Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I grew up in Keswick Ridge, a rural community near Fredericton, New Brunswick. A day after graduating high school, I, and two friends I'd grown up with, backpacked around Europe for six weeks before starting at UNB in 2004. I initially pursued a double major in chemistry and history, but after struggling with calculus and organic chemistry, I shifted to history and political science. An anthropology course in my second year changed my direction again, and I spent the rest of my degree focused on anthropology and archaeology under mentors like Susan Blair and David Black.
In my final undergraduate year, I began working in cultural resource management (CRM) archaeology and realized there were career paths outside academia. After a year away, I returned to complete an MA with Susan Blair, during which I met my wife, Carolyn, and graduated in 2012. I worked seasonally for several years — including a stint in Prince George, B.C. — before joining Stantec in Fredericton as a full-time archaeologist. Over five years, I became a discipline lead and worked across Atlantic Canada, while also teaching a course at UNB.
I returned to graduate studies in 2016 and started my PhD at the University of Toronto in 2017, focusing on stone tool sourcing in the Lower Wolastoq region and building on research by Sue Blair and David Black. My supervisor, Gary Coupland, shared my interest in hunter‑fisher‑gatherer archaeology. My son was born in 2019, and when COVID‑19 halted travel to Atlantic Canada, I worked as an archaeologist with Parks Canada at Rouge National Urban Park.
In 2021, a position opened at the University of Lethbridge seeking an archaeologist with CRM experience and a North American research program. I will say, I knew almost nothing about Lethbridge before seeing the job posting, and after I got the job, my wife and I flew out to find a house — eventually purchasing our home here, sight unseen. I started in 2022 and completed my PhD in 2023.
How long have you been at ULethbridge and what do you do here?
I started in July 2022, so closing in on four years. I am a professor, so I teach several courses that focus on archaeology in North America and elsewhere in the world, many involving the histories of Indigenous peoples prior to the arrival of Europeans, and also teach about cultural resource management and the heritage sector. I am also a researcher and consider much of my research as falling under the rubric of public and community-engaged archaeology. With collaborators from Wolastoqiyik and Mi’kmaq communities in New Brunswick, I have both a field and collections (archival) based project, and working with colleagues at University of Calgary, we are studying the CRM labour market in Canada. I head to the field each year to conduct fieldwork for a few weeks, hold many meetings with members of the public, and descendent communities, attend conferences, do public talks, and even a little digging. I also co-host a podcast about New Brunswick archaeology (The New Brunswick Archaeology Podcast) with my friend and colleague Gabe Hrynick (UNB). We’re in our fourth season, and can count two excellent ULethbridge students (Emanuel Akel and Cody Pai) as our production team!
What's the best part of your job?
I love meeting and talking to people about archaeology — in the classroom, the field, the lab — it’s the best. I think it is a topic that people are passionate about or simply interested in, and I think we don’t do a great job outside of university of teaching the public about the deep histories of the places where we live. I also love to draw maps so a geography department is a great home!
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Spending time with my family — nature walks and hikes, movie nights, building Lego, video games, making pizza, etc., but also getting back to NB to spend time at my camp in the summer with our big extended family. I play pickup hockey and help coach my son’s team. I love to travel — there’s nothing better than getting a little bit lost somewhere new. I also love to cook (and eat) — and getting my kids into cooking — and we garden and I grow peppers to make salsa and hot sauce, which I have branded as 'Just Yer Basic Hot Sauce.'