ASK! Anthropology Mentors

Anthropology Skills and Knowledge (ASK) Mentorship Program

The Anthropology Skills and Knowledge (ASK) Mentorship Program connects undergraduate students with graduate student mentors who can help answer questions and provide guidance throughout their academic journey.

ASK offers an informal and supportive environment to explore anthropology, learn more about its sub-disciplines, and consider future academic and career paths.

Why Join ASK?

ASK is a great way to get support and build confidence as you explore anthropology.

Through the program, you can:

  • Get help preparing a CV
  • Learn how to request letters of reference
  • Explore graduate school options
  • Find volunteering and job opportunities
  • Learn about grants and scholarships (OGS, SSHRC)
  • Discover research opportunities and internships
  • Get advice on publishing, conferences, and independent study

Meet Your Mentors

Connect with graduate students who are happy to share their experiences and answer your questions.

Megan Nguyen

MA Student – Medical Anthropology

Contact Megan

About Megan

Megan is a first-year MA student specializing in medical anthropology. Specifically, her research focuses on how sporting subcultures and the growing social, economic, and political significance of sports shape athletes’ responses to and lived experiences with pain and injury, approaches to and definitions of health, views of risk and risk-taking, and engagement with health-related decision-making and care-seeking.

Background

Megan obtained a Bachelor of Arts with an Honours in Anthropology and a Minor in Health and Society at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Her Honours thesis research focused on the multitude of sporting and non-sporting ways sports medicine and performance staff (i.e., strength and conditioning coaches, athletic trainers, etc.) supported and cared for university athletes within competitive sporting subcultures.

Megan has also had experience working as a research assistant at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, and while working as an academic assistant, has helped create Open Access learning materials for anthropology students and instructors.

Outside of Academics

Outside of her graduate studies, Megan enjoys watching sports, reading comic books and classic literature, baking, and crafting.

Can Help With:

  • Medical anthropology
  • Graduate school applications
  • Finding a supervisor
  • Scholarships and funding

Bailey Palamar

MA Student – Archaeology

Contact Bailey

About Bailey

Bailey is a third year Master’s student in archaeology, specifically mortuary archaeology. She is interested in what we can learn from cemeteries and her research investigates trends in the monumental commemoration of older adults over the age of 70 in Cambridgeshire, England in the period 1845-1925.

Much of her time is spent working in her supervisor’s database of over 72,000 burials and conducting statistical analyses in it, reading literature on her context under study, and sitting at her desk writing. She has also been involved in many outreach activities in the Department, including being one of the developers of an outreach module on mortuary archaeology and cemeteries.

Background

Before embarking on her Master’s at McMaster, she earned her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at the University of Manitoba in Anthropology with a minor in Psychology. As part of her degree and also through her volunteer work with the Manitoba Archaeological Society, she has participated in fieldwork at a few precontact Indigenous sites in southwestern Manitoba.

Bailey has also worked in the museum sector, where she excited and educated people about Manitoba’s history and took part in the stewardship of collections that are part of that history.

Outside of Academics

When she is not engaged in academic pursuits, you can find Bailey at a coffee shop with a warm beverage in hand, at trivia night with her friends, or exploring a local cemetery.

Can Help With:

  • Transitioning to graduate school
  • Graduate school applications
  • Scholarships and funding
  • Graduate-level research and writing

Meghan Langlois

PhD Student – Bioarchaeology & Paleopathology

Contact Meghan

About Meghan

Meg is PhD student specializing in bioarchaeology and paleopathology. Her research focuses on adolescent development and embodied outcomes of social inequities and physiological stress during early life.

More broadly, she is interested in the confluence of lifeways, activities, and health outcomes for young people, lived experiences of disease and trauma, and perceptions of impairment and disability in the past.

Background

Meg did not have a straightforward academic path. She finished a bachelor’s degree in religious studies but chose not to continue in academia due to burnout. After working in an unrelated field for many years, she decided to go back to school and completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) at the University of Alberta, then moved to McMaster, where she attained a Master of Arts before beginning her doctoral studies.

In addition to her PhD research, over the summer Meg volunteers at the Slavia Mortuary Archaeology field school in Poland where she teaches human osteology and bioarchaeological methods.

Can Help With:

  • Bioarchaeology
  • Graduate school
  • Conferences
  • Field schools