Lisa Hodgetts

Alexis Lucas (L) and Agnes Amos (C) "visit" archaeological sites using Google cardboard while Ry Ry Lucas looks on - Inualthuyuk School Sachs Harbour.

I am an anthropological archaeologist with a strong commitment to community-based research. I work primarily in the western Canadian Arctic with Inuvialuit research partners. I currently co-direct, with Natasha Lyons, the Inuvialuit Living History Project, a digital heritage partnership between the Inuvialuit Cultural Centre, the Inuvialuit Communications Society, Parks Canada, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Ursus Heritage, Simon Fraser University and the University of Western Ontario.

I am also a zooarchaeologist, and dabble in landscape archaeology and the application of geophysical techniques in archaeology. These interests have led to fruitful collaborations with colleagues and graduate students working in Ontario, Quebec, and Peru.

Another aspect of my current work deals with the ethics and practice of archaeology in Canada. It asks how past and present power structures and intersections of an individual’s gender identity, sexuality, ethnicity and age shape their experiences during training and fieldwork, and in their workplaces. How, in turn, do those experiences impact people’s career trajectories and approaches to collegial relationships, formal and informal teaching and learning relationships, and supervisory roles? From 2018 to 2023, I chaired the Canadian Archaeological Association’s Working Group on Equity and Diversity in Canadian Archaeology, which is addressing these questions. See the Recent Research section for more information about our work.

Inuvialuit Living History Project (Phase 3)

2023-2028 SSHRC Insight Grant “The Inuvialuit Living History Project Phase 3: A Relational Approach to Inuvialuit Digital Heritage” $339,799

Co-PI: Natasha Lyons

Collaborators: Ethel-Jean Gruben, Rebecca Goodwin, Alexandrea Gorton, Kate Hennessy, Tamara Voudrach

Institutional Partners: Inuvialuit Cultural Centre, Inuvialuit Communications Society, Parks Canada, Simon Fraser University, University of Western Ontario

ILH Culture Camp, Imnairvik, Ivvavik National Park, 2019

The Inuvialuit Living History project, Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait, brings together Inuvialuit Elders, knowledge holders, and youth with archaeologists, anthropologists, digital media specialists and museum professionals. We are exploring the most effective, culturally appropriate ways to document and disseminate multiple forms of knowledge about Inuvialuit history and heritage in the digital realm. We recently launched our new website and are in the process of developing a teachers’ guide to accompany it.

Recently Completed Projects

Inuvialuit Living History Project (Phase 2)

2017-2022 SSHRC Insight Grant “Co-creating Inuvialuit Digital Archaeology and Heritage” $312,329

Co-PI: Natasha Lyons

Collaborators: Beverly Amos, Sarah Carr-Locke, Charles Arnold, Ethel-Jean Gruben, Mervin Joe, Ashley Piskor, David Stuart, Sharon Thomson

Institutional Partners: Inuvialuit Cultural Centre, Inuvialuit Communications Society, Parks Canada, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Simon Fraser University, University of Western Ontario

Albert Elias tries on wooden snow goggles, Smithsonian Museum Support Centre. Photo by Kate Hennessy.

From 2017-2022, we worked to build a new Inuvialuit Living History website (inspired by our work on the original website) to encompass the entire temporal and geographic span of human history within the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. Through a series of community events, created opportunities for intergenerational knowledge transfer, for sharing, documenting and applying traditional Inuvialuit knowledge in contemporary settings, and for using and encouraging the language (check out our Facebook page for details). We documented these events through photos, video and audio to create new content for the website. Each event aimed to create the conditions for traditional Inuvialuit approaches to teaching and learning, which we want to mirror through the website itself. Throughout the website, we strove to reflect and represent traditional Inuvialuit ways of knowing and being.

Towards Equity and Diversity in Canadian Archaeology: An Experiential Profile of Canadian Archaeologists in the #MeToo Era

2018-2020 Faculty Research Development Fund (Research Grants), Faculty of Social Science, The University of Western Ontario $9,562

Collaborators: Natasha Lyons, Kisha Supernant, and John Welch 

This research is part of the work of the Canadian Archaeology Association’s Working Group on Equity and Diversity in Canadian Archaeology (EDCA), of which all the project collaborators are members. The Working Group is guided by an Advisory Board comprised of: Gary Coupland, Josh Dent, Alicia Hawkins, Patricia Markert, Elsa Perry, Farid Rahemtulla, Meghan Walley and Alison Wylie. As a social science focused on understanding ancient humanity in all its diversity, archaeology is best served by a diverse community of practitioners fostered through an equitable approach to professional development and practice. In order to promote such an approach in Canada, increase diversity within our community, and fully understand the gains already made on both fronts, we conducted a demographic survey of Canadian archaeologists. We also interviewed archaeological practitioners representing a diverse and intersectional set of demographics to understand the dynamics that underlie their career trajectories; approaches to collegial and mentoring relationships; and their experiences of all aspects of archaeological training and work. Our overall goal is to advance conversations about how the Canadian archaeological community can: 1) support awareness and open and transparent communication around equity and diversity issues, 2) better align our practice with established and emerging ethics and shifting demographic realities, and 3) contribute to conversations about national level codes of conduct, principles of community, and sexual harassment policies in our discipline to create safer spaces for work, study, and research, and respect and celebrate diversity within our archaeological community.

You can access many of my publications on my Academia page.

2026. Hodgetts, L., N. Lyons and the Inuvialuit Living History Team, Inuvialuit Living History Project Website. https://inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/

2025. Markert, P., L. Hodgetts, M.P. Cantin, S. Mallet Gauthier, N. Lyons, K. Supernant, J. Welch, A. Wiley and J. Dent, Confronting Archaeology’s “Grey Zones.” American Antiquity 90(3): 555-572. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2024.81

2025. Rivera Prince, Jordi A., Emily Blackwood, Madeleine Landrum, Elizabeth L. Leclerc, Emily P.B. Milton, Monica Barnes, Elizabeth Chin, Christa Craven, Kristina Douglass, María José Figuerero Torres, María Gutiérrez, Sarah Herr, Lisa Hodgetts, Kirk Maasch, Kylie Quave, Danilyn Rutherford, and Daniel H. Sandweiss, Writing in Community: Relationship Building and Accountability in Knowledge Production. American Anthropologist 319-338. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.28070

2022. Gruben, E.J., A. Piskor, M. Joe, L. Kotokak, E. Edgerton, N. Lyons, L. Hodgetts, K. Hennessy, D. Stewart, C. Arnold, C. von Szombathy and J. Lukuku, You help us tell our story’: Making Inuvialuit Living Histories in Digital and Real-Time. Études/Inuit/Studies 46(2): 91-109.

2020. Hodgetts, L., K. Supernant, N. Lyons and J.R. Welch, Broadening #MeToo: Tracking Dynamics in Canadian Archaeology through a Survey on Equity and Diversity. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 44: 20-47.

2020. Kelvin, L. and L. Hodgetts, Unsettling Archaeology [Introduction to the Special Issue]. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 44: 1-19.

2020. Hodgetts, L.M. and Kelvin L., At the Heart of the Ikaahuk Archaeology Project. In Archaeology of the Heart and Emotion, edited by Kisha Supernant, Jane Toswell, Sonya Atalay and Natasha Lyons. Springer Press.

Awards

2018    Edward G. Pleva Award for Teaching Excellence, The University of Western Ontario 

2017    Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Faculty of Social Science, The University of Western Ontario

Courses offered 

I teach the following courses on a rotating basis:

ANTHRO 1022 Introduction to Biological Anthropology and Archaeology

Excavating a pre-Dorset tent near Churchill, Manitoba.

This course provides an introduction to the two of the four fields of anthropology: Biological Anthropology and Archaeology. I teach the archaeology portion, which introduces some of the ethical challenges archaeologists face and looks at how the archaeological record forms and how we find and investigate sites. It also covers the frameworks archaeologists use in making interpretations, how we reconstruct past interactions between people and their environments, and how we study social organization, identity and ideology. Students get hands-on experience with artifacts in the labs. 

ANTHRO 2229 Arctic Archaeology

Inuvialuit Elder Jean Harry examines worked caribou antler at Head Hill archaeological site.

This is both an exciting and challenging time to do archaeological research in Canada’s Arctic. New collaborative endeavours between northern Indigenous peoples and archaeologists are changing the way we understand and conduct archaeology in the north. At the same time, climate change, which is dramatically impacting the Arctic, is rapidly destroying the arctic archaeological record and driving new approaches to documenting threatened sites and mitigating these impacts. As a class, we will reflect on how these parallel developments are reshaping archaeological practice in the north and explore some of the major research questions in Arctic archaeology. Ultimately, I hope the course will give you a sense of Canada’s rich arctic past, and insight into how and why archaeological approaches to understanding that past have changed in recent years.

ANTHRO 2261 Adventures in Pop Culture Archaeology 

Famous archaeological sites and objects have long captured the public imagination, so it’s no surprise that archaeology abounds in popular culture. It is often represented, both fictionally and factually, in television and movies, on the internet, and in comics, video games and news media. This course examines how both non-archaeologists and archaeologists present archaeology to the public and considers what these representations imply about the relationship between archaeology and modern society. From Indiana Jones to alien pyramid builders, join us for the ride!

ANTHRO 2268 People and Animals

Our relationships with other animals have shaped the history of our species. We have interacted closely with other animals from the time of the very first humans to the present day. At different times and places we have hunted them, herded them, used their labour for our own ends, sacrificed them to our gods, and slaughtered them for food and fuel and hides. We have revered them as spirits, reviled them as pests, and loved them as kin. Often, we do many of these things at once for a single species. This course explores people’s interactions with diverse animals, past and present, through the lens of anthropology’s four sub-fields: archaeology, biological anthropology, sociocultural anthropology and linguistic anthropology. Let’s explore what anthropology reveals about the incredible diversity of human-animal relationships through time, the ways they have influenced biology and culture (our own and that of other animals), and what our complicated and often contradictory perceptions of and interactions with other animals reveal about what it means to be human.

ANTHRO 3310 Zooarchaeology

This course will introduce you to the wide range of information that can be gleaned about past human groups from the animal remains they left behind after butchery, meals, toolmaking and other activities. You will also learn to identify and analyze faunal remains, including the broken fragments often recovered from archaeological sites. Each week, we will cover topics in zooarchaeological theory and practice including taphonomy, quantification, seasonality, prey selection, domestication and behavioural ecology. Come prepared to apply what you have read to the analysis and interpretation of example data! In the labs, you will learn the basics of skeletal identification for the most common types of vertebrate remains recovered from archaeological sites: fish, birds, carnivores, rodents and ungulates. Open lab hours will allow you to practice and reinforce these skills.

ANTHRO 9001 Professional Development 

This grad course is open to MA and PhD students in the Anthropology department. 

So you want a job when you leave here? Don’t panic! Anthropologists develop a suite of valuable transferrable skills that you can apply in a wide range of job settings. This course aims to help you identify and strengthen your marketable skills and learn to present yourself effectively to prospective employers both within and outside of academia. These skills include time management, oral communication, grant writing, teaching, leadership, research, project management, editing, interpersonal skills, and an appreciation of ethical and civic responsibility. This course emphasizes peer and participatory learning and includes a series of collaborative and individual exercises that will not only serve to enrich your skills, but also provide you with concrete experiences to add to your CV. Past group projects have included designing and implementing a full day anthropology workshop for the Thames Valley District School Board’s (TVDSB) gifted itinerant program and developing grad student resources for the department website.

I welcome applications from students interested in community archaeology and digital heritage. I would also be happy to hear from students proposing research projects involving zooarchaeology, Arctic archaeology and issues of equity and diversity in archaeological practice (especially in Canada).

Current Students 

Ashley Piskor, PhD candidate: Indigenous archaeology, community-based research, cultural heritage management

Katie Chin-Quee, PhD student: Cruise ship tourism impacts on Inuit cultural heritage sites in Nunavut

Charlotte Cleve, MA candidate: Developing a community-based cultural heritage StoryMap with the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation, Mnidoo Mnising (Manitoulin Island)

Holly Hancox, MA student: Ancestral Iroquian foodways at the Dorchester site (AfGh-24)

Former PhD Students

2025. Rebecca Goodwin: Some that Could do Both: Towards an Engendered Archaeology of the Western Canadian Arctic.

2024. M. Beth Compton: Engaging with Archaeological Collections in Community Archaeology: Examining the Value of Digital Representations and Physical Replicas. Joint supervisor with Neal Ferris.

2018. John Moody: Petrographic Analysis of Inuit Ceramics Joint supervisor with Linda Howie.

2017. Jordon Munizzi: Rethinking Holocene Ecological Relationships Among Caribou, Muskoxen, and Human Hunters on Banks Island, NWT, Canada: A Stable Isotope Approach. Joint supervisor with Fred Longstaffe (Earth Sciences).

2016. Laura Kelvin: There is more than One Way to do Something Right: Applying Community-Based Approaches to an Archaeology of Banks Island, N.W.T.

2011. Lindsay Foreman: Seasonal Subsistence in Late Woodland Southwestern Ontario: An Examination of the Relationships between Resource Availability, Maize Agriculture and Faunal Procurement and Processing.

Former MA Students

2026. Katie Lewis: Variability in Early Inuit Dog Diets: Insights from Stable Carbon- and Nitrogen-Isotope Analysis. Joint supervisor with Fred Longstaffe.

2025. Isaac Bender: Only at The Rural: A Multimodal Assessment of Non-Invasive Grave Identification Techniques at the Ingersoll Rural Cemetery.

2025. Emily Henry: Towards Inuvialuit Data Sovereignty: Current Practices and Paths Forward.

2024. Kaylee Woldum: Hands-On History - Applying a Strong Like Two People Approach to Archaeology Education.

2022. Jason Lau: Inuvialuit Living Art: Co-Creating Local Community Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Research.

2019. Jeff Grieve: Digital Representation of Inuvialuit Traditional Knowledge: A case study in community engagement using Google Earth.

2018. Shane McCartney: Guided by Smoke: A Comparative Analysis of Early Late Woodland Smoking Pipes from the Arkona Cluster.

2017. Arwen Johns: The Richness of Food: A Zooarchaeological Analysis of Huaca Santa Clara and Huaca Gallinazo, North Coast of Peru. Joint supervisor with Jean-Francois Millaire.

2016. Kathryn Kotar: Variability in Thule Inuit Subsistence Economy: A Faunal Analysis of OkRn-1, Banks Island, N.W.T.

2016. Tessa Plint (MSc, Earth Sciences): Giant beaver (Castoroides) palaeoecology inferred from stable isotopes. Joint supervisor with Fred Longstaffe.

2014. Colleen Haukaas: New Opportunities in Digital Archaeology: The Use of Low-Cost Photogrammetry for 3D Documentation of Archaeological Objects from Banks Island, NWT

2013. Claire Venet-Rogers: A Study of Faunal Consumption at the Gallinazo Group Site, Northern Coast of Peru. Joint supervisor with Jean-Francois Millaire

2010. John Sweeney: Faunal Analysis of a Ritual Deposit from the Dorchester Iroquoian Village Site (AfHg-24).

2010. John Moody: Pioneering Thule Inuit Subsistence: A Faunal Analysis of Tiktalik (NkRi-3).

2008. Tomasz Porawski: A Multivariate Taphonomic Approach to Understanding Midden Formation in Thule Inuit Contexts: A Case Study from Arctic Canada

2006. Jacob Anderson: Pre-Dorset life in Southwestern Hudson Bay as seen through Lithic Reduction.