Admins
Sarah (the Linguistic One): Sarah Shulist is a linguistic anthropologist, which she continues to use as justification to a) make up words and b) swear a lot (BECAUSE DATA). Her main research focus is on the revitalization of Indigenous languages, and specifically, on the importance of understanding the social, cultural, and political aspects of these processes in order to further the decolonizing goals of Indigenous communities. She has done fieldwork in the Northwest Amazon of Brazil, where multilingualism, urbanization, and changing political structures complicate revitalization efforts, and is currently developing projects in Canada (mainly in the Northwest Territories, because apparently “Northwest” is a theme) on these issues. She is also generally fascinated by language change and creative linguistic practices, from ConLangs to poetics to emoji creation. Sarah is originally from the Ottawa Valley region of Ontario and will give bonus points to any (current) student who correctly identifies an example of her slipping back in to the Valley accent. She likes a few non-linguistic things, like hockey, tv both high brow and supposedly embarrassing, graphic novels, memoirs, and Pokemon Go, but it turns out eventually all of those things are also going to be about language. Sarah frequently gets mouthy on Twitter: @sarahshulist
Biittner (the Archaeology One): Katie Biittner is an anthropological archaeologist. Edmonton born and raised, Katie has conducted fieldwork in Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Ontario, and Tanzania. Her research interests, like her fandoms, are many and varied. For her research in Iringa Region, Tanzania, Katie used macroscopic and microscopic techniques to examine Middle and Later Stone Age lithic assemblages from two sites to examine technological behaviour in early anatomically modern humans. However, her involvement in public outreach programs and archaeological field schools has shifted away her focus away from rocks and microscopes towards cultural heritage management and community-based archaeology. Her work in Tanzania has also sparked a passion for post-colonial archaeologies. Katie struggles to separate personal and professional interests; this is most evident in the classroom where topics such as witchcraft, body modifications, and gender are inevitably brought up. A proud Slytherin, Katie takes great pleasure in ranting about movies, television, Star Wars, xbox, comics, and cats. You can find her on twitter and instagram @kbiittner.
Jenn (the Cultural One): Jennifer Long is a cultural anthropologist who has conducted ethnographic research in her backyard (Hamilton and London, Ontario) and further afield (in Rotterdam, the Netherlands). Her main research focus is on newcomer integration and settlement, and specifically, on host community reception and ideas about belonging (and of course, non-belonging). Her doctoral research in the Netherlands explored Islamophobia and national identity at the local scale of the neighborhood, where urban processes such as gentrification projects, local immigrant integration activities, and neighbourhood programs, influenced local perceptions of who belonged to the Dutch ‘nation’. These local events were placed in the larger context of questions about the future of EU membership, the fate of the Dutch team in the 2010 World Cup (of football…okay, ‘soccer’), and the 2010 national and municipal political elections. Jenn has also done fieldwork as an applied anthropologist, working for market research firms conducting rapid ethnography in the Netherlands, or as a program evaluation specialist and social scientist-for-hire for Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs) in Ontario. She likes to do things outside of work but as a recent new hire at MacEwan University in Edmonton, her hobbies tend to be course prep, finding more (often unfortunate) fodder for her Race and Racism classes, and learning about culture shock as a new Albertan. Jenn likes and retweets (when do retweets not mean endorsement?!?) on Twitter: @jennlong3
Anthropology As.... 