Graduate Student Profiles

Current Graduate Students

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Rebeca Spencer (BA’23); Struggle for hope in Northern Canadian Environmentalists. Rebeca graduated from the University of Lethbridge with a double major in Psychology and Anthropology. Her honour’s thesis in anthropology explored attitudes towards climate change in Southern Albertan environmentalist groups and concepts of labours of care in environmental engagement with human and non-human participants. Rebeca’s MA project (supervised by Dr. Jodie Asselin) focuses on hope, affect, attitudes and labour relations with regard to climate change and conservation efforts in Northern Canada.

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Erica Gonzalez (BA’ 20); An Examination of the Impact of Colonialism on Blackfoot Food Security and Sovereignty: A Landscape and Policy Approach

Erica completed her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Alberta with a focus on Biological Anthropology and Archaeology. She is now working towards her Master of Arts in Anthropology at the University of Lethbridge under the supervision of Dr. Andrea Cuellar (Department of Anthropology) and Tara Million (Department of Indigenous Studies). Through archival records, her project examines the role of colonial land and assimilation policies on Blackfoot food security and sovereignty between 1869 and 1913.

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Sharra Fullersmith (BA'21); The Middle-Class and Food Insecurity in North America

Sharra was both a Teaching Assistant (TA) and Research Assistant (RA) for her supervisor Dr. Patrick Wilson in the Department of Anthropology. Her research examines the symbolic and material impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and related inflation on middle-class food insecurity. She has received funding and support from the Community Bridge Lab (CBL) and Lethbridge Public Interest Research Group (LPIRG) while in the process of encouraging fellow students to appreciate collaborative learning opportunities across disciplines.

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Past Anthropology Graduate Students

2023 Alyssa White, MA - Working Outside of "Contained Space": Open Educational Practices in the Teaching of Anthropology

2023 Camina Weasel Moccasin, MA - Niitsitapii Heritage Education: A Poomiikapii Approach

2022 Makita Mikuliak, MA - Teachers’ Responses to the TQS5 and TRC in Southern Alberta: Translations Through Relations: A Space Between

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2020 Hannah Forster, MA - Voices of Addiction: An Analysis of the Lives of Individuals Living with Drug Usage in Western Canada
“My experience completing my Masters of Arts (MA) in Anthropology with an original thesis challenged me to design independent research, compile data, interview research participants, interpret results, and write concisely. Completing research at the graduate level prepared me for the legal profession in numerous ways, such as the challenges of working independently, dedicating significant amounts of time to my studies, and interacting with individuals from a variety of backgrounds; within academia, my peers, the research community, and the general public. The research challenged my preconceived notions of various social constructs and political structures which compose our society, which has the potential to greatly benefit me in legal studies. It has also broadened my understanding of the healthcare system, addictions and harm-reduction treatment, and the legal system, and how they affect the lives of individuals living with addictions.”

2019 Estanislao Pazmiño, MA - Researching on Pre-Columbian ceramic production and social inequality in the Quijos Valley, Ecuador.

2017 Hunter Guthrie, MA - Lived Realities: Climate Change, Neoliberalism, and Livelihood Strategies on the Southern Atiplano of Bolivia

2017 Lucia Stavig, MA - Feminist Assemblages: Peruvian Feminisms, Forced Sterilization, and the Paradox of Rights in Fujimori's Peru

2016 Kurt Lanno, MA - “Landscape, History, and Opposition among the Kainai.”

2016 Marco Yunga Tacura, MA- Reinventing Rituals and the Role of Music in the Process of Affirming Identity among the Amazonian Kichwa-Quijos from Napo, Ecuador.”

2015 Amy Mack, MA- “This isn’t what war is like: An Ethnographic Account of ARMA 3.”

2014 Ashley Dykin , MA- “ ‘Posterchild’: Notions of Community and Inclusion in a Rural Canadian City.”

2013 Allison Korn , MA- “Our grandparents are buried here; our grandparents know:” Re-membering a Quijos Territory and Identity.”

2012 Thabit Alomari, MA- “Motivation and Socio-Cultural Sustainability of Voluntourism.”

2011 Brett W. Freemann, MA- The Social Organization of Ground Stone Production, Distribution, and Consumption in the Quijos Valley, Eastern Ecuador.

2011 James R. Stanger, MA- “Comuneros: Community and Indigeneity in Saraguro, Ecuador.”

2011 Jason Jenson, MA- “In Search of a Nobler Past: Incanismo and Community Tourism in Saraguro, Ecuador.”

2011 Jennifer Jenson, MA- “Bringing Up Good Babies: An Ethnography of Moral Apprenticeship in Saraguro.”

2009 Tracy McNab, MA- “Picnics, Potlucks and Cookbooks: Farm Women’s Clubs and the Livelihood of Community in Twentieth Century Southern Alberta.”