Always exploring...

SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow 

Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

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I moved to British Columbia over 15 years ago for a career in professional snowboarding which transitioned quickly into a career in ethnobiology and archaeology. I have long had a fascination for understanding human-environment interactions and cultural landscapes across the Pacific Northwest. The cultural and ecological entanglements of the Northwest are so complex and politicized that I use my training in both natural and social sciences to better understand these eco-human dynamics. I'm currently based out of Terrace, British Columbia and I spend much of my time botanizing, fishing, and exploring the Skeena River. 

I study human-landscape interactions in the past and how those dynamics relate to the present — particularly towards Indigenous sovereignty and socially just environmental conservation. I am interested in the historical ecology of northern homelands (the so-called frontier of the Canadian Petro State), and in understanding the co-evolution of humans and the inhabited 

landscape. To study these relationships I look at ancient plant macrofossils, (seeds, pericarps, wood charcoal), Indigenous settlement history, landscape ethnoecology, and molecular biology (plant genetics).  I've investigated ancient and recent management of Garry oak (Quercus garryana) ecosystems and ancient hazelnut (Corylus cornuta) translocations in British Columbia and ancient Anishinaabe maize horticulture in Ontario. For my doctoral research I investigated traditional resource and environmental management of ancient forest garden ecosystems in British Columbia. I continued this research and expanded on the historical ecology and archaeology of the Skeena River in northwestern BC, and the evolution of the Malus genus at the Smithsonian Institution. I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia. 

Research Interests 

Historical ecology, phytogeography, environmental archaeology, traditional resource & environmental management, ecosystem resilience and health, ethnobiology, ethnobotany, heritage management, paleoethnobotany, traditional ecological knowledge, dendroecology, ancient and modern population genetics, Pacific Northwest

Education

Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow, Smithsonian Institution

PhD, Simon Fraser University 

MA, University of Western Ontario

BA Hons., Simon Fraser University 

Funding Agencies