Lecture

Graduate Forum 2025

Olivia Vanderwal — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 19:46:36 +0000

Graduate Forum 2025 Olivia Vanderwal Mon, 10/20/2025 - 15:46

Please join us for the 9th annual Grad Forum where our Public Issues Anthropology MA students will present their research. Meet and greet our graduate students and professors and enjoy some lunch and refreshments! The event is free to attend and all are welcome. Please register below to join us and learn more about our students' new research topics. Parking is available in Lot C for $5.00.

Carita Tham

Examining Potential Fish Consumption at the Monastery of Ghazali, Sudan through Sulphur Isotope Analysis

This study uses stable isotope analysis of sulphur (δ 34S) on human bone collagen to determine the presence or absence of fish in the diet of the monastic inhabitants at the medieval Makurian site of Ghazali (ca. 680-1275 CE), Nubia. Previous research using stable isotope analyses of carbon (δ 13C) and nitrogen (δ 15N) on bone collagen suggested a varied diet of both terrestrial plants and animals. It also revealed that 5 individuals may have eaten aquatic species, such as fish. Using stable isotope analysis of sulphur, carbon, and nitrogen together can help us see if fish was a part of the diet because of naturally occurring differences in these elements in different food sources and environments. By drawing upon both textual and archaeological evidence, this study thus explores the possible dietary role and status of fish at Ghazali and within the broader region of Makurian monasteries.

Rosie Schwarz

Using Spatial Analysis to Investigate Burial Complexities and Variation at Wadi Faynan 100, Jordan

This paper investigates the spatial and stylistic relationships between burials that were excavated during the 2019 and 2023 field seasons at Wadi Faynan 100, an early Bronze Age site near the western border of Jordan. I conducted near analysis, hot spot analysis, and inverse weight distributed analysis using a Geographic Information System called ArcPro. Using grave photos, grave outlines, and maps, I determined potential and likely burial pairings within the landscape and examined how the landscape influenced the people who buried their dead there.

Jessica Mah

Mobility and the Landscape: Investigating Locality and Movement Patterns of Individuals at Wadi Faynan 100 Using Minimally Invasive Strontium Isotope Analysis

In comparison to other archaeological sites in Jordan, life at the Early Bronze Age site of Wadi Faynan 100 (WF100) is still largely a mystery. The region has been polluted with heavy metals as a result of copper mining over the past 7,000 years. Previous studies demonstrated variable periods of childhood exposure to these heavy metals, which would indicate that individuals were moving in and out of the area. At the same time, there were also signs that people lived there in permanent settlements. To better understand patterns of movement at this site, Laser Ablation-Multi Collector-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) was used to observe changes in strontium (Sr) isotope ratios in the tooth enamel of 31 individuals. They displayed unpredictable patterns of mobility, with examples of local, non-local, and semi-local individuals. This points to more diverse forms of social organization than originally expected and highlights how LA-MC-ICP-MS analysis of teeth can help us better understand mobility, health and social organization during the Early Bronze Age.

Cassie Sellers

A Proteomic Analysis of Biological Sex and Health in Gurat, France

Teeth can preserve molecular information for centuries, holding traces of who we were and how we lived. This project explores how paleoproteomics—the study of ancient proteins—can help us better understand biological sex and health in past populations. Focusing on six individuals excavated from a rock-cut cave church in Gurat, France, small samples of tooth enamel were analyzed using liquid chromatography– tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The goal of this project was to test a refined method for detecting two kinds of proteins: amelogenins, which indicate biological sex, and immune-related proteins, which may reflect aspects of health. Amelogenin peptides were successfully identified in all six individuals, allowing confident sex estimations in most cases. However, immune proteins such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and immunoglobulin-gamma (IgG) were inconsistently detected, suggesting that these proteins may not survive well in enamel or that current methods require further optimization. These results demonstrate both the promise and the current limitations of proteomic analysis in tooth enamel. Overall, the study shows that minimally destructive approaches can yield meaningful biological information and complement traditional osteological analyses—helping us reconstruct the identities of ancient populations.

Hannah Clark

Death, Care, and Labour: Bereavement Work in Southern Ontario

Death care industry workers perform essential services in the preparation, disposition, and memorialization of our dead. Their work often occurs at the nexus of government policy, cultural tradition, feeling and emotion, biomedical care, and commercial enterprise. Despite the inevitable nature of death, both academic interest and public awareness of the death care industry has been limited. Drawing on interviews with industry professionals, this research explores the experiences of funeral directors, cemetery groundskeepers, crematorium operators, and sales representatives in Ontario.

Aicha Lariani

Duped by Dream Sellers: A Case Study of Student Immobility, Precarity, and Profit in Northern Cyprus

Young migrants arrive in Northern Cyprus seeking opportunity and safety through higher education. Instead, they find themselves in a state of continuous uncertainty, without stable rights or status, in a politically unrecognized territory. What happens when marketing of “affordable” and “internationally recognized” educational opportunities targets vulnerable students from countries affected by war, extreme poverty, and political unrest? Facing safety concerns in their home countries and limited international options, international students continue to arrive in Northern Cyprus despite difficult living conditions. Drawing on 29 ethnographic interviews, this thesis examines how international student migration both responds to and sustains the political and economic structures of Northern Cyprus. It shows how education, labour, and legality produce a system that restricts students’ movement while depending on their presence.

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Brown Bag Series Talk - Bioarchaeological and Archaeological Approaches to Adolescence: A Case Study from 19th to 20th Century England

Shirin Nozari — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 16:37:16 +0000

Brown Bag Series Talk - Bioarchaeological and Archaeological Approaches to Adolescence: A Case Study from 19th to 20th Century England Shirin Nozari Tue, 10/14/2025 - 12:37

Abstract

Adolescence is a critical period of the life course, encapsulating biological and social changes as individuals transition from childhood to adulthood. Its study therefore benefits from an approach that combines archaeological and bioarchaeological perspectives. In this talk, I will explore this topic through a case study from Victorian and Edwardian Cambridgeshire, England. Drawing on a database of over 13,000 individuals between the ages of 3 and 30, I utilize burial records, monument inscription records, and census data to explore the complex interrelated effects of age at death, gender, socioeconomic status, and year of death on the likelihood of an adolescent being buried with a stone monument. Disparities in this form of mortuary treatment suggest that the experience of adolescence in Victorian and Edwardian England varied significantly by gender and questions whether girls even had an adolescence period.

About the speaker

Dana Thacher completed her B.A. (Honours) at the University of Manitoba and M.A. at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. Her earlier research examined Paleo-Inuit tent rings through GIS-based spatial analysis and explored Inuit interaction with material from the Franklin Expedition.

Currently pursuing her PhD at McMaster University, Dana’s research focuses on the commemoration of children in Cambridgeshire, England, and rural communities in Scotland and Ontario during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her work explores how social, cultural, and historical factors shape responses to childhood death and remembrance.

Anthropology Graduate School Workshop

Shirin Nozari — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 17:56:37 +0000

Anthropology Graduate School Workshop Shirin Nozari Fri, 10/10/2025 - 13:56

Brown Bag Series Talk - The Landscape of Llama Husbandry in the Andes before the Arrival of Europeans

Shirin Nozari — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 17:48:02 +0000

Brown Bag Series Talk - The Landscape of Llama Husbandry in the Andes before the Arrival of Europeans Shirin Nozari Fri, 10/10/2025 - 13:48

About the speaker

Paul Szpak is an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in Archaeological Science in the Department of Anthropology at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.His research uses stable isotope analysis to better understand how humans have interacted with and impacted their environment, with a particular emphasis on the Andes and the North American Arctic.

2025 Sally Weaver Award Guest Lecture: Dr. Darcie DeAngelo

Olivia Vanderwal — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 20:35:48 +0000

2025 Sally Weaver Award Guest Lecture: Dr. Darcie DeAngelo Olivia Vanderwal Thu, 09/04/2025 - 16:35

What kind of animal are we? The rodent-human relationship as a pest entourage

While multispecies ethnography emerged in the social sciences in the early aughts, animals and other nonhumans have long been “good to think with” in anthropological theory. More recent turns have taken nonhuman beings seriously as actors with agency over the way humans live, work, and play. Many focus on the radical alterities of specialist species as aspirational comparisons to pose how things could be different from a capitalist perspective.

But what about the multispecies relations that benefit from our capitalist consequences? Pests have been steadily increasing their residential radius, flourishing in a time called the “sixth extinction.” When we attend ethnographically to the pests at our feet, like the urban rats we share our lives with, we notice the similarities and kinships that showcase human generalist tendencies: adaptability, sociality, and a capacity for destruction.

Reception to follow in PAS Lounge (PAS 3005)

About the speaker: Dr. Darcie DeAngelo

Darcie DeAngelo is an anthropologist, writer, and filmmaker and Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta. She is the author of How to Love a Rat: Detecting Bombs in Postwar Cambodia (University of California Press, 2024) and For the Love of Rats (Norton, forthcoming).

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Brown Bag Series Talk - Identifying and Uncovering Ontario’s Unmarked Graves: Cemetery Work as a Consultant Archaeologist

Jessica Mah — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 15:52:09 +0000

Brown Bag Series Talk - Identifying and Uncovering Ontario’s Unmarked Graves: Cemetery Work as a Consultant Archaeologist Jessica Mah Fri, 03/14/2025 - 11:52

Abstract

“Suspected unmarked cemetery”, “human remains found”, and “burial ground discovered”. These news headlines are increasingly common in today’s media. The discovery and potential destruction of unmarked cemeteries, during rapid times of urban development over the past 150 years, is an ongoing concern throughout Ontario. As a consultant archaeologist at TMHC Inc., I am regularly involved with projects involving unmarked graves, cemeteries, and human remains discoveries. Often this work has me liaising with government sectors, legal authorities, stakeholders, Indigenous communities, or Descendant groups to ensure that burial sites are not impacted. If we are involved with recovery efforts, it is our priority to follow the direct wishes of the respective communities. As part of this work, I am a researcher, report writer, and expert consultant, but also conduct fieldwork as an osteologist and archaeologist. Each project and circumstance are different, but experience from all three of my degrees has helped prepare me for this role, and has given me the tools necessary to continue adapting to each new find. Participating in this work presents an opportunity to provide information and closure for living descendants, and ensures that these unmarked cemeteries are not forgotten.

About the speaker

Dr. Katherine Bishop is a consultant archaeologist at TMHC Inc. who is regularly involved with projects involving unmarked graves, cemeteries, and human remains discoveries as their GPR and Cemetery Projects Lead. She is a researcher, report writer, and expert consultant, but also conducts fieldwork as an osteologist and archaeologist.

Brown Bag Series Talk - Crafting Arabic: Language Ideologies and Imagined Futures among AI Model Makers in Amman

Jessica Mah — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 02:04:01 +0000

Brown Bag Series Talk - Crafting Arabic: Language Ideologies and Imagined Futures among AI Model Makers in Amman Jessica Mah Mon, 03/03/2025 - 21:04

Abstract

Talk Description: The rapid rise of large language models (LLMs) in recent years has transformed language data into a highly sought-after commodity for training these artificial intelligence technologies. Given the relative lack of available Arabic-language datasets, scores of companies have turned to creating, curating, and categorizing language data while also working to train linguistically and culturally localized AI models. The linguistic and technical labor animating Arabic LLMs, however, takes place in friction with broader histories and transnational processes: colonial framings of Arabic as antiquated and inimical to progress, the privileging of English within the knowledge economy, Euro-American assumptions about language embedded into AI design, and inequitable resource distribution within the global tech industry. The process of making Arabic LLMs, in short, is thoroughly shaped by prevailing language ideologies, political-economic relations, and social milieus.

This talk highlights the experiences and perspectives of Arabic-language model makers as they navigate this complex linguistic, ideological, and political-economic landscape. Drawing on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Amman, Jordan—a regional hub for information technology outsourcing—I trace how model makers conceptualize language in relation to their work with AI tech. While some reproduce tropes about Arabic’s “backwardness,” another camp highlights the structural factors stifling the region’s AI industry; other makers, meanwhile, argue that LLMs are now “language-agnostic,” given that they are trained on digits and vectors rather than letters and words. As they see it, we have already entered an era of technological progress unencumbered by language, Arabic or otherwise. By analyzing such stances, this talk highlights how ideologies about language and communication shape how emerging technologies like LLMs are designed and imagined. The experiences of model makers, moreover, illuminate how social theories about language are crafted and reconfigured in relation to novel technologies and the labor undergirding them.

About the speaker

Tariq Adely is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at George Washington University. His research focuses on the intersection of language, technology, and labor in the Arabic-speaking world. His dissertation project examines the everyday work and decision-making rubrics involved in the production of AI language models for Arabic, as well as the social, political, and ethical dimensions of this labor. Before beginning his graduate study, Tariq worked as a reporter and translator in Amman, Jordan.

Raus! From German command to Tok Pisin verb: on the linguistic consequences of colonial encounters

Jessica Mah — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 18:03:16 +0000

Raus! From German command to Tok Pisin verb: on the linguistic consequences of colonial encounters Jessica Mah Fri, 02/28/2025 - 13:03

Public Lecture

This presentation will examine Tok Pisin, the lingua franca of Papua New Guinea, a language which emerged from contact between European colonizers and indigenous and enslaved peoples. While Tok Pisin is primarily English-based, it contains many words that date to the German colonial period in the South Pacific (1880s to 1914) and that can be understood as traces of commands, slurs and terms of abuse (Mühlhäusler 1975, 2003). One prominent example is rausim 'throw out, dismiss; get out!; get lost!' (Mühlhäusler, Dutton and Romaine 2003), which has a fraught history as a marker of social exclusion and discrimination (e.g. Angermeyer 2017: 163).

Building on comparisons with plantation creoles of the Caribbean and contemporary Arabic-based pidgins (e.g. Bizri 2010), I examine how such features can be viewed as characteristic of so-called Pidgins and Creoles more generally, and how they reflect racist ideologies in which colonial subjects were treated as child-like or subhuman (compare DeGraff 2005). While such forms betray their origins in hierarchical and abusive communication, even hate speech, they also point to the agency of subordinated speakers to counter-appropriate and resignify offensive speech (Butler 1997), illustrating how the emergence of new languages can represent an act of re-appropriation.

About the Speaker

Dr. Philipp S. Angermeyer is a professor in linguistics at York University. He is a sociolinguist with primary research interests in multilingualism and language contact, especially as they relate to inequality and social justice.

Brown Bag Series Talk - Unearthing the Past: The Ethics and Insights of Ancient DNA Pathogen Research

Jessica Mah — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 03:33:23 +0000

Brown Bag Series Talk - Unearthing the Past: The Ethics and Insights of Ancient DNA Pathogen Research Jessica Mah Tue, 02/25/2025 - 22:33

Abstract

In this talk I discuss my work making DNA research more ethical in two projects. The first is a biological anthropology project investigating the spread of brucellosis in medieval Italy. The second is a public outreach effort to produce videos that explain how DNA can reconnect children who died at residential schools to their communities as part of Survivor-led and Indigenous-led investigations. By incorporating insights from ancient DNA research into our ethics, researchers can address the colonial nature of scholarship while being more inclusive of descendant and underrepresented communities

About the speaker

Jessica Hider is an instructor in the Archaeology and Heritage Studies Program at Wilfrid Laurier University, and PhD Candidate in the McMaster Ancient DNA centre.

The Impasse: Political Logistics in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Olivia Vanderwal — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:04:45 +0000

The Impasse: Political Logistics in Port-au-Prince, Haiti Olivia Vanderwal Wed, 02/19/2025 - 16:04

Silver Medal Lecture

By most accounts, Haiti today is at a political impasse, with no elected government and large portions of the country—including 80% of the capital city—under the de facto control of armed gangs. But what do we mean by impasse and how did this situation come about?

Moving beyond simple explanations like ‘state failure’ or international calls for armed intervention, Beckett seeks to reframe the discussion around politics as it is lived in Port-au-Prince. How do residents of the city experience political crisis? What are the ordinary ways that the exceptional condition of political impasse takes? How do people navigate the cascading array of blockages they face on a daily basis, from roadblocks and blackouts to the prevailing sense of stuckness that arises from the seemingly endless political crisis? Drawing on insights from the anthropology of mobility, Beckett suggests we can understand the current situation in Port-au-Prince through the lens of what he calls political logistics.

Reception to follow in HH 373

About the Speaker

Greg Beckett is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Western University. He has written extensively on Haitian politics, society, and history, with a focus on the lived experience of crisis and disaster in Port-au-Prince. He is the author of There Is No More Haiti: Between Life and Death in Port-au-Prince (2019, University of California Press) and co-editor of Trouillot Remixed: The Michel-Rolph Trouillot Reader (2021, Duke University Press).