News & Community
The Department of Anthropology, including both faculty members and graduate students, are often in the news. They also frequently lend their expertise to various community organizations. This webpage highlights some of these contributions.
December 31, 2018 - Graduate Students Completed in 2018
Congratulations to all our Anthropology graduate students who successfully defended their thesis in 2018!
PhD: Elaine McIlwraith, Mingyuan Zhang, Nathan Dawthorne, & John Moody
MA: Amanda Parks, John Dunlop, Marcelo Herrera, Nadja Schlote, Abdulla Majeed, Rachael Simser, Emily Pitts, Alexandra Nelson, Kara Kelliher, Shane McCartney, Carolina Delgado, Katya Valladares, & Felipe Gonzalez Macqueen
November 14, 2018
Chris Ellis Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Congratulations to Professor Emeritus Chris Ellis, who is the deserving recipient of the James V. Wright Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ontario Archaeological Society.
November 5, 2018
Anthropology Graduate Program to Offer Collaborative Specialization in Transitional Justice
SGPS has recently approved the addition of Anthropology to the Collaborative Graduate Specialization in Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction. Students registered in the Collaborative Graduate Specialization in Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction will explore aspects of societal and state transition relating to development, democracy, the environment, the economy, human rights, politics, peace agreements and justice before, at the time of, and post-transition.
September 7, 2018
Western Anthropology to Host 2018 CAPA Annual General Meeting
Western Anthropology will be hosting the CAPA (The Canadian Association for Physical Anthropology) Annual General Meeting Oct. 31- Nov. 3, 2018 at the Delta Hotel London Armories. The CAPA Organizing Committee consists of: Andrew Nelson, Andrea Waters-Rist, Jay Stock & Ian Colquhoun. Read more.
August 24, 2018
Researchers shed new insights into fate of Franklin Expedition
A team of Canadian academic researchers including Anthropology Professor Andrew Nelson have raised serious doubt about the popular belief that lead poisoning played a role in the death of members of the famed Franklin Expedition. The study, Franklin expedition lead exposure: New insights from high resolution confocal x-ray fluorescence imaging of skeletal microstructure, was published today in PLOS ONE. Read more about the study in Western News.
August 20, 2018
Becky Goodwin and Inuvialuit Living History Project team reuniting artifacts with ancestors
As part of the Inuvialuit Living History Project, replicas from the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, and artifacts from Ivvavik National Park in Yukon, are being brought up to the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. Read the CBC article.
August 4, 2018
Jeff Grieve making interactive digital map of Inuvialuit history and archaeology
MA Candidate Jeff Grieve is in the early stages of making an interactive digital map that would allow Inuvialuit people to access information about their cultural heritage. Read the article in the Inuvik Drum.
August 2, 2018
Ian Colquhoun on the complexity of the "Endangered Species List"
In a recent article for the Conversation, Professor Ian Colquhoun explains the complicated process of compiling and managing the over 91,000 species on the endangered species list. Read the article.
July 23, 2018
Lisa Hodgetts Joins 2018 Students on Ice Arctic Expedition
Lisa Hodgetts joins 100 youth from around the world and an international team of scientists, historians, elders, artists, explorers, educators, leaders, politicians, innovators, polar experts and more on the 2018 Students on Ice Arctic Expedition from July 23-August 7. Follow their journey.
June 28, 2018
Bimadoshka Pucan Chosen for Scientific Expedition The North Pacific 2018
Western Anthropology PhD candidate Bimadoshka (Annya) Pucan has been selected to represent Indigenous Women from around the world on the upcoming scientific expedition The North Pacific 2018 with eXXpedition, an all-female crew of dedicated social innovators and scientists. More information.
June 22, 2018
Lost 19th Century Images Recovered by Western Research Team
Lost 19th century images have been recovered using 21st century technology by a Western interdisciplinary research team. The research findings have been published in the journal Scientific Reports - Nature. The paper was co-authored by Anthropology Professor Andrew Nelson. Read more.
June 7, 2018
Bimadoshka Pucan Guest Curator of Voices of Chief's Point - Museum London
Ph Candidate Bimadoshka Pucan is Guest Curator for a new exhibit showcasing old recordings of Anishinaabeg songs, stories and prayers left by Robert and Eliza Thompson residents of Saugeen First Nation and Dr. Edwin Seaborn, MD. Voices of Chief's Point runs at Museum London through September 16. Read more.
June 1, 2018
Genetic Survey Reveals Migration Patterns of Early North Americans
An international team of researchers including Christiana Scheib, University of Tartu, Estonia, Genevieve Dewar, University of Toronto and Jay Stock, Western University, concluded that hunter-gatherers crossing into the continent from Siberia first split into two distinct populations. The parallel groups remained in genetic isolation for centuries until they recombined and their offspring populated Central and South America. Read more.
May 30, 2018
Andrew Nelson & Team Solve 2,100 Year Old "Hawk Mummy" Mystery
A tiny Egyptian mummy long believed to be that of a hawk is actually a rare example of a near-to-term, severely malformed fetus. Micro-CT scans determined a 'hawk mummy' at Maidstone Museum UK is in fact a stillborn male human with severe congenital abnormalities that include a malformed skull and vertebrae. An international team's unprecedented analysis was led by bioarchaeologist and mummy expert Andrew Nelson of Western's Department of Anthropology. Read more.
May 17, 2018
Dr. Greg Beckett Joins Department of Anthropology
We are thrilled to welcome another new faculty member, Dr. Greg Beckett to the Department of Anthropology this year. Beckett completed his PhD at the University of Chicago, and before that completed his BA and MA in Anthropology at Western. He was formerly Assistant Professor at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Dr. Beckett studies crises, disaster and trauma, specifically in Haiti, from the standpoint of moral experience. Read more about Greg Beckett.
May 3, 2018
Dr. Lindsay Bell Joins Department of Anthropology
We are delighted to welcome Dr. Lindsay Bell to the Department of Anthropology this summer. Dr. Bell, a socio-cultural and linguistic anthropologist, was formerly Assistant Professor at State University of New York, Oswego. Dr. Bell researches the ethics and culture of mining industries and corporate-community relationships around resource development projects. Read more about Lindsay Bell.
April 11, 2018
Jay Stock Analyzes Ancient Human Fossil
An international consortium of researchers including Western bioarchaeologist Jay Stock, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, conducted fieldwork in the Nefud Desert of Saudi Arabia, where they discovered an ancient bone belonging to an early human of the Homo sapiens species which they were able to directly date. The ancient bone, dating back to 90,000 years ago is the oldest human (Homo sapiens) fossil to have been found outside of Africa and the immediately adjacent Levant, and suggests that people travelled further than initially thought during the first reported human migration into Eurasia. Read the whole article.
March 15, 2018
Lisa Hodgetts - Edward G. Pleva Excellence in Teaching Award
Congratulations to Professor Lisa Hodgetts recipient of the Edward G. Pleva Award for Excellence in Teaching for 2018. This prestigious award recognises Western instructors who inspire active and deep learning in their students. Established in 1980-’81, the University Awards for Excellence in Teaching were named in 1987 in honour of Edward Gustav Pleva, Western’s first Geography teacher in 1938 and head of the department from 1948-1968. Read the complete article in Western News.
February 21, 2018
New Sociocultural Profs Joining Western Anthro!
In summer 2018 we will be welcoming two new faculty members, Dr. Greg Beckett (currently at Bowdoin College) and Dr. Lindsay Bell (currently at SUNY Oswego). Greg Beckett (PhD U Chicago, MA Western) has carried out extensive ethnographic and historical research in Haiti, and in particular on the intersecting urban, environmental, and political crises. His book How Crisis Feels: Living and Dying in Port-au-Prince, Haiti will be published in early 2019 by the University of California Press. He has also published on Caribbean intellectual history and the place of disjuncture and crisis in political and social theory. Lindsay Bell (PhD U Toronto, MA Alaska-Fairbanks) studies the lives of women and men in northern Canada, Alaska, and Finland who are confronting large-scale resource developments (such as diamond mining in the NWT). She is currently involved in a large research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation on transparency and ethics in the global gemstone trade. She is co-author of Sustaining the Nation: The Making and Moving of Language and Nation (Oxford University Press, 2015), collaborated on the recent SSHRC-funded project Visualizing Canada's Urban North, and is the editor of the AAA's Journal for the Anthropology of North America.
January 25, 2018
Andrew Nelson Explores Secrets of Canada’s Oldest Documented Hockey Stick
Professor Andrew Nelson & colleague Linda Howie's analysis of the oldest documented hockey stick in Canada is highlighted in a 5 minute Daily Planet segment on the Discovery Channel. The hockey stick, which dates back to the 1770s, was brought to Nelson by the London based company, Material Legacy and is owned by an Ancaster collector of old sports equipment. “To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever done a CT scan of a hockey stick, much less a micro-CT scan.” Says Nelson. Read the whole article featured in Western News.
Jay Stock Study Reveals Superior Strength of Prehistoric Women
Western Adjunct Research Anthropology Professor Jay Stock was part of a recent study that showed the bone strength of prehistoric women exceeded that of today’s female athletes. Stock explains, “The women who lived 6,000 years ago worked so hard at repetitive upper-body labour every day, they developed strong muscles and bones.” Read the whole article in Western News.
