Social Sciences Newsblog

Author: Amy Spahn

New Professor

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WurstLouAnn Wurst joins the Department of Social Sciences as a professor. Before coming to Michigan Tech, Wurst was at Western Michigan University. Wurst received a PhD in Anthropology from Binghamton University and a Master’s in Anthropology from State University of New York at Binghamton.

Her research interests include historical archaeology, issues of class and ideology, and heritage and cultural resource management. She has also had archaeological experience as the principal investigator at the Coalwood Archaeology Project in Hiawatha National Forest,and the Apple Island Archaeology Project in Orchard Lake, Mich.

Read more at Tech Today.

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New Assistant Professor

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SFScarlettSarah Scarlett joins the Department of Social Sciences as an assistant professor. Prior to this position, Scarlett was a lecturer and Chipstone Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts here at Michigan Tech. Scarlett received a PhD in the Department of Art History, Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures program at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received her Master’s in American Material Culture from the University of Delaware.

She has been published The Journal of Modern Craft. She has also worked at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

Read more at Tech Today.

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Gohman Publishes “The Cliff: America’s First Copper Mine: Revisted”

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Gohman1Sean Gohman, PhD Candidate, Industrial Heritage and Archaeology, had the pleasure of working with the Quincy Mine Hoist Association this past year to publish an updated edition of Don Chaput’s The Cliff: America’s First Great Copper Mine. First published in 1971, the book had been out of print for decades, and the Hoist Assoc. took on the rights and asked Gohman to add some new material in order to make the book more than just a history book, but instead to promote Copper Country heritage (such as the site’s history from c.1900 to the present, site mapping, landscape evolution, archaeology, and environmental remediation at the site). It’s put together to be ‘2 books in 1’, with Chaput’s original material followed by Gohman’s (formatted as closely as he could to the original). Gohman feels the new edition is now more than just a local history book.

The soft-cover version just came out a few weeks ago and is available pretty much wherever books are sold locally (hard covers arriving in shops shortly).  It is also available at the Quincy Mine Hoist Association website.

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SS Department Presence at American Anthropological Association Meetings

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logoMichigan Tech had a presence at the American Anthropological Association meetings in Denver, Nov. 18-22, where several faculty and graduate students organized panels and presented papers.

Valoree Gagnon co-organized and led a roundtable for the Association for Anthropology of Policy “‘Studying Through’ in Anthropology: Tips, Tools and Strategies for Emerging Policy Scholars.”

Melissa Baird (SS) and Brendan Pelto co-organized a  panel, “Critical Heritage Landscapes,” where Baird was a discussant and Pelto presented a paper “Negotiating Heritage on a Resource Frontier.” 

Sara Thiam presented a paper “Shocking Global Audiences: Exposing Suffering and Eliciting Compassion for the Taalibe Children of Senegal” and a paper “A Tale of Two NGO Discourses: Stories of Suffering Qur’anic School Children in Senegal” at the preceding AAA interest group conference in Denver, “NGO-graphies.”  

Carol MacLennan (SS) also presented a paper “Can Superfund Protect Mining Communities from Historic Toxic Waste?”

From Tech Today

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Pischke Co-Authors Chapter

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PischkeErin Pischke, an Environmental and energy policy, PhD student co-authored a chapter in the book “Recapturing Space: New Middle-Range Theory in Spatial Demography” (editors Frank Howell, Jeremy Porter and Stephen Matthews).
The chapter, co-authored by Pischke and Michael Irwin, is titled, “Socio-spatial Holes in the Advocacy Umbrella: The Spatial Diffusion of Risk and Network Response Among Environmental Organizations in the Marcellus Hydro-Fracking Region.”
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Lafreniere and Trepel Present Papers in Baltimore

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BaltimoreFrom Tech Today:

The Department of Social Sciences was well represented at this year’s Social Science History Association Annual Conference in Baltimore, last week.

Assistant Professor Don Lafreniere, presented a paper entitled “Modelling Mobility and Environments in the 19th Century City.” Lafreniere also presented a paper he co-authored with Assistant Professor Sarah Scarlett, and PhD student Dan Trepal entitled “Spatial Storytelling, Collaborative Learning and Mobile HGIS”

Trepal presented a paper entitled “The Big Picture: Industrial Archaeology, Landscape-Scale Spatial Modeling and Post-Industrial Urban Redevelopment.”

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Student Team Wins National Sustainability Award

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American Institute of Edward Louie and Cheryl Teich, Chemical Engineers (AIChE) 2015 President
Edward Louie and Cheryl Teich, American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) 2015 President

From Tech Today

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) honored a Michigan Tech student team with its Youth Council on Sustainable Science and Technology Award for their project to develop a guide for harnessing low-grade geothermal energy from minewater for heating and cooling buildings. Edward Louie accepted the award on behalf of the team at the 2015 Student Awards Ceremony at the AIChE student conference in Salt Lake City. See here for more information.

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Exhibit: The Making of Modern Houghton

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Reception Poster 11.3.2015Carol MacLennan and her former students in Ethnographic Methods presented their work from Spring 2014 in an exhibit — The Making of Modern Houghton at the Carnegie Museum in Houghton November 3.  Reyna Bennett, Marc Hoffman, and Brenna Thompson discussed their research and that of four other students (who have since graduated) on Houghton’s post World War II history at a reception opening the exhibit.  The exhibit covers Houghton’s post mining development into an expanding city, changes in the commercial district and transportation,  the development of diversity and expansion at MTU, and city celebrations such as Parade of Nations and Old Settlers Ball.

The Carnegie Museum is open on Tuesday and Thursday 12:00-5:00 p.m. and on Saturday 12:00-4:00 p.m.

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Keynote Faculty Panel at D80 Conference

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Jonathan Robins, Kari Henquinet, Sarah Fayen Scarlett, Steve Walton, Laura Walikainen Rouleau Photo by MTU College of Engineering

Jonathan Robins, Kari Henquinet, Sarah Fayen Scarlett, Steve Walton, Laura Walikainen Rouleau Photo by MTU College of Engineering

Jonathan Robins, Kari Henquinet, Sarah Fayen Scarlett, Steve Walton, and Laura Walikainen Rouleau from the Department of Social Sciences led the keynote faculty panel discussion at this years D80 Conference held this past weekend on the MTU campus.  The panel topic was “How Does Change Happen?  Cases in Technology and Design”.

Click here for more information and photos from the conference.

 

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