Anthro-in-Action Speaker Series:
University of the Philippines Baguio [2021 - 2022]
Topics covered: TBA
Ethics, Repatriation, and Human Remains in Anthropology
Elizabeth Sawchuk, PhD
(Banting Postdoctoral Fellow & Adjunct Professor, University of Alberta)
Tuesday, September 28, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. MST via Zoom
Wednesday, September 29, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. PST via Zoom
Abstract: Human remains provide our only direct connection to people who lived in the past, preserving a record of their lives in bones and teeth and population relationships in morphology and ancient DNA. When integrated with other lines of evidence, bioarchaeological datasets offer novel perspectives on the people who experienced the environmental, economic, and social transformations we can observe in the archaeological record. However, at the same time scientific advances are yielding new ways to study ancient tissues, there is growing ethical concern about skeletons held in museums worldwide. This talk explores ethical dimensions of anthropological research on human remains in the field, museum, and lab with the goal of understanding how we arrived in our present situation and where we might go from here.
Biography: Dr. Elizabeth Sawchuk is a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow and Adjunct Professor with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta. She is also affiliated with the Turkana Basin Institute (Kenya), Stony Brook University (USA), and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (Germany). Her research explores the African past through bioarchaeology, mortuary archaeology, and ancient DNA with a focus on how past peoples dealt with familiar challenges like climate change, migration, and socioeconomic shifts. She conducts archaeological fieldwork in Kenya and Tanzania and is currently directing a field project in northern Kenya focused on the spread of herding into eastern Africa ~5000 years ago during a period of profound climate change. You can find her (and pictures of her dog) on Twitter @palaeobeth.
Digging Up the Past:
The Dirty Work of the Archaeologist
Jennifer Laughton, MSc
Tuesday, October 12, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. MST via Zoom
Wednesday, October 13, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. PST via Zoom
Abstract: Dr. Sawchuk introduces you to how human remains can provide a direct connection to people who lived in the past, and the ethical concerns associated with studying such remains. This can also include artifacts (burial goods) buried with the deceased. But how did museums and universities get these remains? Where did they come from? And how do we know where to look in the first place? This talk will introduce you to the methods and techniques used by archaeologists to find, excavate, and study past populations, and some of the not-so-nice aspects of working in the dirt. Using Ontario, Canada, and the Cis-Baikal region of Siberia, Russia as case studies, we will explore the work of the archaeologist and what it means to literally “dig up the past.”
Biography: Jennifer Laughton is a PhD student at the University of Alberta and a member of the Baikal Archaeology Project (BAP). Her specialization is physical anthropology and her research area is the Cis-Baikal region of Siberia, Russia. Her dissertation will look at skeletal remains from the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age period to study activity patterns in these hunter-gatherer populations using changes in joint degeneration, robusticity of muscle attachment sites, and non-metric traits.
She has worked as an Archaeological Field Technician for commercial archaeology companies in Ontario, as a Physical Anthropology Assistant at the Canadian Museum of History, and in the tourism industry as a Period Interpreter. At present, Jennifer is on a leave of absence from her program and is back working at the museum. You can learn more about her on her LinkedIn page.
Intersections of Communications Theory and Linguistic Anthropology
Vivian Giang, MA (Edmonton)
Tuesday, November 9, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. MST via Zoom
Wednesday, November 10, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. PST via Zoom
Abstract: Linguistic anthropology attempts to understand how language interacts with culture and influences how we perceive ourselves, others and the world. Communication theory attempts to explain how individuals and groups create meaning to communicate with each other.
This lecture provides a high level overview of the seven traditions of communication theory and reviews examples of everyday situations where these theories may be applied. Examples of complementary concepts from linguistic anthropology are also presented.
Biography: Vivian Giang is a communications professional with extensive experience working with non-profit organizations, academic institutions, and local communities. She is the Communications & Grant Strategist / Events Coordinator at the University of Alberta Geotechnical Centre. Prior to this, she was the Communications Editor at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Japan.
Vivian is also pursuing interdisciplinary doctoral studies through the University of Alberta’s Future Energy Systems research initiative. She is a Fulbrighter (2021-22), a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Bombardier Canada Doctoral Scholar (2019-22) and an Action Canada Fellow (2019-20). Vivian previously studied at MacEwan University (Alberta), Royal Roads University (British Columbia), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (Germany) and Kyushu Women’s University (Japan).
Honesty and Economy on a Highway: Ukrainian Sex Workers’ Narratives of Morality and Exchange
Dafna Rachok, MA (Ukraine)
Tuesday, November 23, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. MST via Zoom
Wednesday, November 24, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. PST via Zoom
Abstract: Money is frequently considered as something that is incommensurable with intimacy and authentic care. Yet, as anthropologists continue to point out, money and intimacy often mix: people sign prenups, hire other people to take care of their children and pets, and also pay other people in order to receive affection and/or sex. Yet, sex work in many contemporary societies is often seen as a simple exchange of money (or goods) for sex that is devoid of any affective and emotional attachments between the exchanging parties.
In this talk, I draw on the anthropological scholarship that argues against the reductive approach of seeing sex work as a mere exchange of money for sexual and/or emotional services. Instead, I rely on my ethnographic fieldwork with street sex workers to show that: 1) sex workers continuously challenge the idea that money spoils intimacy, and 2) there exist multiple emotional and affectionate attachments between sex workers and their customers.
Biography: Dafna Rachok is a PhD candidate in sociocultural anthropology at Indiana University Bloomington. She holds a BA in Cultural Studies (Kyiv-Mohyla Academy), an MA in Critical Gender Studies (Central European University), and an MA in Anthropology (University of Alberta). Her research interests lie at the intersections of medical, political, and feminist anthropology. For her PhD project, Dafna explores how the transformation of the public health system (with a particular focus on HIV provision) in Ukraine impacted vulnerable groups like sex workers. Her work appeared in the journals Anthropologica and Economic Anthropology. She can be found on Twitter as @DafnaRachok.