Adam Wellstead (SS) was an invited speaker at the Pipeline Safety Trust conference in New Orleans (Oct. 18-19). His presentation provided an overview of the recent Independent Risk Analysis for the Straits Pipeline effort that was led by Michigan Tech.
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.
John 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.
The 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.
Melissa Baird (SS), attended the Association of Critical Heritage Studies Association (ACHS) at Zhejiang University in Hangzhous, China in September.
ACHS is an international organization on which Baird serves as the organization’s secretary.
Richelle Winkler was featured in a news story in Michigan Tech News.
Recent research proves the stereotype that fishing is a “dad sport” is no longer accurate. Building on earlier research that found the number of people who fish has been steadily declining, a new study conducted by researchers at Michigan Tech and funded by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, evaluates the shifting demographics within the angling community and looks to determine how the changing composition may impact fishery management decisions.
Among the major findings is that female fishers make up a growing proportion of anglers in the Great Lakes region, as younger generations of women are more likely to fish than their mothers and grandmothers. The increasing number of female anglers in the younger angling community, however, is not sufficient to reverse the overall decline in anglers.
Read the full story on mtu.edu/news.
The next phase in the construction of the World War I immersive firing trench takes place over the next two days. The 100-foot-long, five-foot-deep trench will open Monday, Sept. 24. The trench is part of “World War I & the Copper Country,” a community-wide commemoration of the Copper Country’s involvement in the First World War.
The actual digging of the trench will begin this morning. Organizers say the contractor is expected to arrive at around 8:30 a.m. with the digging to begin sometime later.
Volunteers are needed for the construction of the firing trench tomorrow (Sept. 8). Last month, the Michigan Tech football team filled about 2,500 burlap sandbags that will be used for the trench.
Those willing to volunteer should come to the trench site near the intersection of U.S. 41 and MacInnes Drive at 10 a.m. tomorrow or check http://ww1cc.mtu.edu/2018/09/trench-updates for the latest information. Spread the word.
Student interns from Calumet and Houghton High Schools, under the guidance of Don Lafreniere (SS/GLRC), Ryan Williams (GISP/GLRC) and students from the Department of Social Sciences, recently launched a new WebGIS for the Calumet and Laurium region. The map can be found at calumetmap.com.
The WebGIS is the beginning of a multi-year partnership between many local organizations including Michigan Tech Social Sciences, the Geospatial Research Facility, Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region (WUPPDR), Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance (KEDA) and local municipalities to create a regional geographic information system (GIS) for local planning, economic development, heritage management, tourism and health promotion.
The WebGIS is an output of the NSF-funded Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers, “GRACE- GIS Resources and Applications for Career Education” project. GRACE is a multi-institution collaboration to bring GIS technologies to Michigan’s high school educators and intensive community-based internship experiences to high school students.
More about the GRACE project at Michigan Tech can be found in Unscripted.
Angie Carter presented at the Rural Sociological Society annual meeting in Portland, Oregon on July 27 and July 28th.
Carter also presented “Photovoice and Community Development: Women in Agriculture and the Transformation of Rural Spaces,” with her collaborator Claudia M. Prado-Meza (Universidad de Colima) and facilitated a panel “Putting the Sociological Imagination into Practice: Place, Power, and Praxis” with collaborators Ahna Kruzic (Pesticide Action Network North America,Oakland, California) and Gabrielle Roesch-McNally (USFS Pacific Northwest Research Station, Corvallis, Oregon).
She also took part in a book reading and author talk about activism on July 30th at the Corvallis Public Library in Corvallis, Oregon with co-authors Kruzic and Roesch-McNally. Carter read her essay, “Homecoming,” about Iowans’ resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline, included in the recently published edited volume “We Rise to Resist: Voices from a New Era in Women’s Political Action” (McFarland 2018).
Barry Solomon (SS Emeritus) and Adam Wellstead (SS) co-authored “Shooting for Perfection: Hawaii’s Goal of 100% Renewable Energy Use” in Case Studies in the Environment.