Romas (Ron) Vastokas

Professor Emeritus

Education

BA, MA (Toronto) PhD (Columbia)

Research Interests

Visual anthropology (film and video), culture and communication, minority groups, East European post-communist development, Aboriginal rock art and Great Lakes area archaeology.

Profile

Ron Vastokas, who retired in 1996, is the longest surviving member of Trent's Anthropology department, having joined the university in 1965. His degrees were earned at the University of Toronto (B.A. in English Literature, M.A. in Anthropology) and at Columbia University, (Ph.D.). His research and teaching interests span archaeology and cultural anthropology. These include visual anthropology (film and video), culture and communication, minority groups, East European post-communist development, Aboriginal rock art and Great Lakes area archaeology. He has conducted archaeological field work in the Yukon, Manitoba, and Ontario. More recently he has worked as consultant to various organizations involved in socioeconomic development in Eastern Europe, particularly the Baltic States. Professor Vastokas has served as Chair of the department and as Director of the M.A. program in Anthropology. He has also served as a Director of the Ontario Heritage Foundation; Director of the Cultural Properties Export and Import Act Review Board, Secretary of State, Canada: and headed the Vilnius Program of the Government of Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, "Canada Baltic Assistance Program". His publications include the Sacred Art of the Algonkians: A Study of the Peterborough Petroglyphs (with Joan M. Vastokas) (Peterborough, 1973); "Lithuanians" in The Canadian Family Tree (Ottawa, 1979); and Five Foot Square (film introducing archaeological techniques, co-produced and directed with V. Petrulis) (Distr. Visual Education Centre, Toronto, 1967).