Jon Irons

MA Student, Anthropological Archaeology
BA Anthropology, Butler University, 2009

Email: jonwirons@gmail.com

Supervisor: David Pokotylo

Research Interests:

My interests in anthropology include archaeological ethnography, archaeological theory and practice, anthropology in North America, collaborative research, indigenous anthropologies, anthropological song writing and singing in the classroom.
 
Current Projects:

I am currently working on my Master’s thesis in which I conduct an ethnography of the archaeological work taking place as part of the Laxyuup Gitxaala project. The project is organized by Dr. Charles Menzies at UBC is a collaborative project aimed at responsible and productive anthropological research with the Gitxaala aboriginal community. Specifically, the archaeological investigation ties in with oral histories about the land and the locations of sites.

Archaeological fieldwork is a practice that, until recently, has remained exempt from significant scholarly investigation. I maintain that the process of collecting archaeological data is not neutral, but laden with social meanings between archaeologists and communities, archaeologists and artefacts and among archaeologists themselves. These meanings have significant effects on how research is completed.  In Gitxaala, I am interested in the limitations of the traditional archaeological research method in a collaborative setting. I intend to examine how collaboration with indigenous communities is experienced in day-to-day archaeological fieldwork.