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Geetanjali Balkissoon
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My MA research is based on the modern experience of cancer, and barriers to cancer care in the Greater Toronto Area. I will work within the context of a volunteer organization to learn how volunteers bridge gaps and aid in knowledge translation among patients/families and their doctors. It is my aim that this research will help to extend the discourse on patient needs and expectations, and the unique role of volunteers. This research ties in several of my broader interests in anthropology including death and dying, health, and medical anthropology. |
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Zack Batist batistz@mcmaster.ca
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Subject: Examining exchange and interaction in the prehistoric Near East using social network analysis. For my MA research I am using network analysis techniques to examine exchange patterns in the prehistoric Near East. The structures of exchange networks can be assembled and analyzed in order to provide insight into the shifts that occurred at the beginning of the Neolithic in this region. |
| Katherine Bishop bishopkg@mcmaster.ca  |
My background is in medical sciences and bioarchaeological anthropology (B.Sc. Western University). My archaeological fieldwork has allowed me to work on sites in Peru, Italy, and throughout Ontario. I am in my first year of my major research project and hope to focus on human osteology, zooarchaeology and issues related to diet and lifestyle. My coursework will focus on Roman archaeology (specifically at Pompeii), stable isotope research, and taphonomic changes in bone after death. |
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Lia Marie Casaca
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My Master's thesis is focused on Taphonomy and the battle of Stoney Creek human skeletal collection. I completed my HBSc at the University of Toronto, Mississauga Campus in Biological Anthropology, which sparked my interest and allowed me to gain experience in Human Osteology, Forensic Anthropology, and Biomedical Communications. |
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Lori D'Ortenzio  |
My master’s research will use stable isotope analysis of human hair to explore dietary preferences to facilitate a greater understanding of individual life histories of early Ontario settlers. Hair growth is faster than the rate of bone turnover, so the analysis of hair provides an opportunity to explore dietary patterns closer to the time of death. I hope to demonstrate that human hair represents an ideal material to be used in the understanding of dietary patterns and health status in a historic population from 19th century Ontario by investigating the short-term diet of individuals before death. |
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Stephanie DaSilva  |
My M.A research explores the relationship and impact of globalization on religious perspectives through a study of Portuguese festas (festivals) in Hamilton. My research contributes to existing literature regarding immigration, religiosity in Canada and diaspora communities, festivals and Portuguese identity. These four topics are increasingly relevant to a world that has undergone rapid changes through globalization and development of communication and travel technologies. |
| Ana-Maria Dragomir dragoma@mcmaster.ca  |
Title: Refracting Democracy: Romanian Political Culture and New Wave
Cinema
My research is situated between the realms of visual anthropology,
postsocialist studies and the anthropology of Eastern Europe. It examines the
ways in which visual culture, especially contemporary film, helps to reveal the
challenges and aspirations currently experienced by Romanians as they transition
from one regime of politics and values to another, and how the new Romanian
cinema contributes to the cultural formation of the “New Europe.”
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Jonathan Lockwood |
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| Annabelle Schattman schattaf@mcmaster.ca |
Title: The co-occurrences of scurvy and rickets in 16th-18th century skeletal material from Douai, France. My Master's research focuses on my interest, paleopathology. My thesis will look at the co-occurrence of scurvy and rickets in archaeological remains of children from 16th to 18th century France. I will attempt to quantify the number of cases of each disease, as well as co-occurrences, using different techniques including macroscopy, radiology, histology and a biochemical test. The goals are to document co-occurrences and to develop a framework that will evaluate the utility of different analytical techniques. |
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Jennifer Schumacher  |
My research interests lay in ceramics and the stories they can tell. My current research focuses on variability of the technological sequence of pottery to identify the relationship between techniques and society in an Early Ontario Iroquoian village. I follow the steps of ceramic production acknowledging that every choice is a decision to uphold a current social tradition or to change it. My hope is to shed light on inter-site and inter-regional relationships by understanding intra-site relationships and in turn give insight into uses of identity, learning, and relations of interaction in Southern Ontario. |
| Lena Zepf zepfl@mcmaster.ca  |
My research interests include landscape archaeology, degrees of continuity and change, settlement strategies, and mobility patterns. My MA research engages with the nature of cultural transformation in the context of the shift from mobile hunter-gatherers to semi-sedentary farming societies. Central to my MA thesis is the investigation of practices through time to identify patterns/shifts in socio-economic strategies. To investigate this I will be analyzing the emergence and life-cycle of material culture such as pipes and objects of adornment in Middle and Late Woodland hunter-gatherer and semi-sedentary groups in south-central Ontario. |
| Rachael Baker bakerre2@mcmaster.ca |
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Heather Battles
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Thesis - Examining Mortality Patterns in the Epidemic Emergence of Poliomyelitis in Southern Ontario, Canada (1900-1937) using GIS
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Kandace Bogaert
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| Natalie Brewster brewstnd@mcmaster.ca  |
Thesis - Here for a Reason: An Archaeological History of Local and Regional Fish Resource use on the Northern Coast of British Columbia |
| Linda Brooymans brooyml@mcmaster.ca |
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| Meghan Burchell burcheme@mcmaster.ca  |
Thesis - Archaeological Histories of Shellfish Harvest and Management in Coastal British Columbia My research examines resource management practices and seasonal settlement patterns on the Coast of British Columbia though the biological and chemical analyses of archaeological shells. Using stable isotope analysis coupled with high-resolution sclerochronology, my work models patterns of local and regional paleoclimate in relationship to the intensity of local resource harvesting practices. This research is facilitated through the Fisheries Archaeology Research Centre, the McMaster Stable Isotope Research Laboratory, and I am also a member of the INCREMENTS research group at the University of Mainz in Germany. |
| Sally Carraher carrahs@mcmaster.ca  |
Thesis - Local Biologies of Helicobacter pylori Infection in an Indigenous Arctic Community: An Ethnographic Epidemiology I am a fourth-year PhD student. Hired as a research trainee for the University of Alberta's "Aklavik H. pylori Project", I use participant observation and ethnography in conjunction with epidemiology to study infection and risk of Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium that causes ulcers and stomach cancer. My work is community-based; collaborating with Inuvialuit, Gwich'in, and white residents who live in the culturally-vibrant community of Aklavik, NWT. |
| Ani Chenier chenieae@mcmaster.ca  |
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| K. Jack Conley conleykj@mcmaster.ca  |
Thesis- "Coming Home": Environmentally Protected Areas and the Missanabie Cree First Nation My dissertation explores how protected areas have emerged in the homeland of the Missanabie Cree and how these impact community, territory and identity. I examine three protected areas in order to locate the common features which lead to dispossession and displacement and explore ways to address these damaging problems. The Missanabie Cree have been working for almost a century to transform the management of these areas and to restore their collective influence in how the land is used, protected and understood. Searching for ways to decolonize protected areas leads into challenging questions about cross-cultural knowledge production, governance and public education. |
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Nadia Densmore |
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| Alison Devault devaulam@mcmaster.ca  |
Thesis - Ancient DNA of Infectious Diseases My background is in biology and archaeology (B.A. Boston University) and biological anthropology (M.A. McMaster University). My current thesis research focuses on the evolutionary history of human infectious disease as studied through the molecular remains of pathogen DNA in archaeological human remains. I am interested in the potential for ancient DNA (aDNA) to provide meaningful anthropological and evolutionary biological insights into past pathogens, beyond species identification. What can aDNA tell us about the biological characteristics of historical epidemics, and can these insights inform our interpretation of historical and archaeological narratives about these epidemics? Studying aDNA helps shape our understanding of current infectious disease, because a greater knowledge of pathogen evolutionary relationships and trajectories can inform our environmental and pharmaceutical strategies to combat their virulence. |
| Jeffrey Dillane dillanjb@mcmaster.ca  |
Thesis - Long-term Settlement Change in the Trent River Drainage My research interests include landscape and settlement archaeology of hunter-gatherers, the archaeology of Southern Ontario, GIS applications in archaeology, and the archaeology of death. My current research is focused on the changing settlement and landscape dynamics of the Trent Valley in Southern Ontario between 2000 BC and AD 1500. This period saw a significant number of changes in the local environment and in the social structure, subsistence economy, and settlement patterns of the inhabitants of this region. |
| Lilian Dogiama dogiamte@mcmaster.ca  |
Thesis - Points of reference: projectiles, hunting and identity at Neolithic Catalhoyuk, Turkey My research interests lie in lithic analysis, projectile technology, the Greek Neolithic and Bronze Age, Neolithic Turkey, hunting in farming societies, and archaeological theory. My PhD research focuses on how social identity is constructed, expressed, and maintained through the social practice of hunting, with specific reference to the cultural biography of stone projectile points from Catalhoyuk, a Neolithic site in central Anatolia (7400-6000 BC). My research will contribute to a better understanding of hunting practices as an arena of symbolic expression and negotiation of power relations within small scale agropastoral societies. |
| Bernice Downey downebe@mcmaster.ca  |
Thesis - Knowledge Translation for Indigenous Populations: What's Missing? My current academic interests are a culmination of the many years spent working in the area of Indigenous health promotion and health policy and research at the community, regional, national, and international level. I am a committed advocate in the work related to promoting, supporting and fostering the resiliencies of Indigenous populations. This includes building awareness regarding both the serious health inequities that is the current reality of First Nations, Inuit and Metis people in Canada and the historical, structural and socio-cultural factors that perpetuate the status quo. My research interest is in the area of health knowledge translation for Indigenous populations. I have been pondering the concepts of cultural knowledge brokering and Indigenous health literacy and how they might inform the work needed to enhance knowledge uptake for Indigenous populations. |
| Mohamed El Faki elfakimo@mcmaster.ca  |
I am interested in the issues of identity, identification and ethnic conflict. In my project, I intend to draw on historical and anthropological scholarship with a special focus on ethnic identity and violence, genocide and Darfur, Sudan. I will ask about the historical parameters and configurations (local, regional and international) that my have helped to generate the current violent situation in Darfur. The challenge, therefore, is to examine and explain the complexity of the conflict while also paying attention to the means that would make it possible for Darfur to move beyond it. |
| Matthew Emery emerymv@mcmaster.ca |
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| Kyle Freund freundkp@mcmaster.ca  |
My research interests include lithic analysis in the prehistoric Mediterranean, from the Mesolithic through Bronze Ages. By integrating Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with obsidian sourcing by means of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy, I study the history of obsidian use in the Mediterranean to examine the changing nature of procurement, circulation, technology, and cultural values in light of major shifts in socio-economic structure, maritime technology, and incipient metallurgy. My ultimate goal is to expand on current archaeological theory as it relates to conceptions of materiality in the archaeological record. |
| Rebecca Gilmour gilmourj@mcmaster.ca  |
My PhD research combines my interests in palaeopathology and cultural interactions along border/frontier zones. In particular, I will explore the long-term effects of healed fracture trauma experienced by civilians living on the northern Roman frontiers (ca. 1st- 4th Centuries AD). Using radiographic and macroscopic analyses of long bone fractures and associated bilateral asymmetry, this research will establish a method for identifying and interpreting evidence of functional impairment in skeletal remains. Through an intergration of palaeopathological interpretations with detailed archaeological and historical contexts this research will advance the current understanding of civilian life and physical stresses present in the northern Roman frontier provinces. |
| Alyson Jaagumagi jaagumae@mcmaster.ca |
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| Stacy Lockerbie lockers@mcmaster.ca  |
My interests include: China, globalization, reproduction and feminist anthropology. My doctoral research explores transnational adoption of children between Canada and China. I am particularly interested in how these practice shape female subjectivity, and actively challenge and reshape North American ideals of motherhood and the family. I am also interested in exploring popular and independent media images of motherhood as a site of empowerment and the celebrity culture of philanthropic adoption, HIV research, and the endorsement of environmental campaigns. |
| Madeleine Mant mantml@mcmaster.ca  |
My doctoral research seeks to better identify perimortem trauma-- injuries occuring around the time of death -- by studying the skeletal remains of individuals from 19th century London, UK. I am to create a comprehensive biocultural framework, incorporating physical, archival, and mechanical bone fracture testing data, in which to understand and interpret the trauma. |
| Stephanie-Marie Marciniak marcis@mcmaster.ca  |
My doctoral research examines the biological relationships and geographic origins of individuals from a Roman necropolis, integrating metric trait analysis, isotopic and ancient DNA evidence with mortuary analysis of the cemetery. The spatially discrete burials are well-suited to address hypotheses about the structure of family groups and whether genetic relationships are reflected in the organization of the cemetery. Through this research, I will directly explore questions of identity in terms of family and social structure, situated in the archaeological and historical context of rural life in the Roman period. |
| Priscilla Medeiros medeirp@mcmaster.ca  |
My research interests include globalization, gender and sexuality, global health systems, cross-cultural assessment, illness narratives, and the social/political dimensions of HIV/AIDS. My doctoral research will serve to develop a cross-cultural framework of analysis to aid in providing better care for women living with HIV/AIDS. |
| Myriam Nafte naftem@mcmaster.ca  |
Thesis - Trophies and Talismans: The Art of Human Remains After receiving an MA in physical anthropology at McMaster in 1993, I pursued work and research in the field of forensic anthropology, and combined this with more advanced studies in visual art, including sculpture and anatomical drawing. As such, the human body has been the focus of my art and research for the last 20 years. I have developed a particular interest in how, cross-culturally, human remains are processed for display as trophies, art objects, talismans, relics and specimens. From early tribal customs to the religious and contemporary art scenes, the body as material culture is explored through its transition from cadaver to an object of power, art and ideology. |
| Jessica E. Pace paceje@mcmaster.ca  |
Thesis - Memories and Meaning: Alzheimer's Disease, Dementia and Aging in Canadian Aboriginal Communities My PhD project utilizes Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) as a lens through which to pursue a broader ethnographic inquiry into aging, health and the role of the aged in Canadian Aboriginal communities on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. This is a community-based participatory research project that will use ethnographic research techniques, including in-depth interviews, participant observation and focus groups to identify knowledge, perceptions and behaviours related to ADRD. I will work with seniors with dementia, families, caregivers, and traditional mainstream health care professionals to better understand how these beliefs reflect and shape the experience of being and becoming old in a Canadian Aboriginal context.
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| Catherine Paterson patersca@mcmaster.ca  |
Thesis - The heritage of life and death in historic family cemeteries of Niagara, Ontario My research focuses on historic family cemeteries in the Niagara region of Ontario and explores the links between cemetery use and family, community, and identity. I am interested in how settlers and later generations used family cemeteries and transitioned to burial in various community and church cemeteries as settlements were developed. Visiting these cemeteries has been a series of adventures from the roadside to the backwoods and is a great way to explore the region and meet many interesting and helpful people. it has also expanded my interest in the conservation of cemeteries and monuments to include how historic cemeteries are incorporated into modern landscape and identities. |
| Rebecca Plett plettra@mcmaster.ca  |
The research questions I am pursuing focus on what processes, cultural forces, and ideas occur that cancer (and the cander death in particular) is imbued with violent and militaristic metaphors, and further, what the relationship is between such discourse and wider social understandings of violence and the body - how has cancer been constituted as a "fight" and "battle"? By looking at these questions through an examination of how Mennonites, a historically and ideologically pacifist ethnic group, experience cancer as an illness and coping with death due to cancer, what can we further decipher about what cancer and death mean in the medical and Western imagination. |
Shari Prowse |
My research interests revolve around understanding the relationships that exist between patterns of settlement and subsistence and other cultural phenomena. My most recent studies examined netsinker use and manufacture as evidence for a mass capture strategy of fishing among Woodland period populations within the Lower Great Lakes region. For my doctoral research, under the supervision of Dr. Aubrey Cannon, I am looking at the role various fishing strategies played in the development of the Late Woodland village cultural pattern within central Ontario. I am a part-time student and am employed full-time with the Ontario Ministry of Culture as an Archaeological Review Officer for the southwest region where, among other things, I provide technical advice on cultural resource management projects. I am also an associate editor of the Ontario Archaeological Society’s journal Ontario Archaeology. |
| Vanessa Sage sageve@mcmaster.ca  |
Thesis - Downtown Arts Revitalization: Visions for James Street North in Hamilton, Ontario My work explores an arts scene that has recently been developing on James Street North in Hamilton, Ontario. I am interested in how it has come to embody hope for a revitalized street, neighbourhood and city. I ask how do the efforts at revitalization, concerns over displacement and the feeling of loss that are part of the social fabric of the street connect to people's hopes, fears and dreams? More generally, I study aesthetics, place and materiality in urban and religious contexts. My previous work explored these themes by examining Goddess pilgrimage in Glastonbury, England and through an analysis of the Crop Circle movement as a new religious movement. |
| Robert Stark starkrj@mcmaster.ca  |
Subject- Non-metric traits and stable isotopes My research will examine the use of non-metric skeletal traits for differentiating between archaeological populations. This research will seek to use a holistic approach through the employment of traits from the entire skeleton in the hope of identifying significant patterns of trait distribution within and between populations. This work will be carried out in conjunction with isotopic studies of strontium and oxygen for looking at migration patterns. Through the combined use of these methods it is hoped that increasingly reliable means of examining for population differentiation and migration can be developed. |
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Lauren Wallace
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My PhD research examines fertility and family planning in the Upper East Region of Ghana. In collaboration with the Navrongo Health Research Centre, I will investigate the political-economic context of fertility decision-making. My research will be completed using a community-based participatory orientation. Ultimately, my research will provide insight into the design and evaluation of African family planning programs. |
| Lilianna Watamaniuk watamalu@mcmaster.ca  |
My doctoral research involves the identification and characterization of the histopathology of Vitamin D in ancient and historical skeletons. In particular, I am examining the methods of scanning electron microscopy and special staining techniques in histology to help characterize low Vitamin D at the tissue level of bone, across the spectrum of Vitamin D sufficiency, deficiency, and insufficiency. My aim is to provide paleopathologists with a more sensitive method in the differential diagnosis of Vitamin D-related disease in the past. Apart from paleopathology, my research interests and training include forensic anthropology and human variation. |
| Cora Woolsey woolsec@mcmaster.ca  |
Subject- Technological and Manufacturing Attributes of New Brunswick Aboriginal Pottery My research is concerned with Aboriginal ceramics from the Maritime Peninsula on the east coast of Canada, and with understanding the reasons that people in this region made pottery. I am interested in the ways that so-called "stylistic" attributes of pottery, such as decoration, in fact have technological functions and contribute to a well-honed tool tradition that is highly specialized and consciously designed for accomplishing a specific purpose. I attempt to show this through experimental laboratory work, geoarchaeology, and vessel replications, especially by determining firing cycles and other technological and manufacturing attributes of pottery. |
| Tian Yang yangt22@mcmaster.ca  |
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