SFU students, faculty and staff are finding adventure at home and abroad this semester. Here’s a round up of some of their interesting summer sojourns.

Under the sea, in a clam’s garden
A team of SFU researchers including archaeologist Dana Lepofsky, marine ecologist Anne Salomon (above) and grad student Amy Groesbeck is digging into BC’s past this summer to discover how and why Aboriginal people built intertidal rock walls to create clam “gardens”. Although long known to local First Nations, researchers only recently discovered these intertidal features, possibly because they are only visible during the year’s lowest tides. The rock walls, built at the lowest tidal level, likely trapped sand and sediment to expand the clam habitat, which may have improved clam-growing conditions and increased the harvest. The SFU researchers are among the first academics to investigate the ancient little-known marine aquaculture practice in detail. They are interviewing First Nations elders, conducting controlled ecological experiments, and sifting through archaeological sites to discover if clam gardens could contribute to sustainable harvest practices today.

Thai trekking
Assistant professor Kate Hennessy, who specializes in the anthropology of media at the School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT), is returning to northern Thailand in August. It will be her third teaching stint in the Museums and Intangible Cultural Heritage field school organized by the Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre and UNESCO Bangkok. This year’s field-school participants will make short videos addressing the challenges of safeguarding intangible legacies such as oral history and narratives, craftsmanship, festivals and other traditional knowledge. Hennessy and recent SIAT grad Majid Bagheri will work with Thai filmmakers and international heritage specialists to mentor the student video-production teams. “It’s a really exciting endeavour,” says Hennessy, “to work with students from all over the Mekong Delta region, and with community museums and Buddhist monasteries to research and communicate the important cultural and technical questions we encounter.”

Into Uruguay—with kisses
Education undergrad Katrina Hoffer spent six weeks in Uruguay this summer improving her Spanish and teaching English through the Cambridge English Proficiency Program. A surprise: the love she felt from her students, who kissed her when they arrived each morning and again when they left. “My experience was truly inspiring and I had the opportunity to collaborate with many wonderful Uruguayan educators,” says Hoffer, whose Uruguayan father, Andy Hoffer, is an SFU professor of biomedical physiology and kinesiology. “I also got in touch with my roots and my sense of identity.” She spent the remainder of her summer at the University of Calgary, teaching in the mini-university kids’ camp program.

Dem bones, dem bones
VP-academic Jon Driver will spend two weeks this summer doing research in the archaeological collections of the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. An expert on animal bones, he has already analyzed a large collection from the famous Pueblo Bonito site in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (left). Now he is revisiting the animal bones collected from excavations at Pueblo Bonito in the early twentieth century. In addition to understanding how Native Americans survived in the desert environments around Chaco Canyon, he is also exploring the use of mammals and large birds as important symbols used in ceremonies and rituals.

All above boards
Graduate student Nathaniel Payne is spending his summer working as a research assistant for the Canadian Board Diversity Council, thanks to grant from the Beedie School of Business. Payne, who is pursuing a master’s degree in the department of statistics and actuarial science, is analyzing and researching the diversity of members sitting on private, public and non-profit boards of directors across Canada. In addition to collecting and analyzing a cross-Canada survey, Payne will also produce a report that examines board diversity and the diversity efforts of Canada’s FP500 organizations and the country’s top 100 charities. Payne hopes his work will result in increased representation from women and minority groups on private, public and non-profit boards across Canada. He’d also like it to have an impact on the way that boards recruit, select, and utilize diverse members.

Disaster master
Communication professor Peter Anderson, an expert in disaster communications, is spending much of his summer monitoring B.C.’s flood and fire situations and assisting with emergency communications support. At the same time, he is finalizing plans to visit Juba, in the new Republic of South Sudan, where he hopes to rekindle a 30-year-old relationship with what is now Juba National University. He spent four years there in the late 1970s conducting research and helping to establish communication links with area villages. Now he’d like to recruit SFU faculty members to help this university with outreach as it tries to rebuild after more than 50 years of civil war.