Scottish Underwater Archaeologist to Discuss Lives of the Ancient Loch Dwellers

CHESTERTOWN, MD—On Wednesday, October 12, Washington College will welcome underwater archaeologist Nick Dixon, director of the Scottish Crannog Center, for a lecture on “Early Iron Age Loch-dwellers of Scotland: Excavation, Interpretation, and Reconstruction.” The talk will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, Toll Science Center.

The Scottish Crannog Center, a beneficiary of the Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology, is devoted to the research and preservation of historical “crannogs,” artificial islands that served as dwellings for people who lived in the region from about 500 BC until the 17th century AD. The cold, dark, peaty loch waters have helped preserve the organic remains at the sites, including plants, seeds, nuts, animal bones and droppings and insects. In at least one case, excavators discovered a butter dish that still carried remnants of butter. Dixon will discuss the significance of these finds and the insights they provide into the daily lives of ancient peoples.

Dixon has taught at the University of St. Andrews and the University of Edinburgh. He currently is researching Scotland’s Loch Tay and its bounty of well-preserved finds.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Anthropology Club, Lambda Alpha, and the Center for Environment and Society.

Where The Past Meets The Present In Maryland's Suburban Landscape, Talk October 7

Chestertown, MD, September 29, 2003 — Washington College's Anthropology Club and campus chapter of the Lambda Alpha Anthropology Honor Society present “The Suburban Landscape: Where Past Meets Present,” a talk by Julie Ernstein, lecturer in anthropology, Tuesday, October 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The lecture is free and the public is invited to attend.
A specialist in landscape archaeology, Ernstein will address the question “What's so interesting about the mid-century suburban landscape of Maryland?” In an illustrated update on her ongoing research into the Levitt-built suburbs of Maryland, Ernstein will connect the dots between the eighteenth-century, Colonial Revival, Populuxe, and late twentieth-century components associated with Belair Mansion in Bowie, MD. Come and learn why the suburban landscape is a whole lot more interesting than you think and what the integration of historical archaeology, oral history, and documentary research reveals about the suburban landscape as the deliberately fuzzy—but no less real—border between past and present.

When Bones Talk: Bioarchaeology And The African Diaspora

Chestertown, MD, October 8, 2002 — The Washington College Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the Anthropology Club, the Black Student Alliance, the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, and the Gamma Chapter of Maryland of Lambda Alpha present BIOARCHAEOLOGY AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA, a lecture by Michael L. Blakey, National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Anthropology at the College of William and Mary. This free talk will be held Thursday, October 17, 2002, at 7:30 p.m. in the Casey Academic Center Forum. The public is invited to attend.
With a crossdisciplinary background in human anatomy and anthropology, Dr. Blakey will discuss how archaeology works with such disciplines to discover how humans lived in the past and were affected by their living conditions. An Adjunct Professor in Anatomy at Howard University College of Medicine where he had for many years been Curator of the W. Montague Cobb Human Skeletal Collection, Dr. Blakey currently directs the New York African Burial Ground Project involving interdisciplinary study of 400 skeletons of Africans enslaved in 18th century New York City. In addition to his field work, he has taught at Spelman College, the University of Rome, Columbia University, and Brown University, and has served as a Research Associate in Physical Anthropology in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. He is a past President of the Association of Black Anthropologists, a member of the Executive Council of the Society for Medical Anthropology, United States Representative to the Council of the Fourth World Archaeological Congress in Cape Town, and Permanent Representative to Washington for the African Bureau of Education Sciences in Kinshasa and Geneva. Dr. Blakey earned his B.A. at Howard University and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

March 28th Student Conference To Address Ethnic Diversity And The American Identity

Chestertown, MD, March 25, 2002 — Washington College and Goucher College are proud to present "Redefining the American Identity: A Student Conference on Ethnic Diversity," Thursday, March 28, 2002, at 4 p.m. in the College's Casey Academic Center Forum. The conference will open with keynote speaker Dr. Seble Dawit, a former human and women's rights consultant in Africa and now director of the peace studies program and visiting assistant professor at Goucher College, Towson, MD. All members of the community are encouraged to attend.

Twelve students will present papers addressing the complex issue of ethnic diversity and national unity in the United States. The presentations will tackle such issues as civil rights, religious freedom and identity, and the variety of and change in people's political and social worldviews since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2002.

Session I will begin at 4:30 p.m., addressing the issue "Where Self-Identity and National Identity Meet: Looking at Solutions to Conflict." Session II will begin at 7:30 p.m. and address the issue of "E Pluribus Unum: Making it Work." Keynote speaker, Dr. Dawit, will conclude the conference at 9:30 p.m.

"The goal of the conference is to make students really think deeply about the complexities of these questions and to offer their analysis and potential solutions to these pressing issues of our society," says Bonnie Ryan, organizer of the conference and Jessie Ball Dupont Scholar in sociology and anthropology at the College. "After the tragedy of September 11, the question of our nation's diversity and unity really came to the fore. The attacks affected thousands of people of different backgrounds, nations, races and creeds, while others acted out in anger against innocent Arab-Americans. This conference will serve as a forum for our students to explore and to discuss these issues that support or challenge the diversity of the United States and the unifying forces of democracy that hold our nation together."

This student conference is sponsored by the Goldstein Program for Public Affairs, Goucher College, the Campus Events Office, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Lambda Alpha, the Anthropology Honors Society-Gamma Chapter, and the Black Student Union.