Kia Taylor Riccio is a doctoral candidate with research interests in the intersection between environmental archaeology, the archaeology of colonialism, and the cultural dynamics of the Anthropocene. Her dissertation research project with Dr. Douglas Armstrong in La Soye, Dominica, focuses on 17th-century Kalinago, African and European foodways during the onset of the Colombian Exchange. Through this work, she aims to demonstrate the ways in which Caribbean cuisine is redefined through early modern socioecological movements.

Kia is a proud graduate research fellow for the National Science Foundation, and a graduate research associate for the Program on Latin America and the Caribbean. Aside from her graduate research, she is also involved in a variety of other archaeological projects, including an aerial remote sensing project in Arizona, where she uses LiDAR, photogrammetry, and infrared data to define areas of archaeological and environmental importance.

She attended undergrad at Florida Atlantic University with concentrations in anthropology and environmental studies. Her previous field experiences include the search and recovery of WWII American fighter-pilots in Stuttgart, Germany; seasonal analysis of pre-Colombian shell mounds in Jupiter, Florida; as well as field projects on Belize and Ecuador.