FACULTY OF ARTS newsletter SPRING 2014 ARTS WORLD Protecting the treasures of our past BROWSING THROUGH family photo An example of such commercial potential albums, we create our own personal is the recent partnership between the memory banks, occasionally from events Maritime History Archive and Ancestry.ca. that happened even before we were born. Canada’s largest family history website is An archive acts the same way for an entire part of ancestry.com which has 2.7 million culture, enhancing a collective memory and subscribers across all websites. The website creating cultural touchstones that tie us recently purchased two large databases together. from the MHA for an undisclosed lump sum. SOME OF THE ONE-OF-A-KIND And unlike a library, the documents in an Canada, Seafarers of the Atlantic DOCUmeNTS IN THE MARITIme archive are usually one-of-a-kind. Provinces, 1860-1899, contains almost HISTORY ARCHIVE: It’s an exciting time for the Faculty of Arts 300,000 records and includes details from archives which include the Maritime History 10 major ports in Atlantic Canada and • Cecil Mouland’s sealing card Archive (MHA), the English Language crew agreements of vessels registered in granting him a berth on the SS Research Centre (ELRC), the Aboriginal Atlantic Canada. The second database, Newfoundland for the 1914 sealing Language Archive and the Memorial Newfoundland, Canada, Index of season, the year of the famous University of Newfoundland Folklore and Birth, Marriage & Death Notices from disaster where 78 men died. The Language Archive (MUNFLA). Newspapers, 1810–1890, contains more than card would have been in Mouland’s The Faculty has recently jumped a 40,000 records documenting birth, marriage possession while he was at the hunt significant hurdle in the race to secure the and death notices listed in newspapers and was stranded on the ice for archives for the next generation of students throughout Newfoundland. three days and two nights. and faculty. “Ancestry.ca is proud to partner with “The university administration has given the Maritime History Archive to offer an • Daily schedule for the maid us the go-ahead to approach key funding important collection of historical records employed by James Rorke of agencies for funds toward a new building from Atlantic Canada including the Seafarers Carbonear, written in the 1920s and processing facilities,” said Dr. Carrie of the Atlantic Provinces, 1860-1899,” said or 1930s. Includes hourly detailed Dyck, associate dean of research and Lesley Anderson, genealogist and content instructions for household duties graduate studies, who is excited about the specialist for Ancestry.ca. “This mutually and personal grooming. possibility of a potential design lab that beneficial partnership allows us to share the could incubate brainstorming around social history of Canada by offering the Maritime • A ledger from Lake & Lake Ltd. problems. History Archive’s collection to the widest in Fortune for 1917 that records “We’ve got a huge amount of valuable possible audience.” accounts for women who were information in our archives —we want to be According to archivist Heather Wareham, employed curing fish. It lists all the able to use it to address social questions in the MHA will continue to sell the databases goods they bought from the firm, Newfoundland and Labrador. There might to their own networks, which they have been the amounts they paid for them and very well be significant commercial potential doing since they were first created. the amounts they were paid for their in the archives that we could leverage.” www.mun.ca/mha work curing fish. NEWS FROM THE DEAN 2 INNOVATION 3 TEACHING 5 AWARDS 6 ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT 8 DONORS 10 GOING GLOBAL 11 RESEARCH 13 HAPPENINGS 16 NOTABLE NEWS 19 BACK PAGE 20 fromNEWS the from DIRECTOR the dean’s office The Faculty of Arts is going places! This year we have worked hard on Arts Success 2020 to develop consensus on the future of the Faculty in the areas of teaching/learning, research/scholarship and public engagement. This project has involved soliciting extensive feedback from graduate and undergraduate students, non-academic staff, faculty and interested community members. While we delight in our diversity — and celebrate our strengths in a wide variety of disciplines and perspectives — we take pride in acknowledging that underpinning this diversity are four key thematic clusters: Text, Language and Cultural Identities; Sustainable Communities — Past, Present and Future; Governance, Ethics, Rights and Security; and The North Atlantic in Global Perspective. Identifying these clusters has helped us to recognize where our common research and teaching strengths lie. And through them we expect, by 2020, to have revitalized undergraduate programs, expanded graduate studies, exceptional research and an even stronger record of community engagement. One of the strengths of Arts Success 2020 is its recognition and integration of the wonderful archives retained in the Faculty of Arts. As you will read in our cover story, these archives are of great importance to our teaching, research and public engagement. They are also a precious part of Newfoundland and Labrador’s heritage. Our goal is to have our archives housed in accessible, state-of-the-art facilities by 2020. Welcome to ArtsWorld! DR. Lynne Phillips Dean, Faculty of ArtS Dr. Darren Hynes, visiting Milestones assistant professor in the history department, passed In the 2013-14 academic year, we have seen the retirement of several faculty and away March 1, 2014. staff members. Among these are: * Peter Ayres (English) * Susan Ingersoll (English) Lindsay Bryan (History) * Marguerite MacKenzie (Linguistics) Karyn Butler (Geography) Barbara Reddy (MUNFLA) David Close (Political Science) Noel Roy (Economics) Carole Anne Coffey (Geography) * Chris Sharpe (Geography) Larry Felt (Sociology) Graham Shorrocks (English) Betty Foley (Dean’s Office) Mary Walsh (Religious Studies) Patricia Fulton (MUNFLA) Maggie Hennessey (Arts Publications) Archeaologist Dr. Priscilla Renouf, a Canada Research * Retiring August 2014 Chair in Archaeology and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, passed away April 4, 2014 in her 61st year. Thank you for your dedication to our students and your contributions to the Faculty of Arts and to Memorial University. 2 FACULTY OF ARTS newsletter teaching New Faces SeVERal NEW faculty members have joined the Faculty of Arts over the past year and they bring a host of experience and viewpoints that will definitely enrich the lives of their students and the university as a whole. A huge welcome to: Carissa Brown (Geography) AN ASSISTANT PROfeSSOR in the Cedric Brunelle (Geography) Department of Archaeology, prior to arriving Meghan Burchell (Archaeology) at Memorial Meghan Burchell spent several Caitlin Charman (English) years in Hamilton, Ontario as an undergraduate Alan Hall (Sociology) and graduate student at McMaster University. Sara Mackenzie (Linguistics) While completing her PhD, Meghan directed Anne Pelta (French & Spanish) the McMaster Archaeological School and was Rose Ricciardelli (Sociology) also the Manager of Operations for Sustainable Barry Stephenson (Religious Studies) Archaeology, a CFI funded research endeavour between McMaster and Western University. Meghan Burchell As an environmental archaeologist, her research The Faculty of Arts awarded five intersects archaeology, biology and geochemistry post-doctoral, one-year fellowships for 2013-14. Fellows are: to understand long-term human-environmental interactions in coastal landscapes. Specifically she studies the micro-structure and geochemistry of hard tissues such as Ayse Sule Akinturk (Department of shell, bone, teeth and coral to derive information on past climate, human settlement Sociology) patterns and diet. During her first year in the Faculty of Arts, she has taught Willow Anderson (Department of Introduction to Archaeology and Bioarchaeology, Principles of Archaeology, and German and Russian) introduced a new course on the archaeology of death. Next academic year she Easkey Britton (Department of Geography) will be introducing a new undergraduate course for the fall called “On the Edge: Heather Hall (Department of Geography) The Archaeology of Coastal Landscapes” as well as a new graduate course in applied Andrea Procter (Labrador) archaeological sciences. Getting the Red Trench beach ready STUDENTS in Dr. Sonja Boon’s Winter 2014 Feminist Practices class worked on a collaborative art project that resulted in a knitted bikini bottom for Red Trench, a piece of art that was the subject of some controversy when it was installed in the atrium of the Arts building in 1994. Dr. Boon explains that the unique project connects theory with practice. Red Trench “I structured the course to look at a number of different bikini iterations of feminist activism: we considered the notion of activism, different forms of activism in different parts of the For gender studies major Mary Beaudoin, concepts around world and then we have looked at different themes,” said yarn bombing were “really fascinating to see” and the project Dr. Boon. opened up a comfortable space to talk about vaginas, The project combines craftivism, a movement connecting “something I had never really discussed previously.” craft and activism, and yarn bombing, a non-permanent form Dr. Boon says knitting in the classroom also challenges the of graffiti knitting. notion of public and private space and the question as to Inspired by sea, sand and waves, Red Trench also