Social Sciences Newsblog

Baird Publishes New Book- “Critical Theory and the Anthropology of Heritage Landscapes”

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Baird BookMelissa Baird’s new book, “Critical Theory and the Anthropology of Heritage Landscapes” was published by University Press of Florida.

This book explores the sociopolitical contexts of heritage landscapes and the many issues that emerge when different interest groups attempt to gain control over them. Based on career-spanning case studies undertaken by the author, this book looks at sites with deep indigenous histories. Melissa Baird pays special attention to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and the Burrup Peninsula along the Pilbara Coast in Australia, the Altai Mountains of northwestern Mongolia, and Prince William Sound in Alaska. For many communities, landscapes such as these have long been associated with cultural identity and memories of important and difficult events, as well as with political struggles related to nation-state boundaries, sovereignty, and knowledge claims.

Retrieved from http://upf.com/book.asp?id=9780813056562

For more information or to order the book, visit the UPF website.

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Project GRACE featured on Copper Country Today

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TimetravelerThe GRACE GIS Intern Program was featured this past weekend on Copper Country Today radio show. Don Lafreniere along with two GRACE intern students discussed how local youth are using geospatial technologies to learn about what in their neighborhood impacts their health and well-being. The interns also completed a park quality mapping project for Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region (WUPPDR) that is now being used for local recreational plan development. The student spend 6 weeks working with faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students in the Geospatial Research Facility.

Click here to listen to the Copper Country Today interview.

Click here to learn more about the GRACE Program.

This project is a partnership between Michigan Tech University, Eastern Michigan University, WUPPDR, and the Keweenaw National Historic Park and is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF-ITEST).

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Carter Presents at Women, Food and Agriculture Network Conference

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Angie CarterAngie Carter presented research at the annual Women, Food and Agriculture Network conference held this year in Madison, Wisconsin November 2nd-5th. She joined Monica White (assistant professor of environmental justice at UW-Madison), Savi Horne (executive director of Land Loss Prevention), and LaDonna Redmond (Diversity and Community Engagement Manager at the Seward Community Co-Op in Minneapolis and founder for Campaign for Food Justice Now) on a panel moderated by Ahna Kruzic from Food First. The panel shared research and history of the movement for land justice in the United States. Carter spoke about her chapter “Changes on the Land: Gender and the Power of Alternative Social Networks” published last summer in the book Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food, and the Commons in the United States, an anthology edited by Food First and also published as an issue brief last spring.

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Papers Presented at Social Science History Association Conference

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Social Sciences History Association
J. Baeten, D. Lafreniere, D. Trepal, S. Scarlett, and L. Rouleau

John Baeten, Don Lafreniere, Laura Rouleau, Sarah Scarlett, and Dan Trepal attended and presented papers at the 2017 Social Science History Association Conference in Montreal, Quebec. Papers include:

J. Baeten, N. Langston, D. Lafreniere. Navigating Impaired Waters: Water Quality Legacies of Historic Iron Mining in Minnesotas Mesabi Range.
L. Rouleau. Gendering Privacy: Public School Lockerrooms in the Early 20th Century.
D. Lafreniere, S. Scarlett, D. Trepal, J. Arnold. Capturing and Contextualizing History- Using Public Participatory Historical GIS to Build a Spatial Data Infrastructure of Historical Landscapes and Environments.
S. Scarlett, D. Lafreniere, J. Arnold, D. Trepal. Historical GIS and Public History: Engaging Todays Communities with Yesterdays Changing Places.
D. Trepal, D. Lafreniere, S. Scarlett, J. Arnold. Big Data for Industrial Heritage and Archaeology: the Copper Country Historical Spatial Data Infrastructure.
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Burkett Awarded a Michigan Sea Grant Graduate Student Research Fellowship

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erin-burkettErin Burkett, Environmental and Energy Policy PhD student, was awarded a $78,497 Michigan Sea Grant Graduate Student Research Fellowship. As a fellow, Erin will work with her faculty advisor Dr. Richelle Winkler and an agency sponsor at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (Tracy Kolb) on a project that supports existing Great Lakes research. The awarded project, titled “I once caught a fish “THIS BIG”: Using Participatory Photovoice to Understand Michigan’s Great Lakes Anglers”, will explore the reasons Michigan residents participate in Great Lakes recreational fishing.

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