This will be a hybrid event held in Richmond Building E59 and online via Teams: book a ticket here. https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/university-of-bradford

Bio:
Lucy is a doctoral candidate in the department of Anatomy at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Her doctoral research primarily investigates enamel growth disruption, indicating survived childhood stress experiences, in both modern and historical contexts, with an emphasis on improve methodologies to better interpret results when working with challenging archaeological preservation. A focus on mid-late 19th century non-Māori settlers of Aotearoa New Zealand, and some of their counterparts back ‘home’, explores the  biological consequences of the British Industrial revolution.

Abstract:
Dental enamel forms throughout childhood in a sequential and predictable pattern and is not remodelled, preserving a kymographic record of growth disruption. My work explores physiological stress markers in the enamel of European and Chinese immigrants, and colony-born children, interred in unmarked graves excavated from four cemeteries (c1860-1900) in Otago, Southern New Zealand. Dental samples were prepared following established methods and composite digital images were examined to identify accentuated lines (ALs), changes to regular enamel structure indicating enamel secretion disruption. 93% of individuals exhibited evidence of AL formation, and AL occurrence varied between groups of different ethnicities, climactic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Early New Zealand immigrants were attracted to the colony by the promise of improved life prospects for themselves and their children, and the embodiment of physiological stress as evidenced by AL formation may reflect push factors that stimulated emigration from the ‘old’ world to the ‘new’; however, the presence of ALs in colony-born children suggests life in New Zealand also had its own challenges.

Lucy requests that the audience refrain from taking photos of slides depict human remains.