DepartmentDepartment of Sociology-Anthropology
OrganizationElizabethtown College
Emailwheelersburg@etown.edu
Phone717-361-1188
Address14 Meadowbrook Lane
Elizabethtown , Pennsylvania 17022United StatesBioFor more than twenty years, Dr. Wheelersburg has researched indigenous arctic populations in Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula. Primarily, he has engaged in ethnohistorical research on land and resource use related to reindeer herding Saami groups as they came under the influence/control of majority societies in this region. He has recently helped local research groups document traditional knowledge about pre-Revolutionary settlement patterns and land/resource use in the western Kola Peninsula.As part of his master's and doctorate studies in Anthropology and Circumpolar Studies at Brown University, Dr. Wheelersburg has conducted field research virtually every year in the Scandinavian Arctic for the past twenty years. With two Fulbright Fellowships to Sweden, grants from the American Scandinavian Foundation, the Arctic Institute of North America, and several grants from the Arctic Social Science Program at NSF, along with service in Iceland for a decade as a Reserve Army officer on the NATO staff assigned to the Icelandic Civil Defense Office, he has studied among and built relationships with both formal education/research institutions as well as informal/indigenous research organizations and individuals in several arctic countries.
His work has reached a broad audience of scholars as well as the arctic community. He has published articles in journals including Arctic, Arctic Anthropology, and Northern Reviews (in press) and published chapters in Readings in Saami Culture, Language, and History (University of Umea, Sweden).
Dr. Wheelersburg has presented lectures to the general public as part of local and regional library programs and at programs through his school. These programs have focused primarily on native and indigenous peoples in the U.S. and Scandinavia.
Dr. Wheelersburg is interested in speaking to all audiences and representative lecture titles include:
Pre-industrial Saami land use in the Imandra Lake watershed, Kola Peninsula
Saami portrayals in popular media, especially National Geographic magazineA case of ethnic stereotyping?
Swedish compliance with European community requirements for indigenous resource use rightsA Saami perspective
Working with and developing local and indigenous research organizations in the Arctic
Dr. Wheelersburg hopes that the Arctic Visiting Speakers Program will allow him to visit and present his work in public and educational settings outside of his research area.