/1st Intermediate, Middle Kingdom, and Roman period cemeteries. This work focuses on reconstructing the health and lifeways of ancient Egyptians.