Dr. Lisa Rankin
Dr. Lisa Rankin is an Associate Professor, and has been on the faculty of the Department of Archaeology at Memorial University since 2000. She has a BA from the University of British Columbia (1991), an MA from Trent University (1994), and a PhD from McMaster University (1998). Her MA thesis was an ethnohistorical study of the Inka administrative policy of resettling ethnic populations from one region to another within the Inka empire to carry out specific tasks for the state, and how the policy’s implementation varied through space and time. Her PhD dissertation was an archaeological study of the introduction of horticulture into southern Ontario, and the role played in that process by the interactions between prehistoric foragers and farmers.
Since coming to Memorial, Dr. Rankin has applied her interest in interactions between different ethnic groups to a study of the interactions between the various Aboriginal cultures that have occupied coastal Labrador over the past 9000 years. Her recent and current field research focuses on the long-term adaptations of the Maritime Archaic (ca 7000-4000 BP), Paleoeskimo (ca 4000-1000 BP) and recent Thule/Inuit occupations.
She is currently the principal investigator of “Understanding the Past to Build the Future,” a five-year research project that deals with the long-term cultural and social history of the Inuit Métis of southern Labrador. The project incorporates archaeology, ethnography, genealogy and history, and is a collaborative research venture among NunatuKavut, university researchers, graduate students, other scholars, government agencies and community partners. Funding is provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, under its CURA programme, and by numerous community and government partners.
