Anthropology at Mount Allison

Newsletter, November 2004

What's in this issue

Our inaugural newsletter includes a note from the department head, Anthro Society news, announcements of coming events, news from anthropology alumni, students, and faculty, and some internet sites that caught our eye. I hope you enjoy this issue - we plan another one for early December. The December issue will include information on field school opportunities for anthropology students and an interview with recent field school participant Penny Smart. Please send your short articles, event announcements, as well as student, alumni, and faculty updates to Dr Patricia L Kelly Spurles at pkellyspurles@mta.ca.

Social structure:
Message from the Head

Dr Robert Adlam, Head of Anthropology

The 2004-2005 academic year is shaping up to be one of the Department's most exciting since its inception in 2002. Joining the Department in a tenure-stream appointment is Dr. Patricia Kelly Spurles. Dr. Kelly Spurles also successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation at the Universite de Montreal in May. Dr. Kelly Spurles, who has taught in the Department for the past couple of years, has added our second year offering on anthropology and the life course (AN 2401) as well as our third year theoretical perspectives course (AN 3021) to her regular rotation of courses. Further, in addition to her Middle East ethnography course, she is presently developing a course which will focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

Also joining us is Dr. Nicola Mooney - the Department's first McCain Fellow. The Margaret and Wallace McCain Fellowship was established as an initiative of the McCain family aimed at enhancing teaching at the University and adding new elements of research and creative activity. Dr. Mooney who has taught at a number of universities before coming to Mount Allison, is offering two of our second year courses - one on development (AN 2521) and the other on the interface of environment and society (AN 2501). As well, Dr. Mooney will be offering an ethnography course in the second semester focussing on south Asia.

Dr. Marilyn Walker continues in her development of a joint project with the university's Biology Department - part of which explores the concept and utility of a 'labyrinth'. This along with work in the area of plant uses continues Dr. Walker's research within the field of ethnobotany (AN 3541). In the second semester, Dr. Walker will be offering our third year theory course on the nature of indigenous knowledge systems (AN 3031) along with a fourth year seminar on cultural ecology (AN 4531).

The Department is pleased to have among its honours, majors and minors, two honours thesis students this year: Laurel Dietz and Jennifer Graham. Laurel's thesis explores the medicinal use of marijuana cross-culturally at a time when its 'legalization' in Canada is presently before the Federal Parliament. Jennifer's thesis tackles the semiotics of tattooing and its implications for our understanding of liminality, communitas and ritual more generally. Both projects add to the Department's growing record of student scholarship.

The Anthropology Society is planning a number of events some of which are in partnership with the Department. The Society has recently held a film event and will be holding a careers session in early November to help anthropology students identify and pursue various employment opportunities. As well, the Society in conjunction with the Department and the Dean's Office will be hosting a visit by Dr. Carla Shapiro on November 24^th. The topic of Dr. Shapiro's presentation will be: Remembering the Rwandan Genocide: Critical and Curatorial Approaches to Representation. As well, during the evening of November 23^rd, Dr. Shapiro will be talking with anthropology students about curatorial and museological career opportunities.

Looking ahead to the second semester, Department members are beginning to plan a field trip to a Gurdwara (Sikh temple) in Halifax. We expect to involve students from three of our second semester courses (AN 3831 South Asia, AN 3401 Belief Systems, and AN 3031 Indigenous Knowledge Systems).

On a more personal note, Katherine and I became grandparents on December 28^th with the birth of Patrick Robert to our son Christopher and his partner Christa Landry of Peterborugh, ON. We are looking forward to having Patrick spend his first Christmas here with us in New Brunswick. He may be an anthropologist in training as he is quite verbal and loves to dig.

Finally, our senior anthropologist Dr. Patrick L. Baker retired after some thirty years of service to the discipline and the University. For the past six years, Dr. Baker also served as Dean of Social Sciences. We wish him well as he begins his retirement in Ontario, where his wife Cynthia has taken the post of Director, School of Nursing and Associate Dean, Health Sciences at Queen's University in Kingston, ON.

Sodalities:
News from the Anthropology Society

Alison Forshner, Anthropology Society Secretary

Hello everyone! It's time for another cumulative e-mail packed with info! :-)

1. On November 3, 2004 at 8pm, the Anthropology Society held a career counselling session for anthropology students.

2. The Anthropology department is planning to integrate the Anthro Society more with it. There is discussion concerning a departmental newsletter in which the Anthro Society would have space to let everyone know what they are accomplishing.

3. The Anthro Society is looking for candidates to fill the positions of secretary, treasurer (public relations) and vice president for next year. It would be nice if anyone interested could e-mail me and then you could get an idea of how it works before a majority of the executive graduates! :-) These positions do require a little work setting up events and etc but overall, they are fairly relaxed and great fun! Plus, this looks good on resumes and such. So please get back to me relatively soon if you'd like to be included in this.

4. Presently, there are meditation sessions being held every Thursday at 5:30pm in the Manning Room (basement of the Mount A chapel). This is run by Barbara Clayton and focus on basic sitting practices (non-denominational shamatha/vipassyana meditation). Anyone and everyone who is interested is encouraged to come out! No previous knowledge is required and there is no obligation to come to every session.

Rituals and celebrations:
Anthropology events at Mount Allison

November 24

Dr Carla Shapiro will present a public lecture, "Remembering Rwanda: Approaches to Representing Survivor Experiences," at the Owens Art Gallery, sponsored by the Department of Anthropology, in conjunction with the Dean's Office and the Anthropology Society. A reception will follow at the President's Cottage. In relation to this event, for those Anthropology students interested in curatorial or museological careers, Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Mooney, both of whom have Masters Degrees in Museum Studies, will be available for informal consultation on the evening of November 23rd.

Kin groups and rites of passage:
News from alumni, students, and faculty

Alumni

Natalie Ward ('04) has published a review of Immigrants Adapt, Countries Adopt...Or Not by Cherif Rifaat (New Canadian Press, 2004) in a forthcoming issue of the journal Canadian Ethnic Studies 36(2). It can also be accessed online at http://www.ss.ucalgary.ca/ces/JournalDatabase/CESDataFiles/CESJ_Bookreviews/CESv36no02Rifaat.htm. Natalie began her MA studies in anthropology at Carleton University this fall, after graduating with an honours degree from Mount Allison. She was awarded the convocation prize in anthropology, and received an entrance scholarship and teaching assistantship from Carleton University. Her thesis, Blurring Transnational Boundaries: Migrant Women, Motherhood, and Myth, was supervised by Dr Patricia Kelly Spurles. It was nominated by the department for the Society for Economic Anthropology student paper award and for the Guelph University Center for Family Studies student paper prize. Here's Natalie's contribution to the first issue of the department newsletter:

I've almost got my entire first semester in a grad student at Carleton and I have to say it is certainly an experience to behold. I accepted their $3500 entrance scholarship, a job as a TA, packed up my things and off I went! What a luxurious existence: sharing an office with twelve other students, late nights, juggling marking with class work, and meeting students about marks - I wouldn't have it any other way! Thanks to my profs, I got here with my eyes open and although I feel like all I do is work, I'm doing just fine.

I'm TA-ing for the Intro to Anthropology. Luckily there are two different sections: Monday and Thursday, because they each have roughly 400 students. My duties consist of marking, leading discussion groups, invigilating exams, keeping office hours, and advising students. I'm enjoying it, but I now understand what everyone meant when they said "marking gets monotonous".

I'm currently searching for a placement next semester with an NGO dealing with palliative care and AIDS. My thesis will focus on issues relating to how palliative care policy is conceptualized and operationalized at the local level. I've got a supervisor, advisor, and a content supervisor (she's from Queen's, a researcher in palliative care) all lined up.

The Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal is publishing three book reviews I did for them over the summer, the first in Issue 2 I believe, keep your eyes open for them!

Current students

Anth major Penny Smart ('05) participated in an intersession fieldschool in Eastern Europe in summer 2004. The next newsletter will feature information on fieldschools and an interview with Penny about her experience.

Faculty

Physick Garden Project
Dr. Marilyn Walker and Dr. Rob Ireland (Biology) have received a Purdy Crawford Teaching Centre award to plan a Physick Garden on campus. One important component of this is a labyrinth which has a long history throughout the world as a manifestation of earth healing energies. Two students will be hired, one in each department, to work with each of their professors throughout the rest of the academic year. A workshop is underway for November (before the snow hits) to "dowse" the campus for further investigation into possible locations for the labyrinth and the medicinal gardens. Rob and Marilyn are very grateful to Eileen and the Committee for recognizing the unique teaching/learning opportunities of their project and for supporting an unusual cross-disciplinary collaboration between the sciences and social sciences. They will be posting additional information on this design and others as well as related web sites you can connect with soon.

McCain Post Doctoral Fellowship
Dr. Nicola Mooney is working at Mount Allison this year as the McCain Post-Doctoral Fellow in Anthropology. She completed her doctoral dissertation, entitled Good Families, Good Fortunes: Ethnicity and Modernity among an Urban Jat Sikh Middle Class, in 2003 at the University of Toronto. Her research involves Sikh communities in India and Canada, and focuses on ethnicity and identity, modernity, transnationalism, gender and religiosity. She is also interested in commemorative practices, South Asian popular culture, post-coloniality, feminist approaches to anthropology, critical ethnography and textual strategies, and museology.

At Mount A, Dr. Mooney presently teaches Perspectives on Development and Kinship and Family. Next term, she will teach Environment and Society and Ethnography of South Asia. For those of you wondering what you might expect in these courses, here is a short description of their content. In Environment and Society, we will examine anthropological frameworks to constructions of and connections between nature and culture, giving consideration to the ways in which environments - both rural and urban - are used and experienced cross-culturally. We will also consider more recent theorizations around landscape, memory and identity, and the environment as social issue. Meanwhile, Ethnography of South Asia will introduce you to a number of key themes in understanding the complex plural societies of contemporary South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal). Our readings and discussions will examine, both theoretically and ethnographically, religion, caste, class, gender, ethnicity, nationalism and the notion of modernity, and will be supplemented by a consideration of popular cultures and media of the region (and particularly India).

In her life beyond the academy, Dr. Mooney likes cooking, rambling walks, and flying home from Sackville on occasion to visit her husband and cat. She loves to drink chai, and is a fan of Bollywood films and Coronation Street.

The "missing link":
Internet for anthropologists

Biological anthropologist Dr Daniel Fessler at UCLA is conducting a study of how emotions affect one's perceptions of others. Participation takes about 5 minutes, and is wholly anonymous and unpaid. To participate, click on the link below, or copy and paste the URL into the address bar of your web browser:
The Pretty People At Work Study:
http://www.xba-ucla.com/Eng/study5/

© 2004 Mount Allison Univeristy
Maintained by: Darlene Estabrooks
Last Updated: November 15, 2004