Ryan Rybka

I am a North American archaeologist specializing in Indigenous and contemporary archaeologies. My doctoral dissertation investigates the material and cultural signatures of natural resource extraction on Indigenous sovereign lands, which I am completing in the anthropology department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. My research examines the construction of the Canadian crude oil corporation, Enbridge’s recent pipeline, Line 3 on Anishinaabe treaty lands in northern Minnesota. My work explores the human and environmental relationships surrounding Line 3 within the current climate crisis and the larger context of the past 500 years of settler colonialism. This work demonstrates the diverse values stakeholders bring to this conflict, while theorizing its place within a much larger colonial tradition. 

Degrees

• BA, Earth Sciences, University of Maine, Orono
• BA, Anthropology, University of Maine, Orono
• MA, Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst