Friday, September 3, 2021

New Manager Alert!






Hello again!

I'm Elsa (no relation to frozen...) the new Museum Manager! I'm an Historian and Archaeologist from St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador. I recently finished my MA in History at Memorial University under the supervision of Dr. Shannon Lewis-Simpson and Dr. Marica Cassis in Viking Age Sweden and interactions with the Byzantine and Islamic Empires. During my MA, I travelled to Stockholm, Sweden to study Byzantine and Islamic artefacts from burials from the Viking Age site called Birka at the Swedish National History Museum. I spent several days working out of the museum and surveying the site to assess the importance of cross cultural interaction and burial customs. I also has a BA in Classics (yes, I loved Disney's Hercules as a child) and History from Memorial University and a Graduate Diploma in Archaeology from University College Cork in Ireland where she focused on Viking Age interactions in the North Atlantic and Ireland.

I previously worked for several years as a museum interpreter and educator at The Rooms Provincial Museum. I also worked for Dr. Lisa Rankin and Maria Lear in Nain and Rigolet at the Nain Moravian Cemetery doing ground penetrating radar (GPR) and working as an archaeological field technician at Double Mer Point on an Inuit Village under the supervision of field director, Robyn Fleming. I worked most of the pandemic in Ontario doing cultural resource management archaeology with Timmins Martelle Heritage Consultancy (TMHC) where I worked as a senior field archaeologist on sites that needed archaeological assessments before building could occur. I worked all over Ontario with TMHC and especially enjoyed my time working in Thunder Bay. I was also a field technician and co-author on a project headed by Dr. Shannon Lewis-Simpson in New Perlican assessing an early European burial ground at Bloody Point also alongside Maria Lear and Rita Uju Onah. Most recently, I worked as a guest support staff at The Gathering Place. I learned SO MUCH in this role, and I hope to continue to work with vulnerable populations doing arts and heritage outreach.

Up until last week, I was the Community Relations Coordinator at Admiralty House where I planned and managed events, hosted youth group programs, and managed social media. I am excited to step into this new role as manager so I can focus on school programming and exhibits. I really hope to reach new audiences during my time as manager through fun programming and exhibits!

I have a special place in my heart for Mount Pearl, as I played rugby for Dogs Mount Pearl Rugby Football Club, and I played in a lot of punk bands from Mount Pearl. I am a firm believer that the Mount Pearl punk scene is far superior to the St. John's one and the St. John's scene would be nothing without Mount Pearl 😎

Drop by the museum and say hi!
Cheers,
Elsa

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