You can follow the dissertation via Zoom: https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mm7J8hvTRAigaSeRWmUDuA

Opponent: Reader Tamsin O’Connell, Cambridge University

At 16.45 the Assessment committee will announce the decision on the candidate's public defence. You can follow the announcement via Zoom: https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2G2pxFBDTIuZmN2OyeJ1jw

Alison’s research combines scientific methodology with feminist theory to study hunter- gatherers in the North American and Siberian Arctic. She has expertise in stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of bone collagen and amino acids.Her PhD research was conducted at Stockholm University and the University of York in the ArchSci2020 program, a Marie Skłodowska Curie International Training Network. Her dissertation investigates everyday life in Arctic prehistory. The types of activities that consume our days often reflect aspects of our personal identities. Tasks such as preparing meals, taking care of children and elderly relatives, feeding and caring for pets and livestock often fall to particular members of a family based on age, gender, and ability. The way these tasks are carried out, and who is responsible for them, also changes over time. By studying the archaeological traces of daily life, we can learn about social change, and different types of experiences in the past. Chemical signatures of diet and life events, such as breastfeeding, weaning, and illness, are recorded in the hard tissues of humans and animals. This research combined stable isotope analysis of bone collagen and bone amino acids, with ethnographic research to answer a number of questions: how were sled dogs fed and cared for across the Arctic?; what can this teach us about the important relationship between humans and dogs in the Arctic?; how long did the ancestors of Inuit and Yup’ik communities breastfeed their babies, and what can this tell us about gendered experiences in the past?