Larissa Harriss Juip
March 2023: Congratulations, Larissa – who received a Mellon/ ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship (DIF) for her research: “Re-Storying an Industrial Landscape: Moving Beyond Traditional Approaches to Heritage Interpretation”
Larissa’s work involves Indigenous heritage erasure in the context of industrial heritage sites, focusing on the Soudan Underground Mine and the Bois Forte community in Minnesota. When she entered the field of anthropology, she did so because she recognized the problems of cultural appropriation and misrepresentation within the discipline and felt that change could be made from within. As she progressed through her education, she shifted her focus to Indigenous representation in museums and ways in which these images could be more accurate, as well as how to produce exhibits that did not have the standard cultural barriers of a Western museum. In her work with various state agencies and educational institutions, it became clear that there is a systemic issue with understanding ways to meaningfully consult and collaborate with Indigenous communities regarding heritage exhibition and interpretation, especially within sites that fall under the management of the Department of Natural Resources.
When not in class or doing homework, she enjoys spending time with her husband, James, and their two dogs, hiking, swimming, camping, traveling, and improving our lacrosse handling. She is a jingle dress dancer, beader, quill-worker, and story-teller. When school is not in session, she works as an interpretive guide at the Soudan Underground Mine. She is also an educator for Gidakiimanaaniwigamig, an Indigenous youth STEM, language, and culture camp.
In January 2021, Larissa will be the Research Assistant on our NSF Convergence Research Project,
Marie Richards
Marie is a Ph.D. student in IA. She has over 15 years in heritage resources management. Trained in environmental planning and anthropology, she focuses on issues of cultural landscapes, Traditional Cultural Properties, traditional practices requiring environmental resources such as plants and animals (e.g., foodways, medicine, traditional arts), and tribal consultation.
Marie is a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians (Baawting Anishinaabe).
Congratulations, Marie Richards, who received the Graduate Student Governments Exceptional Student Leader Award (2021)!
Talva Jacobson
Congratulations, Dr. Jacobson who earned her Ph.D. in Spring 2022!
Talva Jacobson is an industrial archaeologist undertaking an innovative and important study of risk and heritage management in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Her study of the Historic Clay District and Medalta’s Kiln Room – was instrumental in uncovering three round kilns, as well as a wealth of other archaeological information, which was discovered under the concrete floor, which was constructed sometime in the 1960s.
Congratulations: Talva Receives the Outstanding Researcher Award from Michigan Technological University!
Collaborators Funded Projects:
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Creating Equitable Pathways to STEM Graduate Education: Will Cantrell, Wayne Gersie, Kat Hannum, and Tamar Semerjian
National Science Foundation Bridging Knowledge Systems and Expertise for Understanding the Dynamics of a Contaminated Tribal Landscape System (TLS)