Category: In Print

Wurst and IHA Students Investigate Camp Au Train

On the weekend of September 29, archaeologists from the Department of Social Sciences’ Industrial Heritage and Archaeology program , directed by Dr. LouAnn Wurst, along with the Hiawatha National Forest investigated Camp Au Train in Alger County near Munising. The weekend field work was highlighted in the article, Camp Au Train archaeology,  featured in The Mining Journal.

Our research also focuses on aspects of the everyday life of the CCC enrollees and the German POWs while they lived at Camp Au Train. Historic records and oral histories provide a great deal of information about both camps. Archaeological data adds information about mundane aspects of everyday life by recovering the objects that the occupants had, used, or threw away.

 

Baeten published in Water History

John BaetenJohn Baeten, PhD, Industrial Heritage and Archaeology, recently published an article in Water History titled “A century of red water: mine waste, legacy contamination, and institutional amnesia in Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range.”

The article examines the first lawsuit filed in Minnesota over the pollution of surface waters from migrating mine tailings, and the ongoing challenge that policy makers face in managing and remembering these legacy contaminants.

The article comes from research Baeten conducted while at Michigan Tech completing his PhD. The work was supported by a grant (Toxic Mobilizations in Iron Mining Contamination) from the National Science Foundation.

Keweenaw Time Traveler featured in American Quarterly

American QtrlyThe Keweenaw Time Traveler project is featured in the current issue of American Quarterly, the academic journal of the American Studies Association. This special issue, dedicated to Digital Humanities, highlights eight publicly-engaged projects using digital and spatial technologies to engage important issues in American culture today. The collaborative nature of this project is reflected in the group of authors: Sarah Fayen Scarlett (SS) and Don Lafreniere (SS); Dan Trepal and John D. M. Arnold, PhD candidates and recent graduate in Industrial Heritage and Archaeology; and Robert Pastel (CS). The article is open-access for three months, and the other projects are listed here.

Pischke Co-Authors Article on Transdisciplinary Research

erin-pischke-personnelErin Pischke is one of the authors of the article, “Practicing what we preach: Reflections on the pros and cons of transdisciplinary research in Erongarícuaro, Mexico”Revista Vínculos, Inicio 3(1).

ABSTRACT:
In November 2016, a group of students from the Americas participated
in an Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research funded
two-week course organized by professors from the National
Autonomous University of Mexico. The aim was to teach students and
young researchers how to collaborate with non-scientists to conduct
socioecological systems research in a transdisciplinary manner. This
article will review the benefits as well as the challenges to doing so.
It concludes with recommendations that other research teams can
follow when conducting similar research that crosses disciplinary and
international borders.