Graduate Academic Conference

This Firday, March 30th, MSU’s Council of Graduate Students (COGS) is hosting the annual Graduate Academic Conference (GAC). The goal of the conference is to showcase current research that has been completed or is currently being done by graduate and professional students from MSU and surrounding universities. This year, Campus Archaeology will be presenting two posters by our graduate student researchers.

Amy Michaels and Jen Bengston are presenting their work on sustainability, titled: Green From the Beginning: Documenting Sustainability Practices Through Time at Michigan State University. Their abstract discusses the poster: The MSU Office of Campus Sustainability explicitly situates the University’s commitment to sustainable practices within a binary framework of history and community, referencing concepts such as land grant legacy and student participation as integral to its philosophy and goals. MSU’s Campus Archaeology Program is in a unique position to enhance the efficacy of this message by providing time depth and context to the evolution of the sustainability concept at MSU. We present a documented, referenced history of MSU’s “green” heritage by integrating archival materials and archaeological research to construct a temporally and culturally sensitive picture of how sustainability has been understood and experienced by the historic campus community, providing critical context for a quantitative and qualitative description of evolving MSU’s food, energy, and transportation policies through time. Employing a combination of archival and archaeological data, we use modern sustainability standards to assess and measure the sustainability practices of the historic campus. Documentation of historical practices in this way provide a baseline for quantifying improvement over time, with the added benefit of highlighting a shared “green” history for the benefit of Spartan community.

Amy and Jen will be presenting their poster in Poster Session #2: 12:45-1:45pm in Room 154c

Kristin Sewell is presenting the research methods of Campus Archaeology, titled “Dusting off the Past: Campus Archaeology and Research Methods”. Her abstract for the presentation is as follows: The Campus Archaeology Program is a unique program designed to locate, excavate and interpret Michigan State University’s unique history through archaeological investigations on campus. These investigations are conducted by graduate and undergraduate students under the direction of Dr. Lynne Goldstein using a multitude of archival resources such as maps, photographs, diaries, newspapers, and other materials. Over the summer of 2011, Campus Archaeology conducted an archaeological field school in the “sacred space” at the heart of campus. Using the field school as a case study, the poster presented here illustrates how these student archaeologists used a wide variety of historic resources in locating the site, in planning for excavation and in the ultimate analysis and interpretation of the archaeological discoveries on campus.

Kristin will be presenting her poster in Poster Session #4: 4:30-5:30pm in Room 154c

Come check out the work being done and support our graduate students this Friday at the Comm Arts Building! Following the presentations on Friday we will be posting the posters on our website.

Campus Archaeology was also featured for our participation in the conference in the State News: Graduate Conference Shows Off Student Work



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