Joint Tenure-Track position, Assistant Professor, Archaeology and Geography: Job Talk by Dr. Paul Ledger, 16 March 2020
***UPDATE - In accordance with university policy limiting gatherings of more than 25 people, Dr. Ledger’s talk is now restricted to Archaeology and Geography faculty only. ***
As part of the Digitalization Job Search for a joint tenure-track Assistant Professor position, the Departments of Archaeology and Geography are pleased to host a presentation by candidate Dr. Paul Ledger from Memorial University titled "Time Future contained in time past: unlocking biocultural legacies held within natural and cultural archives."
Dr. Ledger will be presenting at 4pm on 16 March in Queen's College QC-2013.
As Dr. Ledger explains: "Sedimentary archives are well established as stores of data pertaining to past changes in multiple facets of the natural world (e.g. climate, landscape, biodiversity). What is perhaps less well appreciated is that they can be considered chrono-cultural archives: when carefully selected and sampled, they can reveal archaeological site biographies of human-mediated environmental change. The information contained in cultural archives (archaeological sites, legacy data and databases) can be similarly mobilized to inform modelling efforts engaging “big questions” pertaining to population movements, cross-cultural and environmental encounters. Drawing upon past research from Greenland, France and Alaska, I outline my approach to understanding the nature and chronology of human-environmental interactions. I then discuss how I am presently deploying this approach to iconic sites in Newfoundland (Port au Choix and L’Anse aux Meadows) before looking to future potentialities."