Department of Anthropology

Professor Darren Ranco’s work with the Wabanaki Youth Science Program (WaYS) has taken central stage, and he received an NSF INCLUDES GRANT ($300,000) this past Fall to bring the WaYS Program more fully to the University of Maine and its curriculum. In collaboration with Dr. John Daigle in the School of Forest Resources, Professor Ranco also continues grants for related projects on climate change and invasive species adaptation as well as policy approaches to ecosystem services and their impacts on indigenous peoples. On October 17-18, 2017, he hosted the first-ever Wabanaki Climate Change Symposium as part of one of these grants, showing the centrality of Native American Programs to Wabanaki Tribal Nation research. He also hosted the first ever Land Conservation Tribal Collaboration meeting in May of 2018, building relations between different groups to protect Tribal lands and resources. On campus, he facilitated the first ever flag raising of the Penobscot Nation flag on campus and made the landmark MOU between the University and the Penobscot Nation (signed May 10, 2018) possible through a series of workshops and meetings.