The ROM presents a free, full day symposium highlighting fascinating discoveries delivered by curators and experts
On Friday, February 3, 2012, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) will hold its Annual ROM Colloquium, a 32 year tradition. ROM’s curatorial experts will present the latest discoveries in fifteen-minute presentations from the departments of art, archaeology and science. The day long event will feature: The Fishes of the Lost World; Saving the Kiwi; Cretaceous Dinosaurs of Northern Sudan, Africa; The Persian ‘Book of Kings’; An Embarassment of Worms; Peking Man: A Who’s Who of Human Evolution and much more. This free program runs from 9:30 am – 7:00 pm in the ROM’s Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre, level 1B. Attendees should enter through the President’s Choice School Entrance on the south side of the building. Admission to the Museum galleries is not included.
This year’s Vaughan Lecture is on “The flies we despise: A reflection on the wonderful world of black flies”, delivered by Senior Curator Douglas Currie from the Department of Natural History at the ROM. This one hour lecture delves into the diversity, ecology and evolutionary history of nature’s ultimate bloodsucker, the infamous black fly.
COLLOQUIUM SCHEDULE
A more detailed schedule of presentation abstracts is available upon request; lectures are subject to change.
9:15 am Doors open
9:30-9:45 am Welcome
Dr. Mark Engstrom, Deputy Director – Collections & Research, ROM
9:45-10:00 am Saving the Kiwi: ROM’s contribution to preserving threatened and endangered species -Oliver Haddrath, Technician, Department of Natural History, ROM
10:00-10:15 am From porcupine quills to feathers: Semantic transformations and market circulation of 20th
century Cameroonian art - Silvia Forni, Associate Curator, Department of World Cultures
10:15-10:30 am The Fishes of the Lost World: A conservation report from the field - Hernán López-Fernández, Associate Curator, Department of Natural History
10:30–11:00 am Break
11:00-11:15 am 2008-2010 ROM-Burgess Shale expeditions - Expanding the search for Burgess Shale-type
deposits in the Canadian Rockies - Jean-Bernard Caron, Curator, Department of Natural History
11:15-11:30 am “That’s Not a Kayak!”: Form, Function, and Cultural Appropriation -
Kenneth Lister, Assistant Curator, Department of World Cultures
11:30-11:45 am An Embarrassment of Worms: Fossil Priapulida from the Silurian of Ontario … Real and
Imagined - David M. Rudkin, Assistant Curator, Department of Natural History
11:45-12:00 pm There are many angles: on archaeological expeditions in Iraq during the 1930s - Clemens Reichel, Associate Curator, Department of World Cultures
12:00-1:30 pm Lunch Break
1:30-1:45 pm ABOUT FACE: The Conservation of the ROM's Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt -Heidi Sobol, Senior Conservator, Conservation Department
1:45-2:00 pm Exploration of the Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Faunas of Northern Sudan, Africa -David Evans, Associate Curator, Department of Natural History
2:00-2:15 pm Shahnama: The Persian “Book of Kings” -Karin Ruehrdanz, Curator, Department of World cultures
2:15-2:30 pm A new fossil bird from the Late Eocene of Wyoming: what’s the flap about? -Kevin Seymour, Assistant Curator, Department of Natural History
2:30-2:45 pm Not-So-Ordinary about the Ordinary: New Discoveries in Song Dynasty Paintings -Wen-Chien Cheng, Louise Hawley Stone Chair of Far Eastern Art, Department of World Cultures
2:45-3:15 pm Coffee Break
3:15-3:30 pm Crossing the Line: Stingray parasite diversity across Wallace’s Line in the Indo-West Pacific- Claire J. Healy, Associate Curator, Department of Natural History
3:30-3:45 pm Southern Arabian silks for the African market -Sarah Fee, Associate Curator, Department of World Cultures
3:45-4:00 pm Mobile Interpretation in Museums -Ryan Dodge, Technician, Library & Archives
4:00-4:15pm Peking Man Re-Visited: A Who’s Who of Human Evolution -Chen Shen, Vice-President, Senior Curator Bishop White Chair of East Asian Archaeology. Department of World Cultures
4:15-4:30 pm Winter in Canada is No Picnic: Alicia Killaly’s chromolithographs of a day at Montmorency
Falls 1868. Arlene Gehmacher, Curator, Department of World Cultures
4:30-4:45 pm The Study of Meteorites - Science versus Conservation -Brendt C. Hyde, Technician, Department of Natural History
4:45-5:00 pm Closing Remarks -Dr. Mark Engstrom, Deputy Director - Collections & Research
5:00-6:00 pm Break
6:00–7:00 pm VAUGHAN LECTURE: The flies we despise: reflections on the wonderful world of
black flies
Douglas C. Currie, Curator, Department of Natural History, ROM. Black flies are notorious for their bloodsucking habits on humans and other warm blooded animals, yet they are as much a part of the natural environment as the flowing waters in which they breed. ROM Senior Curator Doug Currie sheds light on the diversity, ecology, and evolutionary history of these fascinating — though generally despised — creatures. Highlights are presented about current efforts to “DNA barcode” the black flies of North America. Preliminary results are also presented about current research documenting the migration of southern-adapted species into northern Canada, and the possible consequences for arctic birds and mammals.
All day POSTER PRESENTATION
Sertularella maureenae, a new species of hydroid (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa: Sertulariidae) from the Pacific coast of Canada (H. Choong)