Schoeninger is mainly interested in the changes that the human diet underwent through time and how diet has evolved in relation to other evolutionary changes. She researches this by looking at subsistence strategies and their anthropological connections. Schoeninger has published upwards of 60 research papers that investigate the isotopic ratios of various elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and zinc in extinct primatedentition in order to reconstruct prehistoric human diet.[2] Schoeninger has completed field research in North and Central America, Pakistan, India, Kenya, and Tanzania.
In 1990, Schoeninger was a Smithsonian Short Term Visitor in the Conservation Analytical Laboratory. In 1993 she was awarded the Faculty Development Award from the University of Wisconsin, and the following school year she was in the Vilas Associate Professorship at the same university. From 1997-1999, Schoeninger was recognized as a Distinguished Lecturer by the scientific research honor society Sigma Xi.[3] In 2007, Schoeninger was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[4]
Jaouen, Klevia, Beasley, Melanie, Schoeninger, Margaret J, Hublin, Jean- Jacques, Richards, Michael P, “Zinc isotope ratios of bones and teeth as new dietary indicators: results from a modern food web (Koobi Fora, Kenya)”. Scientific Reports 6:26281, DOI: 10:103/srep 26281. 2016. http://doi.org/10.1038/srep26281
Somerville, AD, Martin, MA, Walker, P, Hayes, L, and Schoeninger, MJ “Exploring patterns and pathways of dietary change: Preferred foods, dental health, and stable isotope analysis of hair from the Dani of Mulia, Papua, Indonesia”. Current Anthropology DOI: 58(1):31-56. 2017. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/690142?mobileUi=0
Schoeninger MJ. “Dietary reconstruction in the prehistoric Carson Desert: stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis”. In: Larsen CS and Kelly RL (eds.) Bioarchaeology Of The Stillwater Marsh: Prehistoric Human Adaptation In The Western Great Basin. American Museum Of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, Number 77, pp. 96–106. 1995. http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/260
DeNiro MJ and Schoeninger MJ. “Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of bone collagen: Variations within individuals, between sexes, and within populations raised on monotonous diet”. Journal of Archaeological Science 10(3):199-203. 1983. http://doi.org/10.1016/0305-4403(85)90011-1
