Bringing Subsistence out of the Shadows

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Event Date: Oct 2 2009 – Oct 4 2009
City: North Bay, ON
Country: Canada
Primary Contact Name: Bruce Erickson
Contact Email: brucee@nipissingu.ca

he Department of History at Nipissing University and the Canada Research Chair in Environmental History are pleased to announce a two-day workshop on subsistence relationships. Bringing Subsistence Out of the Shadows aims to bring together emerging scholarship on subsistence and mixed economies, both contemporary and throughout history. Subsistence relationships illustrate the complexity of not only economic exchanges, but also of human/nature interactions, and discussions at the workshop will draw upon these complex networks to help understand the continuing significance of subsistence at different scales. 13 pre-selected papers will form the spine of the discussion and the keynote address will be provided by Colin Duncan, author of The Centrality of Agriculture: Between Humankind and the Rest of Nature. The workshop will take place at Monastery Hall, Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario, on October 2-4th.

While the subsistence scale has often been seen as a stepping-stone to larger, more complex relationships of exchange, local and subsistence economies have received a recent revival due to both environmental and economic crises. North Bay has a long history of vibrant subsistence and small-scale productions, including wild berries, fisheries, and forestry. On Friday evening (October 2nd) there will be a showcase of some of those involved in these relationships at the Kennedy Gallery in Downtown North Bay.

Please find the schedule of presenters and paper titles attached. If you are interested in further information, or are interested in attending, please contact Bruce Erickson at brucee@nipissingu.ca

Archived Presentations

NiCHE has archived 11 presentations from this event.


Citation: Hathaway, Michael. “Querying Subsistence: Exchange and the State” Bringing Subsistence Out of the Shadows. North Bay, ON. October 2009.
Bio: Dr. Michael Hathaway, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Simon Fraser University, received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2007). His first research project examined global environmentalism and the politics of indigeneity.


Citation: Samuels, Sajay. “In Defence of Vernacular Ways” Bringing Subsistence Out of the Shadows. North Bay, ON. October 2009.


Citation: Knight, William. “Settler Subsistence Fisheries in 19th century Ontario ” Bringing Subsistence Out of the Shadows. North Bay, ON. October 2009.
Bio: William Knight is a PhD Candidate at Carleton University. His dissertation examines Canadian natural history museums in the 19th and 20th centuries.


Citation: Kinsey, Darin. “From Subsistence to Sport: Quebec’s sport fishery as a case study in landscape modification” Bringing Subsistence Out of the Shadows. North Bay, ON. October 2009.
Bio: Darin Kinsey is a postdoctoral scholar at the Université Laval.


Citation: Martin, Sarah. “Sowing the seeds of calculability: A case study of colonial agricultural control in late-19th century Manitoba” Bringing Subsistence Out of the Shadows. North Bay, ON. October 2009.


Citation: Petrick, Gabriella. “Industrializing Taste: Food Habits and Technological Change in the United States, 1900- 1970” Bringing Subsistence Out of the Shadows. North Bay, ON. October 2009.
Bio: Gabriella Petrick is an assistant professor in Food Studies at NYU Steinhardt.


Citation: Westman, Clinton N. “Aboriginal Subsistence Practices in an “Isolated” Region of Northern Alberta” Bringing Subsistence Out of the Shadows. North Bay, ON. October 2009.
Bio: Clinton Westman is an assistant professor in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Saskatchewan.


Citation: Johnson, Jennifer. “Thresholds, States and Stakeholders: From Subsistence to Sustainability in the Lake Victoria Basin” Bringing Subsistence Out of the Shadows. North Bay, ON. October 2009.
Bio: Jennifer Johnson is a PhD Candidate in the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan.


Citation: Chappell, Jahi. “Alternative agriculture and human rights: Prospects for truly sustainable development from two Brazilian examples” Bringing Subsistence Out of the Shadows. North Bay, ON. October 2009.
Bio: Jahi Chappell is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan.


Citation: Duncan, Colin. “Wrap-up Commentary” Bringing Subsistence Out of the Shadows. North Bay, ON. October 2009.


Citation: MacFayden, Josh. “Profitable Subsistence: Flax in Local and Transnational Fibre Commodity Chains” Bringing Subsistence Out of the Shadows. North Bay, ON. October 2009.
Bio: Josh MacFayden is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Western Ontario. He recently defended his doctoral dissertation on flax fibre and paint commodity chains, 1850-1930.

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