Department of Sociology and Anthropology

About

I was born and raised in the province of Mendoza, Argentina - where I also completed my BA in Communication at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. In 1997, I moved to Canada to pursue graduate studies (a Ph.D.) at the University of Alberta and following this I was appointed a SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) Postdoctoral Fellowship at Université Laval.

Since 1998 I have been involved in ethnographic research within several Inuit communities in Nunavut, particularly Igloolik. My major research interests are connected to how Inuit relate to their physical environment as well as the transmission of Inuit oral knowledge in contemporary contexts. I also enjoy exploring new ways to represent oral knowledge using tools which include multimedia technologies, GIS, GPS and Google Earth. My research has been funded by Wenner-Gren, SSHRC, NSERC, National Geographic Society, and the Government of Nunavut. Currently, I am acting as the Principal Investigator for ISIUOP (Inuit Sea Use and Occupancy Project), while working with several researchers and northern participants in the documentation and mapping of Inuit use and knowledge of the sea ice in Nunavut and Nunavik (Northern Quebec). You are welcome to browse our project’s website at: http://gcrc.carleton.ca/isiuop
I am also a faculty member of the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre here at Carleton University.

Although most of my work has been done with Inuit in the Arctic, I am interested in, and willing to, supervise students with more general topics concerning anthropology of technology and anthropology of the environment. In the future, I would like to start doing research in Latin America (particularly with indigenous groups in Mexico and Argentina).

Main Publications

Papers in refereed journals

2009: “The trail as home: Inuit and their pan-Arctic network of routes,” Human Ecology: Volume 37: 131–146.

2005: “From map to horizons; from trail to journey: The challenges of documenting Inuit geographic knowledge,” Études Inuit Studies, Volume 29, Number 1-2: 221-231.

2005: With Higgs, Eric. “Satellite culture: Global positioning systems, Inuit wayfinding, and the need for a new account of technology,” Current Anthropology, Volume 46, Number 5, December 2005: 729-754.

2004: “Routes, trails and tracks: trail-breaking among the Inuit of Igloolik,” Études Inuit Studies, Volume 28, Number 2, December 2004: 9-38.

2003: "Using GPS mapping software to map Inuit place names and trails," Arctic, Volume 56, Number 4: 321-327.

2002: "Life on the ice: Understanding the codes of a changing environment." Polar Record, Volume 38, Number 207: 341-354.

Chapter in books

Not yet published (November 2009) “Life on the ice: Understanding the codes of a changing environment”. In Landscape Ethnoecology, Johnson, Leslie Main and Hunn, Eugene S. (eds.), Berghahn Press.

2005: With Huse, Patrick et al. “Place names and the Inuit approach to travel,” In Intimate Absence. Henie Onstad Art Centre / Delta Press: Norway, Pp. 27-29.

2004: With MacDonald, John. “Indigenous navigation” In Encyclopedia of the Arctic, Nuttall, Mark (ed). Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Fitzroy Dearborn: Chicago, Pp. 1410-1413

Multimedia

2006: “Anijaarniq,” a multimedia CD-ROM based on my Ph.D. thesis. Released by the Department of Education, Nunavut Government, and the Nunavut Research Institute. (5,000 copies produced)

Others

My research has also been featured in the following popular publications: National Geographic On-Line magazine; About.com; Scientific American (on-line version); Nature (on-line edit; Earth Magazine; Radio Canada International; Plenty Magazine; the Globe and Mail.

Work in progress (recently submitted to publishers):

I am currently co-editing two volumes that will contain the results of the Inuit Sea Ice and Occupancy Project. They will be published in 2010.