WAC Student Committee

Tuesday, 07 May 2002 00:00

Welcome to the WAC Student Committee website!

The WAC Student Committee (WACSC) aims to provide representation for all student members within WAC, through which student participation in international academic debate and practice can be fostered and developed. The WACSC considers student participation to be important as it is an opportunity to network and share research interests with other student and professional members of WAC. The Student Committee seeks to achieve its aim by:

1. Encouraging student membership from different regions around the world;

2. Liaising between students and other WAC members at Congresses and other WAC events;

3.Establishing a network of communication and debate amongst student members of WAC and the wider WAC community;

4.Encouraging and organising student participation in academic events within and outside WAC;

5.Advocating for financial support for students in relation to their participation in academic events organised by WAC.

Members of the WACSC are: Jimoh Ganiyu Adedeji (Nigeria), Aadil Brar (India), Kate Ellenberger (USA), Paris Ferrand (Mexico), Alejandro Figueroa (Honduras), Marta Lorenzon (Italy), Maram Mafulul (Nigeria), Jacqueline Matthews (Australia), Jordan Ralph (Australia), Sepideh Saeedi-Arcangeli (Iran), Courtney Singleton (USA), Heather Winters (Australia)

Chair of WACSC: Kate Ellenberger (USA)
Vice-Chair of WACSC: Jacqueline Matthews (Australia)
Student Representative to the WAC Executive: Maria Florencia Becerra (Argentina)

To contact the WACSC, write to:wacstudentcommittee@gmail.com

The WACSC manages the following social media pages:
The WAC Students Forum (on Facebook)
WACSC Facebook page
WACSC Twitter account

Scroll down or click to learn more about:
1)The History of the WACSC
2)WACSC Activities
3)WACSC Statutes
4)WACSC Members' Bios

==============================================================

History of the WACSC
The WACSC was established and announced in June 2006, after encouragement from Peter Ukco and the work of Stephanie Moser, Chris Wilson, Ines Domingo, Tim Ormsby, Margaret Rika-Heke, Sven Ouzman, and Edith Thomas. The committee was subsequently made an official WAC Standing Committee in August 2006. The first official meeting of the WACSC was held during WAC-6 in Dublin, which ran from 29 June to 4 July 2008 (Click here to see photos).

At the WAC Assembly meeting during WAC-6 (1 and 3 July 2008), the position of the Student Representative on the WAC Executive Committee (the governing body of WAC) was officially institutionalised. The current Student Representative to the Executive Committee is Maria Florencia Becerra.

The WACSC members present at WAC-6 proposed a resolution concerning International Field Schools, which was successfully adopted at the WAC-6 plenary session on 4 July 2008. The text of the adopted resolution can be seen here.

==============================================================

WACSC Activities

WAC Student Writing and Poster Competitions
In 2010 the WACSC established the WAC Student Writing Competition run annually, and the WAC Student Poster Competition run at each WAC congress (click for details).

Sponsored Sessions at WAC Congresses
The WACSC works to support student professional development and stimulate discussion about students' roles in the discipline by sponsoring sessions at WAC Congresses and Inter-Congresses. So far, we have sponsored the following sessions (listed in chronological order):

"(Re) Defining Archaeology: Emerging Perspectives from International Student Research" at the WAC Jamaica Inter-Congress in May 2007
"Students as Contributors, Collaborators, Scholars" at WAC-7 in Jordan, January 2013

Coordinating Volunteers at WAC Congresses
Starting with WAC-6 in Ireland, WACSC has coordinated student volunteers under the supervision of the Congress Organizing Committees. The help provided by student volunteers helped make both WAC-6 and WAC-7 successful, and in return they were given assistance to attend the congress. During WAC-6, 14 student volunteers from 6 countries gave their time; during WAC-7, 54 volunteers from many more countries participated. We will continue to support and organize student volunteers for each WAC congress, so that more students can attend and contribute to these events.

==============================================================

WAC Student Committee Statutes

At WAC-6, we held our first official meeting with WAC student members. At this meeting we discussed the draft statutes of the WACSC, these were later amended and formally adopted. This document describes how WACSC business is conducted, including the election and organization of members. Click here to view a PDF copy of the statutes.

==============================================================

WACSC members (as of May 2012)

Jimoh Ganiyu Adedeji (Nigeria)
I am a Graduate student of Archaeology, from Department of Archaeology & Anthropology University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. At present, am working with University of Hawaii Arcaheological Field school Tell Timai Amdid in Egypt as a Field Archaeologist since 2010. an archaeological excavation project under the supervision of Dr. Jay Silverstein and Proffesor Robert Littman of University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Usa. my research focus on enviromental archaeology, settlement pattern, historical archaeology and cultural resources management am currently enrolled for my MA at University College in London UCL, my area of study is Egyptian Archaeology.

Aadil Brar (India)
I am an undergraduate student majoring in anthropology at University of British Columbia, I am originally from India and am studying here as an international student. My area of inquiry is Southern Asia; I have participated in archaeological excavation and exploration in the north western region of India, and recently at the Indus Valley archaeological site of Ropar. My interest in archaeology is the inquiry of cultural typology and classificatory analogies used for archaeological cultures in Southern Asia, and also the anthropology of technology. I am interested in assessing the entangled impacts of colonial processes on Southern Asia and discourses that have been created about perception of past. At present I am working towards furthering an understanding about how regional archaeological methods have been successful in creating new paradigms independently from 'Euro-American' archaeological tradition and how scholars need to further their work drawing analogies from an 'emic' point of view to better realize the internal temporality of a culture.

Kate Ellenberger (USA) - Chair
I am an archaeology PhD student at Binghamton University (SUNY) where my focus is community-based archaeology. So far I have brought together threads of archaeological practice such as Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing, and feminist archaeology in my efforts to engage descendant communities in the research process. I am most enthusiastic about crafting research methods to address the present and past contexts of the archaeological materials I analyze. My dissertation project will be related to the practice of community-based archaeology in the Northeastern United States. I look forward to learning from other students, scholars, and stakeholders involved in WAC.

Paris Ferrand (Mexico)
The archaeological research for my master is about peoplement of the Americas. I excavated a site at Veracruz, Mexico. My personal interests are about the paleolithic artifacts, but also the paleoenviromental reconstruction. I also applied the geoarchaeological techniques. As WACSC member I help at the committee activities, and make the diffusion about it at Central America and the Caribbean region. I am member of the WAC since 2008.

Alejandro Figueroa (Honduras)
I am a Ph.D. student at the Department of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, Texas, born and raised in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. My research aims to better understand how Paleoamerican populations moved around and adapted to the landscape and environment of the central western highlands of Honduras. I believe that by studying how these populations moved across the landscape we can better understand how they used and adapted to the land, colonized the continent, and defined and marked a particular area or space as their own. Beyond the ability of my research to yield valuable data about the early peoples of Central America, I consider public outreach and community participation a fundamental component of my career. With this in mind, I have strived to develop and support mechanisms and processes whereby local communities can assist in the preservation and promotion of their cultural heritage, all while upholding national and international principles and laws. It is my hope that as a representative of the WAC Student Committee I can share my experiences and, more importantly, learn from those of others, as well as encourage students and archaeologists from my region to do the same.

Marta Lorenzon (Italy)
I have been working as an archaeologist and a conservator since 2005. I am specialized in Near Eastern and Mediterranean Archaeology and I hold a B.A. and M.A. in Archaeology from the University of Florence (2007), a MSc in Cultural Management from the European School of Economics-University of Buckingham (2010) and an advanced certificate in Conservation of Historic Buildings and Archaeological Sites from the Columbia University (2012). I worked in Italy, Spain, Syria, Israel, Egypt, UK, Russia, South America and US both as archeologist in the field and as a preservationist. I specialized in the preservation of archaeological buildings in mudbrick and stone as well as funerary practice in the Bronze Age. I am now pursuing her PhD in Archeology focusing on preservation of archaeological buildings, new visualization techniques in archaeology and new interpretation tools (GIS and 3D).

Maram Mafulul (Nigeria)
From Plateau State, Nigeria (WASC Representative for West Africa), I am a masters student in the department of archaeology, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Kaduna Nigeria. My thesis is on African Iron Age with emphasis on "Bloom Refining and Creation of Rock Hollows in the Ancient Metallurgy of the Jos Plateau. Outside my thesis, I am involved in a freelance research on "Effects of Modern Architecture and the Extinction of Crops on the plateau: An Archaeological Perspective".

Jacqueline Matthews (Australia) - Vice-Chair
I am an honours student at the University of Queensland. My current research is investigating the lithic technology of a Pleistocene aged rockshelter, Nawarla Gabarnmang in Jawoyn Country, Arnhem Land, NT. This research feeds into broader questions about how technological change has been characterised and studied in Australian archaeology. Following the completion of my honours degree I plan to continue with a similar line of research, principally concerning lithic technology and Australian prehistory, in a PhD or MPhil. In addition to my involvement in the WAC student committee, I am also the Membership Secretary for the Australian Archaeological Association and have worked in that role to enhance our membership base and foster greater student engagement in the archaeological community.

Jordan Ralph (Australia)
I am an Honours student with the Department of Archaeology at Flinders University. I am also President of the Flinders Archaeological Society, a student group at Flinders and Student Representative of the Australian Archaeological Association. Through these roles I have facilitated social and academic interactions amongst Australian archaeology students. The focus of my Honours research is on contemporary graffiti and ethnographies of three Australian Aboriginal communities in Jawoyn country. This study explores the role that governmental policy and social strategy has played in contemporary human behaviour, with a focus on intra-group versus inter-group messaging in mark-making practices. The results of my research demonstrate that graffiti as it is practiced in Jawoyn communities today is more closely related to an ongoing cultural tradition of landscape-marking than it is to the contemporary graffiti expressions often found in urban settings. This is evidence for thestrength of cultural continuity in Jawoyn country, even at a time of major government intervention.

Sepideh Saeedi-Arcangeli (Iran)
I am currently a PhD candidate at SUNY Binghamton. My current research focuses on domestic practices and their role in the process of community constitution during the beginning of urbanization on the Iranian plateau. My main interests are the prehistory of the Near East in general and specifically the prehistory of Iran, micro-archaeology and its uses in tracing down domestic practices, theories of community constitution and Feminist archaeology. I received my B.A. and M.A. in Archaeology from the University of Tehran. I was the director of the “Dialogue Among Civilizations” society in the University of Tehran for one year. The aim of this society is to facilitate the engagement of the Iranian students with related intellectual international discourses and their collaboration with their counterparts in other countries. I am also a member of the Society for Iranian Archaeology.

Courtney Singleton (USA)
As a PhD student at Columbia University my research currently focuses on the contemporary archaeology of homelessness in urban environments. I received my Masters in Applied Anthropology from the University of Maryland in 2012, where I conducted collaborative archaeological research with homeless residents at the Davidson Street Bridge Encampment in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 2010, I received an undergraduate degree in anthropology and geography at Indiana University Purdue University of Indianapolis (IUPUI). Throughout my undergraduate training at IUPUI my research and academic work focused on post-contact urban archaeology addressing social justice issues surrounding race and class. Collaboration, relationships between local and global perspectives, and activism are at the center of my archaeological research interests.

Heather Winter (Australia)
With expertise in developing culturally appropriate exhibition and education frameworks with Ngarinyin Aboriginal elders, we have developed the cultural concept Mamaa The Untouchable Ones from Cave to Canvas which covers the intellectual copyright of Ngarinyin clan estates to the Wanjina and Gwion Gwion rock art galleries North West Kimberley Australia. My interest is to work with the community through their creativity to address their aspirations of creating artwork that acts to protect their cultural heritage through developing culturally appropriate protocols and community governance. Through converging archaeology with art, the Mamaa collection was put together to assist the Ngarinyin elders focus to preserve their traditional culture. The fieldwork involves intensive collaboration working with the Ngarinyin as experts in their culture. With 15 years of expertise in Ngarinyin cultural immersion learning about their customary law; a key focus of my interest and work with the Corporation is to develop cultural heritage resource management using strategies of Indigenous knowledge systems and governance to protect the copyright of their rock art sites. My interest lies in working with Indigenous communities to assist them to create a proactive platform to engage in the issues addressing conflict experienced by the Ngarinyin regarding their Intellectual Property rights through examining the impact of colonial naming, interpretation and appropriation in relationship to the Wanjina/Gwion/Bradshaw figures. How do Western concepts of intellectual property, land ownership impact on Ngarinyin culture, their human rights and future claims to such inheritance on their ancestral lands? What are the key elements of successful, equitable resolutions of cultural and intellectual property rights issues, and what examples exist of how to translate these into workable policy and protocols?

Last Updated on Monday, 29 April 2013 20:47

The World Archaeological Congress is a non-profit organization: WAC 501(c)(3) 52-2294579 074000010 697011369