Learn and Serve Environmental Anthropology (LEAF)

Community-based Anthropology

The LEAF School partners with tribes, government agencies, non-profits, and businesses to engage students through service-learning and community-based research in the hands-on application of traditional environmental knowledge and anthropological research methods to modern sustainability challenges. At the core of the program are summer field courses and year-around community-based activities linked to anthropology courses throughout the academic year. Typical projects include supporting sustainable food production, tribal canoe journey, ethnobotany, wildlife tracking, green infrastructure, and archaeological surveys and excavations. In addition to the field courses and activities undergraduate research supported by external grants and contracts gives students first-hand experience in ethnographic, ecological, and archaeological methods.

Archaeological Field School, Summer 2023

The site to be investigated is 45KI1268--the remnants of the Kumasaka Farmhouse and Green Lake Gardens Company. Originally identified in 2015, the site consists of residential and greenhouse debris and infrastructure associated with a first-generation Japanese-American family. The farm and residence have been razed; however, utilities, a foundation, landscaping, and concrete debris remain across the site. The property is currently being used as a park and nature area associated with North Seattle College. This is the second year at the site, and we will focus on excavating the pre-World War II Community Center and Outbuilding.

A field program introducing students to archaeological field and lab methods. Fieldwork will include field research methods and techniques, including survey and excavation by shovel and trowel. Labwork will involve artifact cleaning and preparation for curation.

Schedule

The course will run over a 4-week period, Monday-Friday. These will be full-days (8:30 a.m.-4 p.m.) at the site on the North Seattle College campus. Instruction will begin July 5, 2023 and end July 28, 2023.

The course will be worth 7.00 credits.

Students will be responsible for transporting themselves to the North Seattle College campus each day. Attendance every day is required.

Contact

For more information, please contact Dr. Alicia Valentino: alicia.valentino@edmonds.edu

Potential Financial Support

The following programs are not affiliated with Edmonds College. This is provided to be informational only:

Fish, Wildlife, and Green Infrastructure

The LEAF School partners with the Center for Service-Learning to host fish and wildlife monitoring projects for the City ofMukilteoo and Snohomish County and green infrastructure projects with the Cities of Edmonds and Lynnwood, Snohomish Conservation District, and Puget Sound Partnership. Students can sign up to participate in these projects through the Center for Service-Learning. Reports from previous projects are available at Dr. Thomas Murphy's profile page on Academia.edu. 

Public Events

In addition to summer field courses and activities throughout the year the LEAF School and Center for Service-Learning support large public events open to the community. Join us for events at q’^wәld’ali (Place of the Cooking Fire) Cultural Kitchen, Campus Community Farm, and stәĺĵx^wáli (Place-of-Medicine)Ethnobotanicall Garden. Help the powwow committee and our Native Student Association host an annual Powwow on the first weekend of May. Sign up for these and similar projects through the Center for Service-Learning.