Katherine Patton

I am an archaeologist specializing in coastal hunter-gatherer settlement and economy and am an Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream) at the University of Toronto. My primary research focus pertains to exploring diversity in settlement and economy (in particular fishing and shellfishing practices) in the Wabanaki homeland.

I also work with colleagues in the Tsimshian homeland on the Northern Northwest Coast of North America on questions related to architecture, settlement, and economy. My research has been funded SSHRC and National Geographic Society. In both regions, I am working with colleagues to develop collaborative and community-engaged approaches to research.

As teaching stream faculty at U of T, I have a strong interest in undergraduate pedagogy, in particular the place of critical heritage studies and experiential and community-engaged learning in archaeological education.

Recent publications

Anderson, Arthur, A. Katherine Patton, and M. Gabriel Hrynick, In press “Wabanaki subtidal shellfish harvesting: an ecological and archaeological study of horse mussels and barnacles at the Reversing Falls site, Maine, USA.” Archaeology of Eastern North America issue 48.

Patton, A. Katherine, Susan Blair, and W. Jesse Webb, In press “Later Late Maritime Woodland Settlement in Peskotomuhkatihkuk: Re-envisioning Chronology, Shellfishing, and Site Formation at the Cusp of Contact”. The Far Northeast: 3000 BP to Contact. Mercury Series volume. Expected publication date Fall 2021.

Wadsworth, W.D., Charly Bank, A. Katherine Patton and Dena Doroszenko, 2020, “Forgotten Souls of the Dawn Settlement: A multi-component Geophysical survey of the British American Institute Cemetery” Historical Archaeology 54(2):624-646.

Patton, A. Katherine, Andrew Martindale, Trevor Orchard, Sage Vanier, and Gary Coupland, 2019 “Finding Eulachon: the Use and Cultural Importance of Thaleichthys pacificus on the Northern Northwest Coast of North America” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 23: 687-699.

Patton, A. Katherine, 2017 “Elements of an Ancient Tsimshian Dwelling: an Archaeology of Architecture in Prince Rupert Harbour, British Columbia” Canadian Journal of Archaeology vol. 41(2): 269-307.

Andrew Martindale, Susan Marsden, A. Katherine Patton, Angela Ruggles, Kisha Supernant, David Archer, Bryn Letham, Duncan McLaren, and Kenneth Ames, 2017 “The Role of Small Villages in Tsimshian Territory through the Mid-late Holocene” Journal of Social Archaeology. vol. 17:285-312.

Blair, Susan, Margaret Horne, A. Katherine Patton and W. Jessie Webb, 2017 “Birch Cove and the Protohistoric Period of the Northern Quoddy Region, New Brunswick, Canada” Journal of the North Atlantic. Special vol. 10:59-69.