Media Release

For Immediate Release

April 17, 2009

Bone detectives from Saint Mary’s off to Miami

A photo taken at a high-speed photography gun range at the Miami Dade County Medical Examiner Department. As part of a two-week visit to the facility, students from Saint Mary’s watched the shot from behind bullet-proof glass while attending a workshop on forensic photography. Photo credit: Leonard Wolf, CFPH

A forensic anthropology course at Saint Mary’s University is being hailed as a chance of a lifetime, especially for people who love watching CSI:Miami.

The course, Internship in Forensic Anthropology (Anth 4701.0) was featured April 14 in Halifax's Metro newspaper and media coverage is expected continue as students travel to Miami this May for a two-week visit to the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Department.

The students will spend two weeks in the Miami-Dade morgue examining and identifying human skeletal remains, watching autopsies, performing maceration (the removal of flesh from bones), seeing how a toxicology lab operates, and of course, writing forensic anthropology reports. A third week will be spent in Halifax completing a final project involving facial reconstruction.

The students depart for Miami on May 2.

In the Metro News story, Dr. Tanya Peckmann, the professor of the Internship in Forensic Anthropology course, described the course as a "a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“It’s also an opportunity for students to see if they really want to pursue forensic anthropology,” Dr. Peckmann told Metro. “It’s better they see a decomposing body and realize in their third or fourth year of undergraduate that they can’t deal with it.”

The Chronicle Herald is also developing a story about the course, and the students will contribute to a blog about their experiences while away. Plus, CBC Radio is planning to interview the students when they return from the course.

“This is a practical, hands-on course in forensic anthropology,” said Dr. Peckmann, who also serves as the forensic anthropologist for the province’s medical examiner’s office.

Students from Saint Mary’s going to Miami include Megan Casey, Amy Stromquist, Pilar Zanoni, Samantha Curry, Mirage Brunet, Michelle Bain, Nadine MacDougall, Kathryn Logan, Ian Bell, and Jessica Cashin. Also taking the trip to Miami will be Alison Carvalho and Jennifer MacDermid from the University of Toronto, Tamara Hinan from the University of Western Ontario, Kimberely Brooks from McGill University, and Alison Nicholson and Leigh-Anne Peake from John Moores University in Liverpool, England.

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For More Information:

Blake Patterson
Public Affairs Officer
Saint Mary's University, Public Affairs
(902) 420.5514
E-mail: blake.patterson@smu.ca
www.smu.ca