Thinking of Applying to Our Graduate Program?

Recent enhancements to our program have now been updated on the Graduate Program website. Prospective students can find answers to their questions about our program HERE. Tips on putting together a good graduate school application are available HERE. The link below will take you to the online application service. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us HERE.

Social Science Students' Council Leadership Award

Awarded annually to full-time undergraduate students registered in the Faculty of Social Science in the previous year and who are currently registered in Social Science in their second, third or fourth year, with a minimum 70% average. Students will be selected based on their demonstrated leadership and participation in extra-curricular activities on campus and/or at the local, national and international levels. More information can be found HERE.

NEW: Added Special Topics Course for January 2010

Anthropology 3369G/001 - Advanced Topics in Environment and Culture. 2nd Term -- January 2010 TOPIC: Anthropological perspectives on First Nations and environmental issues Day & Time: Tuesdays 2:30 - 5:30 pm - Thames Hall 3154.  This course explores how we might think anthropologically about current environmental issues, practices and processes in the context of contemporary First Nations cultural practices and values, political aspirations, and social systems. Topics will include; resource development and First Nations environments; First Nations environments as landscapes and culturally constructed places; the politics of Traditional Environmental Knowledge and the practice of co-management; healing processes and the environment; protected areas and eco-tourism; hunting and animal rights; and First Nations as environmentalists and their relationships with ENGOs. (Cross-listed with First Nations Studies 3001G/002).

Women in Prehistory at Brescia College

Dr. Theresa Topic will be offering a course on women in prehistory in January 2010. The course explores issues relating to gender in prehistory and the practice of archaeology from a feminist stance. This course is open to all UWO students. The full course outline is available HERE or you can contact Dr. Topic for information about enrolling in this exciting course HERE.

Dear Friends,

 As many of you may already know, John Gehman passed away on July 17th at University Hospital. John was one of the Department of Anthropology's founding members and had, by our count, taught 38 years in the department. (He was the "utility infielder" who had one time or another taught nearly every course on the books.) He was an intellectual who wore his learning lightly and one of the few people who seems never to have made enemies. His humour, knowledge of just about everything, and broad view of life were a joy to all who knew him, not least the nurses and doctors at UH who attended him. Roy Wagner, of the University of Virginia, wrote: "To know a human personality in its most intimate details, raised to an exponential level by all it has experienced in the world, is to know God in the most intimate detail. God likes to hang around with buddies like John, for that is the only way HE can learn about the enigma of a true anthropology, a profound secret known only to a very few people on earth. John Gehman was one of those very few people."

During the days leading up to his death he was always in the company of family and friends; he died peacefully in a coma amid voices of those close to him.  John is survived by his son Chris, daughter-in-law Rachel MacHenry and grandson Noah; son Joel and daughter-in-law Jessica Long; former wife Anne Gehman; and longtime friend and companion Telsa O’Connell. Condolences may be sent c/- Joel Gehman, 468 Hill St., London, ON N6B 1E6 or c/- Chris Gehman cgehman@sympatico.ca .  

A memorial gathering celebrating John's life was held on July 26th at the London Civic Garden Complex.

New Centre for Archaeological Informatics and Applied Research

Dr. Neal Ferris, Lawson Chair of Canadian Archaeology at the University of Western Ontario and the Museum of Ontario Archaeology, will lead a new project funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. This project will allow researchers in the Department of Anthropology and at the Museum of Ontario Archaeology to consolidate the tens of thousands of archaeological collections that have been created by CRM archaeology in Ontario (conducted for housing, highways, etc.) into one repository, and preserve them physically and digitally to allow innovative research on this compiled, rich archaeological heritage. Archaeologists and area First Nations will work together as partners in that research, and this project will make the University of Western Ontario (with its partners at McMaster University) the leader in transforming Ontario archaeology into a socially and scientifically sustainable practice. Congratulations to Neal on this important initiative.

Special Topics Courses for 2009-2010

We will be offering several special topics courses in both Fall and Winter term. Additional information can be found HERE.

Dr. Lana Williams Awarded Governor General's Gold Medal

Dr. Lana Williams, the first graduate of the new PhD program in Anthropology has been awarded the Governor Generl's Gold Medal. Dr. Williams research focused on a Roman period cemetery at the Dakleh Oasis in Egypt, exploring diet, disease, demography, and the important role of culture, research that is expanding the field of Bioarchaeology
in innovative and important new directions. Congratulations to Lana for her outstanding work, and to her doctoral supervisors, Christine White and Fred Longstaffe.