2010 News Archives

September 2010

Bergpolder and Liskwartier and are the subject of international scientific research. The Dutch-Canadian doctoral student Jennifer Long (30) studied the social life in the public space in the densely populated area of Rotterdam-Noord. Her thoughts: "There are many people living on a very small area. I am surprised and proud that things go on so well"; so started the opening headline of this newspaper article about recently returned UWO PhD candidate, Jennifer Long. Long spent last year in Rotterdam, Netherlands studying how the larger social and political narratives concerning belonging to the imagined community of the Netherlands, affected relations between and amongst individuals at the everyday level. Placing herself within one of the diverse neighbourhoods of Rotterdam North, Long found out firsthand how people deal with larger ideas of integration, immigration and belonging in one’s society. Although the results are not out yet, Long will return to her site this May in order to present some of her preliminary findings to the community. Long says that It will be a great way to ‘face the music’ and have my participants have their own say in the research. Click HERE for full article.

September 9, 2010

Ships, Sailors and Sonar: The HMS Investigator Rediscovery Project 2010, Aulavik National Park - Edward Eastaugh

Come & hear what promises to be a very informative presentation on this attempt to document the 1850 Investigator expedition sent to try and determine the fate of the earlier Franklin Arctic excursion. 8pm. Location: Museum of Ontario Archaeology, 1600 Attawandaron Road, London.

August 21, 2010

The SSHRCC funded archaeological work of Professor Christopher Ellis on Ontario’s pre-ceramic era history, including the discovery of the oldest house known in Ontario (ca. 4500-4000 years old), is highlighted in a recent article that appeared on the Heritage Key website. This website is dedicated to reporting on important archaeological discoveries and the article on Dr. Ellis’ work.

August 1, 2010

Professor Chris Ellis and Adjunct Professor Brian Deller participated in the North Middlesex Shunpiker Tour of historical locations sponsored by the Optimist Club of East Williams Township. This tour was held in conjunction with the 150th Anniversary of the founding of North Middlesex. Stationed at Hungry Hollow near Parkhill, Ontario they provided information and answered questions from tour participants about the rich geological history, as well as the pre-European contact archaeology, of the area. They highlighted the importance of the nearby Devonian fossil beds and the many surface features, such as old abandoned lake shores, representing the late ice age history of the region. They also stressed the fact the area is known province and Canada wide, and even internationally, for the discovery of a number of Ontario’s oldest known archaeological sites (13,000 years old) and the earliest (4000-4500 years old) evidence of a more settled way of life amongst Ontario’s First Nations peoples including one site that has yielded remnants of the oldest houses ever found in Ontario.

July 28, 2010

Edward Eastaugh is currently up north with a team from Parks Canada. They made the front page of the National Post today. Ed called briefly last night and managed to locate the three graves of buried sailors using the magnetometer. That's not mentioned in this article, but there will be 3 more articles over the next few days, so keep an eye on the National Post. Click HERE for full story.

July 16, 2010

Investigating the HMS Investigator

Edward Eastaugh is taking what looks like a sophisticated metal detector to the Arctic in the hopes of uncovering buried archeological treasure left behind from the first explorers to discover the western entrance to the Northwest Passage... See the whole story on the Western News HERE.

July 12, 2010

Hunting for history in the middle of nowhere

Archeology: A UWO archeologist will lead a team to ‘one of the most isolated places on the planet’ to look for the HMS Investigator wreck. By JENNIFER O’BRIEN The London Free Press. 

May 2010

Anthropology Student wins Award!

Congratulations to Tom Porawski who won first place in the graduate student poster competition at the recent Canadian Archaeological Association meeting in Calgary. His poster was titled: Examining Chipewyan, Inuit and European Relations in Northern Manitoba using GIS. Well done Tom!

April 16, 2010

Congratulations to yet another Award winner!

Please join us in congratulating Karyn Olsen who has just been awarded a prize for the Best Student Paper at the Annual Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, held recently in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Karyn presented a paper entitled: "The effects of pathology on inter- and intra-individual nitrogen-isotope compositions of bone collagen from a medieval poorhouse." Congratulations Karyn!

March 24, 2010

SOGS Update: Winners of the 23rd Annual Western Research Forum Awards

Two of our Graduate Anthropology students have been awarded one of these awards. Melissa Stachel received third place in the Mercury Printing Award Poster Session 2. Julianna Butler won first place in the Social Science Oral Presentations.

January 14, 2010

An article in the National Post entitled "Destruction of Haiti’s political, spiritual infrastructure a symbolic blow" "The presidential palace is a source of great pride, but it's also a reminder of the absolute horror of Duvalier's [dictatorial] rule," says Douglass St. Christian, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Western Ontario. "So the Haitians are, on the one hand, going to be traumatized by the ruin of something that's come to represent their emergence from that regime, and on another hand, glad that it's gone."