NMGL Fall Lecture Series | Dugout Canoes of Wisconsin

Wednesday, November 15, 2023 | 7 - 8:30 p.m.

Join NMGL for the final presentation of their 2023 Fall Lecture Series. Offered as a hybrid event, participants can choose when registering to take part in a live-streamed watch party in-person at the museum or online via Zoom. This lecture’s topic is Dugout Canoes of Wisconsin.

ABOUT THE LECTURE: Dugout canoes are boats made from hollowed-out trees by Native Americans across North and South America. Used for transportation and to hunt fish, the state of Wisconsin is second only to Florida in eastern North America for the number of reported dugout canoes. As of February 2023, there were 68 reports of dugouts in the state of Wisconsin that extend back to 4,000 calendar years old (now the oldest known “shipwreck” in the Great Lakes region). 

Join us as we take an incredible journey through thousands of years with UW-Madison’s Professor of Archaeology Sissel Schroeder. Using 3D models and ongoing research from the Wisconsin Dugout Canoe Survey Project, we’ll explore Native American stories and academic insight behind dugouts across the state of Wisconsin. 

ABOUT THE PRESENTER: Sissel Schroeder is a Professor of Archaeology in the Anthropology Department at UW-Madison. Her research intersects with the humanities, social sciences, and physical and biological sciences, and includes the investigation of ancient architecture, ecological and agency-based considerations of emerging sociopolitical complexity, historical ecology, and the history of archaeology. Her research has been published in numerous edited volumes and journals and she is a recipient of multiple honors including the Hilldale Award in the Social Sciences (2023), Vilas Faculty Mid-Career Research Investigator Award (2022-2025), Society for American Archaeology Presidential Recognition Award (2022), and Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Additionally, among other appointments, she has served as the the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Anthropology Chair (2016-2021) and Director of the College of Letters & Science Honors Program (2012-2015).