Nicole Boivin | |
---|---|
Citizenship | Canadian |
Occupation | Archaeologist |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
Thesis | "Archaeological Science as Anthropology": Space, Time and Materiality in Rural India and the Ancient Past (2001) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Archaeological Science |
Sub-discipline | Archaeology |
Institutions | Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History Oxford University |
Website | shh.mpg.de/141324 |
Nicole Lise Boivin is an archaeologist and former director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
Boivin has a BSc in cellular,molecular and microbial biology from the University of Calgary (1992),and an MPhil (1996) and PhD (2001) in archaeology from the University of Cambridge. [1] Following her PhD she held a Fyssen Foundation postdoctoral research fellowship at Universitéde Paris X and CNRS in 2005,and a research fellowship at the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies in Cambridge (2006–2008). [2] This was followed by a senior research fellowship at the University of Oxford. [3] She also held a senior research fellowship at Jesus College. [4] She joined the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History as director of the Department of Archaeology in July 2016.
In October 2021,she was removed from her position at the Max Planck Institute,after an investigation found evidence of "scientific misconduct and bullying". [5] The full details of the case have not been made publicly available,but the summary of the findings includes "claiming credit for the work of others,and workplace bullying of institute staff and younger researchers". [6] Concerns have also been expressed about misogyny at the Max Planck Society. [7] [8] In December 2021,a court in Berlin re-instated Boivin as a director,a decision which the Max Planck Society is appealing. [9] In April 2022,she was removed a second time as director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (MPI-SHH),following a vote by a governing board of the Max Planck Society. [6] Boivin continues to dispute the decision and has openly criticised the lack of transparency in the disciplinary process at the society. [10]
Boivin's research is multi-disciplinary,spanning the natural sciences and humanities. Her research includes investigating human migrations out of Africa in the Late Pleistocene,to maritime trade and biological exchange in the Indian Ocean during the last two thousand years. She was awarded a European Research Council starting grant (2007–2014) for the Sealinks project, [11] which investigated the emergence of long-distance trade and connectivity in the Indian Ocean,and its relationship to processes of biological exchange and translocation. [12] Her work examines long-term human history and the relationships between people and the environment on a global scale. At the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History,her Department's work explores the diverse ways that data about the past can inform modern day challenges including climate change,anthropogenic transformation of species and environments,and food security. Her research has been funded by the Wenner Gren Foundation,the Australian Research Council,the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research,and the British Academy.
She is the author of Material Cultures,Material Minds:The Role of Things in Human Thought,Society and Evolution published in 2009 by Cambridge University Press), [13] and co-editor of several books including Human Dispersal and Species Movements:From Prehistory to the Present (2017,Cambridge University Press) [14] and Globalisation and the ‘People without History’:Understanding Contact and Exchange in Prehistory (2018,Cambridge University Press), [15] and Soils,Stones and Symbols:Cultural Perceptions of the Mineral World,published by Routledge in 2004. [16]
Boivin was recipient of the Prehistoric Society Bob Smith Award in 2002,the joint winner of the 2011 Antiquity Ben Cullen Prize, [17] and nominated Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 2013. [18]
The Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology performs basic research into archaeological science. The institute is one of more than 80 research institutes of the Max Planck Society and is located in Jena,Germany.
The Kupgal petroglyphs are works of rock art found at Kupgal in Bellary district of Karnataka,India. Thousands of petroglyphs have been found at Kupgal,which date to the neolithic or even the old stone age. The site,which includes examples of rock gongs,was discovered first in 1892,but subsequently became lost to researchers until it was rediscovered in the early 21st century. This site features peculiar rock formations with unusual depressions which make musical sounds when struck with boulders.
Steven Mithen,is an archaeologist. He is noted for his work on the evolution of language,music and intelligence,prehistoric hunter-gatherers,and the origins of farming. He is professor of early prehistory at the University of Reading.
Hallur is an archaeological site located in the Haveri district,in the Indian state of Karnataka. Hallur,South India's earliest Iron Age site,lies in a semi-arid region with scrub vegetation,located on the banks of the river Tungabhadra. The site is a small mound about 6.4 m high. The site was first discovered by Nagaraja Rao in 1962,and excavated in 1965. Further sampling was carried out in the late 1990s for the recovery of archaeobotanical evidence and new high precision radiocarbon dates
The Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biology of Ageing,founded in 2008,is one of over 80 independent,non-profit-making institutes set up under the umbrella of the Max Planck Society. The overall research aim is to obtain fundamental insights into the aging process and thus to pave the way towards healthier aging in humans. An international research team drawn from almost 40 nations is working to uncover underlying molecular,physiological and evolutionary mechanisms.
Peter Stafford Bellwood is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. He is well known for his Out of Taiwan model regarding the spread of Austronesian languages.
Jwalapuram is an archaeological site in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh,southern India,which shows hominid habitation before and after the Toba event according to the Toba catastrophe theory. It is unclear what species of humans settled Jwalapuram as no fossil remains have yet been found.
Mark James Hudson is a British archaeologist interested in multicultural Japan. His initial areas of specialization were the Jōmon period and the Yayoi period. His later research has focused on areas of Japan outside state control,primarily islands and mountains. He excavated the Nagabaka site on Miyako Island.
Jebel Faya is an archaeological site and limestone hill or escarpment near Al Madam in the Emirate of Sharjah,the UAE,located about 50 km (31 mi) east of the city of Sharjah,and between the shoreline of the Gulf and Al Hajar Mountains. It contains tool assemblages from the Paleolithic,Neolithic,Iron Age,and Bronze Age. Because its deepest assemblage has been dated to 125,000 years ago,it was thought to be the world's most ancient settlement yet discovered of anatomically modern humans outside of Africa at the time of its discovery in 2011. Finds of a yet earlier date have since been found at Misliya cave in the Levant.
Russell David Gray is a New Zealand evolutionary biologist and psychologist working on applying quantitative methods to the study of cultural evolution and human prehistory. In 2020,he became a co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. Although originally trained in biology and psychology,Gray has become well known for his studies on the evolution of the Indo-European and Austronesian language families using computational phylogenetic methods.
Tania Singer is a German psychologist and social neuroscientist and the scientific director of the Max Planck Society's Social Neuroscience Lab in Berlin,Germany. Between 2007 and 2010,she became the inaugural chair of social neuroscience and neuroeconomics at the University of Zurich and was the co-director of the Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research in Zurich. Her research focuses on the developmental,neuronal,and hormonal mechanisms underlying human social behavior and social emotions such as compassion and empathy. She is founder and principal investigator of the ReSource project,one of the largest longitudinal studies on the effects of mental training on brain plasticity as well as mental and physical health,co-funded by the European Research Council. She also collaborates with the macro-economist Dennis Snower on research on caring economics. Singer's Caring Economics:Conversations on Altruism and Compassion,Between Scientists,Economists,and the Dalai Lama was published in 2015. She is the daughter of the neuroscientist Wolf Singer.
Dr. Marta Mirazón Lahr is a palaeoanthropologist and Director of the Duckworth Laboratory at the University of Cambridge.
The creation of the Max Planck Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM) was announced in February 2017 at Harvard University. It was inaugurated with a workshop and a signing ceremony at Harvard University on October 10,2017,when the president of the Max Planck Society,Martin Stratmann,and Harvard's vice-provost for international affairs signed a five-year agreement.
Christina Warinner is an American anthropologist best known for her research on the evolution of ancient microbiomes. She is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University and the Sally Starling Seaver Assistant Professor at the Radcliffe Institute. Warinner is also a Research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena,Germany.
Katerina Douka is an archaeological scientist whose work focuses on the spatio-temporal pattern of human dispersals and extinctions across Eurasia,including Neanderthals,Denisovans and modern Homo sapiens.
Bodil Holst is a Danish-Norwegian physicist known for her work on nanoscale imaging,material characterisation and mask based lithography using molecular beams. Other research areas include smart surfaces and plant fibre identification. She is a professor in the department of physics and technology at the University of Bergen in Norway.
Julio Mercader Florín is a Spanish-Canadian Archaeologist,Paleoethnobotanist,Paleoecologist,and professor at the University of Calgary,In addition to this,he is a research associate at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and IPHES,as well as a former Canada Research Chair in Tropical Archaeology.
Panga ya Saidi is an archaeological cave site located in Kilifi County,southeastern Kenya,about 15 km from the Indian Ocean in the Dzitsoni limestone hills. The cave site has rich archaeological deposits dating to the Middle Stone Age,Later Stone Age,and Iron Age. Excavated deposits preserve an unusually long record of human activities,from around 78,000 years ago until around 400 years ago,a chronology supported by radiocarbon dating and optically stimulated luminescence dating. This sequence puts Panga ya Saidi alongside other key sites such as Enkapune ya Muto,Mumba Rockshelter,and Nasera Rockshelter that are important for understanding the Late Pleistocene and the Middle to Later Stone Age transition in eastern Africa.
Scott M. Fitzpatrick is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Curator of Indo-Pacific Archaeology at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon. He is a specialist in the prehistory and historical ecology of island and coastal regions of the Pacific and Caribbean. His research has focused on colonization events,seafaring strategies,adaptations to smaller islands,exchange systems,and human impacts on ancient environments. He has conducted archaeological research in the Caribbean and Pacific Islands with other projects having taken place in Panama,the Florida Keys,and Oregon Coast. He has published several books and more than 140 journal articles and book chapters. Fitzpatrick is the founding co-editor of The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology,an Associate Editor for Archaeology in Oceania, a Review Editor for Frontiers in Human Dynamics,and serves on the editorial boards for the Caribbean Journal of Science and Journal of Archaeological Science:Reports. Fitzpatrick is also a Research Associate at the National Museum of Natural History,Smithsonian Institution and a Research Affiliate at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
The farming/language dispersal hypothesis proposes that many of the largest language families in the world dispersed along with the expansion of agriculture. This hypothesis was proposed by archaeologists Peter Bellwood and Colin Renfrew. It has been widely debated and archaeologists,linguists,and geneticists often disagree with all or only parts of the hypothesis.