Meet the New Postdoctoral Scholars in Emerging Disciplines at the Sobey School of Business
SMU Research Partnership Rewriting History of Pre-Contact North American Copper Trade
Cape d’Or and the surrounding areas are where much of the copper examined for this research originated. (Photo - Communications Nova Scotia)
A Saint Mary's University research partnership with the Nova Scotia Museum has uncovered evidence that may rewrite North American understanding of the pre-contact trade of copper across the continent.
The lead Saint Mary's researcher on this project, Dr. Jacob Hanley, is a geologist who studies ore deposits and is a member of Algonquins of Greater Golden Lake First Nation in Ontario, Canada. After an exciting discussion with a colleague regarding prehistory in Atlantic Canada, Dr. Hanley began to take an interest in where the Indigenous people of Atlantic Canada sourced their pre-contact metals.
"One of the most important metals to the Indigenous population of North America was copper. It was an essential material for toolmaking and working that also held a spiritual significance," says Hanley. "The prevailing understanding of copper in North America during the Late Archaic Period to Early Woodland Period, that is to say, is 4,500 years ago to 500 A.D, is that the copper originated from deposits from Lake Superior, the Lake Superior Basin, and Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan. Our findings strongly suggest this is not the case and that a site in the Bay of Fundy played a much bigger role in history."
The lead Nova Scotia Museum researcher is Dr. Katie Cottreau-Robins, Curator of Archaeology. Additional project collaborators include Roger Lewis, Curator of Mi'kmaq Cultural Heritage, Nova Scotia Museum, and the New Brunswick Archaeological Services Branch. The project itself would not have been possible without the permission and participation of the Metepenagiag First Nation and Mainland Mi’kmaq Grand Council members who allowed the team to examine significant cultural artifacts.
"This copper comes from Cape d'Or, located in the Bay of Fundy, a place of extreme significance in terms of the history of Mi'kma'ki," says Lewis. "To get to these outcrops, you can only approach from the water or climb down the cliffs. We hope to support more research to examine whether the act of gathering the copper itself may have had an additional cultural significance due to the danger and the level of skill required to gather it successfully."
Unlike traditional methods of analyzing artifacts, the team uses a new method usually reserved for finding ore deposits for mining purposes. This new to archeology method is non-invasive and more accurately reads the chemical make-up of the copper while leaving the artifacts completely intact.
"Our data suggests that Cape d'Or and the Bay of Fundy was the main source of copper for the Mi'kmaq people and beyond," says Cottreau-Robins. "All the artifacts we have examined, and initially described as having come from the Lake Superior region, actually originated in the Bay of Fundy. This suggests that much of the copper artifact collection in the northeastern region, believed to have come from the Lake Superior area, may have an Atlantic origin. The implications of this are huge, as it means reshaping our understanding of pre-contact trade across Atlantic Canada, Eastern Canada and the Eastern United States and re-examining the role copper played cultural in the history of Atlantic Canada's Indigenous peoples."
This project recognizes the importance of the artifacts they are working with to the Metepenagiag First Nation and have ensured that they are analyzed in New Brunswick, so they remain in their province of origin and can be returned swiftly.
"Saint Mary's University takes pride in doing world-class research that creates new knowledge and disseminates it to the world," says Dr. Malcolm Butler, Vice-President, Academic and Research. "The work of Dr. Jacob Hanley and his team is an exemplar of this commitment and takes community-based research collaboration to a new level. We are proud to be a part of this collaboration across provinces and with the Metepenagiag First Nation."
Hanley and Cottreau-Robins have written about their research findings in a chapter of the upcoming anthology Far Northeast 3000BP to Contact, which can be found here.
Saint Mary’s University hosts The Hockey Conference featuring Hockey Hall of Fame member Angela James
Over sixty presenters and guest speakers from across North America and Europe are expected to meet virtually to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Hockey Conference, an academic conference on ice hockey that was founded at Saint Mary’s University twenty years ago. Hosted by the Saint Mary’s University Centre for the Study of Sport & Health, the theme for this year’s conference is hockey in a changing world.
The conference, happening online June 4-6, will feature keynote speaker Angela James, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and a trailblazer for women’s hockey and Black hockey players in Canada. Other guest speakers include Kaleb Dahlgren, who survived the Humboldt Broncos bus crash; Kurtis Gabriel, an athlete in the National Hockey League; Jessica Platt, the first transgender woman to play professional hockey; Kieran Block, the first Black parahockey athlete on the Canadian National Paralympic team, and Rhonda Taylor, the first woman to sit on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (which eventually became part of Hockey Canada).
“We had to postpone by a year as a result of the pandemic and move it online, but I think we’ve still managed to come up with a solid event despite the setbacks,” says conference organizer Dr. Cheryl MacDonald, who is also the Associate Director of Outreach at the Centre for the Study of Sport & Health. “My main goal was to celebrate Dr. Colin Howell, who founded the conference in 2001 and just retired after 50 years at Saint Mary’s, so I’m glad we can still make that happen for him.” Dr. Howell will be giving the inaugural Dr. Colin Howell Distinguished Lecture at the conference as part of the celebrations.
Local guest speakers will include Ryan Francis, a member of Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaw community, Nicole Durand of the parahockey community, Serge LeBlanc of the Acadian community, and Savannah Newton from Hockey Nova Scotia’s female high-performance program. SMU men’s hockey alumni Bob Dawson, a member of the first all-Black line in Canadian university ice hockey, will also be speaking briefly about Black hockey in the Maritimes as he introduces Angela James’ keynote speech.
The Hockey Conference is an interdisciplinary event held every two years in a different city. It brings together scholars and community members and facilitates a range of analyses and discussions on the sport in its many forms. Presenters have come from diverse fields such as history, economics, sociology, human kinetics, and business. Notable guest speakers have included Jean Beliveau, Hazel McCallion, Ken Dryden, Jenn Botterill, Billy Bridges, and Ted Nolan.
The conference is free for observers, and all are welcome. Registration is required on the conference website at www.thehockeyconference.ca.
SMU Huskies drafted to CFL
Media statement on residence self-isolation
Out of an abundance of caution, residents of Rice Residence are required to self-isolate until they receive a negative COVID-19 test result. This comes as a result of two confirmed, but unrelated, cases of COVID-19 in Rice Residence. Any residents of Loyola Residence who may have spent any extended time in Rice from April 26-May 3 are also being asked to self-isolate until they receive a negative COVID-19 test result.
This decision was made out of an abundance of caution by Public Health. Public Health has not informed the university of any violation of public health measures. Those required to self-isolate are doing so per provincial COVID-19 protocols. The university will continue to work with Public Health, and COVID-19 testing is available on campus.
Community Notice: New building project behind the Loyola Academic Complex and the Sobey School of Business
We have exciting news! At Saint Mary’s University, we are looking at ways to further develop our campus. We are beginning the process of adding a new building behind the Loyola Academic Complex and the Sobey School of Business. The building will be the same height as the Sobey Building, standing four storeys tall. Our first steps are to remove the 5907 Gorsebrook Avenue house, with demolition beginning in May 2021. We are expecting our students to enter this new building in the Fall of 2023.
What impacts will the construction have on traffic and parking?
Trucks will access the back parking lot via Robie Street for the demolition phase. For all other phases, trucks will have access via Robie Street and Tower Road.
What time will construction workers be on site?
Working with the noise bylaws in Halifax, construction will generally occur 7 a.m. - 4 p.m
Will there be any blasting of rock during construction?
There will be a small amount of rock breaking as this structure will not have a full basement.
Will there be any interruption in my power or water supply?
We will keep interruptions to a minimum, performing this type of work overnight when possible.
Have additional questions or concerns?
Margaret Murphy Associate Vice-President, External Affairs margaret.murphy@smu.ca | 902-229-2264
Environmental History course nets OER award for Dr. Heather Green
Migration, Old Crow, YT; photo by Jon Luedee
We often associate environmental research with STEM, focusing on the science of human-environment relationships that have impacted climate and ecosystems. For Dr. Heather Green, environmental research encompasses not only the tangible evidence of climate change but also the histories of how environmental change has affected Indigenous and settler populations, wildlife, and the natural world.
The Council of Atlantic University Libraries (CAUL-CBUA) sees the broader potential for Green’s research and teaching, announcing April 15 that she is among the first five recipients of its AtlanticOER Development Grants. The new grants are intended to encourage educators in the region to create open educational resources (OER), and increase student access to course materials.
An assistant professor in the Department of History at Saint Mary’s, Green applied for the grant in relation to her course HIST 2833: Environmental History of North America. Her winning project aims to raise awareness of Northern issues and experiences by incorporating them into her course curriculum and creating an online teaching module on environmental histories of borders in the North.
This work is part of her current research with the Northern Borders Project, developed in collaboration with two other historians: Dr.Jonathan Luedee, Postdoctoral Fellow in the University of Toronto’s history department; and independent scholar Dr. Glenn Iceton, Williams Lake, B.C. (PhD University of Saskatchewan).
The project has been supported through web support by the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE), where she is an editor. The environmental humanities initiative is exploring “the dynamic socio-environmental contexts that have shaped the making of borders and boundaries throughout the circumpolar world from the nineteenth- century to the present,” says the project’s website.
A large portion of Green’s OER project is incorporating Indigenous and Inuit traditional knowledge and generational memory into course material and the public realm.
“Within the last 10 to 15 years, there has been a lot of controversy in the North around land claims, Indigenous sovereignty, certainly conflicts over resources, mining issues and of course climate change, so we are interested in examining the deep historical roots related to these issues. In keeping with our project goals, we want to ensure that this research is public,” says Green, adding this makes NiCHE an ideal home base for the project website.
“We wanted to approach an exploration of environmental and social contexts that have had a long history reaching into the present and look at how they have shaped the formation of borders in the northern region of North America,” Green explains.
On the flip side of that, she’s interested in understanding the role that borders themselves have played in the environmental crisis in the North today. Borders are more than geopolitical boundaries; they include racial and cultural boundaries, identity, gender, and the boundaries between Western knowledge production and Indigenous ways of knowing.
“Understanding ways in which knowledge is produced plays a crucial role in the lived experience of the North, because so much of northern residents’ lives have been shaped by southern influences from the nineteenth century onward,” says Green.
Further plans to boost accessibility to information about the Northern Borders Project include creating practical and applied mentorship and employment opportunities for students at Saint Mary’s.
“Our open, educational resource teaching module will consist of four different teaching units,” says Green. “These units will discuss broad conceptual themes, using different case studies in various forms of multimedia, including oral history, videos, photographs, and GIS (geographical information systems) mapping.”
Through a SSHRC Summer Research Award, SMUworks and the OER funding, three students will work with Green during the summer months. They will help develop the teaching modules and conduct their own original research, which will be featured in the module units.
“This opportunity is exciting for students, as it will give them the skills training that is transferable outside of history,” says Green. “They will also have the chance to walk away from these work terms having completed their own original research and digital history project.”
Find out more about the Northern Borders Project and follow Dr. Green on Twitter at @heathergreen21. Her first book, The Great Upheaval: Gold Mining and Environmental Change in the Klondike, is forthcoming with the UBC Press Nature, History, Society series.
Saint Mary’s University Researchers Take Part in CBC Earth Day Special
On Earth Day, Saint Mary’s University researcher Dr. Danika van Proosdij and honours student Makadunyiswe Ngulube took part in a special event hosted by CBC. They discussed climate change and, more specifically, the multi-million-dollar salt marsh restoration research project underway in the Chignecto area.
The project, Making Room for Wetlands: Implementation of Managed Realignment for Salt Marsh Restoration and Climate Change Adaptation in Nova Scotia, seeks to restore over 75 hectares of tidal wetland (i.e., salt marsh) habitat through the realignment and decommissioning of dyke infrastructure at multiple sites in the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.
This project includes a well-established partnership between Saint Mary’s University and CB Wetlands & Environmental Specialists (CBWES) Inc. using innovative and proven techniques with a comprehensive monitoring program.
Click here to read more on Saint Mary’s participation in CBC’s special Earth Day coverage. Or listen to the researchers on CBC’s Information Morning here (~32 minutes into the segment).
Additional reading
Saint Mary's Hosts: Black Business Initiatives - 25 Years & Beyond
A screen capture from the event.
On April 20, the Sobey School of Business Community Revitalization & Prosperity Network launched a conversation series with the Nova Scotia-based Black Business Initiative (BBI), the longest serving Black business development initiative in Canada.
The first conversation, called Black Business Initiatives: 25 Years & Beyond, featured BBI CEO Dr. Rustum Southwell, Cynthia Dorrington, President of Vale & Associates Human Resource Management and Consulting Inc. and Dr. Harvi Millar, Professor of Operations Management at the Sobey School of Business.
The panellists spoke to Dr. Harjeet Bhabra, Dean of the Sobey School, about the history of Black-owned businesses in Nova Scotia and the work that remains to be done to remove barriers to success, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his remarks, Dr. Southwell noted that Black-owned businesses have contributed over a billion dollars to the Nova Scotia economy in the 25 years since BBI was founded. Innovations by Black entrepreneurs in Nova Scotia include the world-class medical company BioMedica Diagnostics of Windsor (founded by Abdullah Kirumira) and SureShot Solutions of Lower Sackville, which provides highly specialized equipment for many of the world’s most successful coffee chains (founded by CEO Michael Duck).
Despite a long history of business success and over 200 years of African Nova Scotians in the province, Ms. Dorrington noted that due to systemic barriers, it can be difficult for Black entrepreneurs and small business owners to access necessary financing, coaching, advisory services and many of the other keys to business success. As a result, these businesses are often prevented from achieving their full potential. “To grow beyond a certain level, you must work on your business, not just in your business,” she said.
Black entrepreneurs are also often shut out of certain sectors, like aerospace and information technology, due to systemic barriers. Dorrington said we need to “think big… and provide mentorship and coaching to help business owners see the next big opportunities.”
Dr. Harvi Millar presented recent research into how Black-owned businesses have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that surveyed businesses are facing challenges including cash flow, reductions in operating capacity, declining customer bases and temporary or permanent business closures.
The research shows that in addition to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Black business owners face barriers including racial bias, lack of scale, insufficient access to wealth and collateral, lack of peer-to-peer support networks and limited market access.
Dorrington noted that these barriers are often built into unfair and outdated systems that we must now work to redesign. “These systems didn't have all voices at the table when they were designed,” she said. “This is the time. If you're going to address it, you have to look at the system and really assess what is working and what is not. We must take the initiative and get rid of what isn't working.”
Dr. Southwell noted that “no Black person – no matter how wealthy or successful in business – hasn’t felt marginalized at some point in their life.”
To lift up Black businesses, Dorrington said we must acknowledge systemic racism as a first step. “We must come together to navigate. Until you face those barriers you don't see them. People who have navigated them in the past, we can put our heads together but speak with one voice.”
The next conversation, to be scheduled shortly, will explore Barriers to Doing Business for Black Entrepreneurs: Access to Capital Market. Visit the Community Revitalization & Prosperity Network to learn more.
Assessing global human progress with a new environmental twist
The International Development Studies program at Saint Mary’s is teaming up with the School of Social Sciences at Mahatma Gandhi University in India to co-host a virtual panel discussion on Monday.
The purpose of the April 19 event is to take a closer look at the 2020 Human Development Report, the 30th anniversary edition of the yearly report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Titled “The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene,” this latest version is quite different from its predecessors, introducing a new environmental lens to the report’s annual Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI typically tracks human progress in countries around the world by measuring such factors as a nation’s health, education and standards of living. For the 2020 report, the HDI also took the countries’ carbon dioxide emissions and material footprints into account. By adjusting the index to reflect planetary pressures, the report paints a sobering picture of humanity’s progress by making the wellbeing of both people and the planet central to the definition of human development.
“It’s a unique opportunity to have an international discussion,” says Dr. Gavin Fridell, SMU’s Canada Research Chair in International Development Studies and one of the panellists. “This report is quite different, and represents a massive turning point, so it’s worthy of us having a more serious discussion about it.”
Joining him on the panel are Dr. Kate Ervine, also a faculty member in the IDS program at Saint Mary’s; Dr. Joseph Tharamangalam of the Sociology & Anthropology department at Mount St. Vincent University; and Dr. C.T. Aravindakumar, Pro-Vice Chancellor and faculty member in the School of Environmental Science, Mahatma Gandhi University. The panel’s moderator is Dr. Sabu Thomas, Vice Chancellor (President), Mahatma Gandhi University.
“The report is not very optimistic,” Fridell notes, adding the pandemic has also changed thinking around human development, further highlighting economic inequalities and environmental pressures.
“COVID-19 is teaching us a lot of things,” he says. “We have learned that in an emergency, we are capable of slowing down our economic growth … but who pays the price? And the report isn’t saying that we have to end economic growth, but constantly increasing economic growth is not compatible with the climate crisis.”
Each panellist will begin with a brief presentation, then the event will open up to a Q&A discussion. Similar conversations have been taking place around the world since the report’s release in December, but this is the first such public forum in the Maritime provinces. See the UNDP’s December 15 announcement for more details and perspectives about the 2020 report.
“While humanity has achieved incredible things, it is clear that we have taken our planet for granted,” Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy Youth, said in the announcement. “Across the world young people have spoken up, recognizing that these actions put our collective future at risk. As the 2020 Human Development Report makes clear, we need to transform our relationship with the planet — to make energy and material consumption sustainable, and to ensure every young person is educated and empowered to appreciate the wonders that a healthy world can provide.”
Open to the public, the panel discussion begins at 10:30 am on Monday. See the event listing on the SMU Events Calendar for more information and the Zoom links.
Bridget Brownlow receives Paul Harris Fellow Award
Bridget Brownlow
Saint Mary’s University’s Conflict Resolution Advisor and president of Peaceful Schools International, Bridget Brownlow, has received the Paul Harris Fellow Award from the Rotary Club of Halifax Harbourside.
The award, established in 1957, is given to a community member that has made an outstanding contribution to the community. Brownlow is being recognized for her notable service with Peaceful Schools International, teaching peaceful education to children from over 200 schools around the world.
The Paul Harris Fellow Award has been received by many household names, including: Mother Theresa, polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk, N.S. Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang, and former Saint Mary’s President Colin Dodds.
Congratulations Bridget!