Fredericton Faculty of Arts

MA Candidates

Taylor Corbett (HBSc, University of Toronto)

Supervisor: Dr. Amy Scott

Taylor graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Science in forensic anthropology from the University of Toronto. Her MA research will focus on skeletal trauma and its connection to the overall assessment of health and disability at the Fortress of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia. This project will approach population health from a unique perspective and add to the overall understanding of the lived experience at the Fortress. 

Christine Jean (BA Honours, UNB)

Supervisor: Dr. Daniel Tubb

Christine graduated with her BA Honours in Anthropology from the University of New Brunswick. Her MA research will focus on ecology, policy, and human-nature relationships on the Miramichi River, New Brunswick. This project contributes to emerging anthropological debates, the conservation of Wild Atlantic Salmon, environmental policy, and cultural shifts in rural communities on the Miramichi.  

Kelsey Kane (BSc Honours Anthropology, Lakehead University)

Supervisor: Dr. Amy Scott

Kelsey graduated her with her Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Anthropology and Criminology from Lakehead University. Since graduating, she has worked in different archaeological contexts, and is now a doing her Master of Arts in Anthropology with a focus in bioarchaeology.

Her research interests are bioarchaeology, human osteology, biological stress, and understanding the lived experience of individuals in the past. Her MA research will explore occupation and activity stress markers seen at muscle attachment points on the skeleton in individuals from the Fortress of Louisbourg in Cape Breton, Canada. This research will involve macroscopic analyses and will take advantage of the historical contexts and benefits of having historical reenactors at Louisbourg to create a modern proxy using new methods. This research will provide significant data about the lived experience of those at Louisbourg and how repetitive activity impacted skeletal health in the past.

Benjamin Kaufman (BSc, BA, University of Central Florida)

Supervisor: Dr. Amy Scott

Benjamin graduated with a Bachelors of Science in forensic biochemistry and a Bachelors of Arts in anthropology from the University of Central Florida. His MA thesis will focus on the relationship between biochemical markers of stress and metabolism focusing on remains from the Fortress of Louisbourg site in Cape Breton,NS. This research situates itself largely within the study of stress of past individuals that has been conducted previously at UNB.

Mark Robinson (BA Honours, UNB)

Supervisors: Dr. Susan Blair and Dr. Noah Pleshet.

"I want to think broadly about questions of accessibility and museum displays and work to overcome ablest approach to museums that reduce their capacity to accommodate visitors with a range of needs and whose visitor experience might be improved. For my research I will be focusing on two different aspects - of museum exhibits created to reflect different voices and perspectives on material culture and heritage and how the experience of different and diverse museum visitor groups is taken into account, including issues of what is happening to involve First Nations as visitors as well as promote accessibility experience for other visitor groups in the community. One of the main issues I will focus on is that of cultural interpretation in museum collections. My question is how these interpretations are presented in standard museum settings and as well as virtual exhibits which are becoming more common due to the Covid 19 pandemic. My hope is that this research will culminate in better and more accessible exhibits. This would be via improvement of user experience and the capacity for museum to help promote a safe space for different cultures and forms of experience that are represented in collections. This project will involve an internship at a specific museum, where I will participate in collection administration in some way and have opportunity to collect data on visitor experience through a short questionnaire. This will help me understand visitor experience with the collections and museum setting."

PhD Candidates

Nicole Hughes (BA Honours, Brandon University, MA in Anthropology University of New brunswick)

Supervisor: Dr. Amy Scott

Nicole graduated with her BA Honours in Anthropology from Brandon University and completed an MA in Anthropology at UNB. She is now a doctoral candidate in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program.

Her research will explore the ancestral diversity of those living at the Fortress of Louisbourg in Cape Breton, Canada to better understand the social and cultural complexity of this 18th century colonial site beyond historical records, which were heavily influenced by French and English narratives. Specifically, Nicole will use ancient DNA sequencing to unravel the genetic ancestry of the archaeological human skeletal remains excavated at the Fortress and compare these findings with other lines of evidence (i.e., historical records, burial goods, stable isotope analysis) to interpret the relationships between different ancestral groups.