Dana Lepofsky

SFU archaeologist Dana Lepofsky sizes up clams found in an ancient clam garden on a Quadra Island beach.

Dana Sue Lepofsky (born 1958) is a Canadian archaeologist and ethnobiologist. She is a professor at Simon Fraser University, a former president of the Society of Ethnobiology, and received the Smith-Wintemberg Award in 2018. Her research focuses on the historical ecology of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.

Education and career Lepofsky grew up in Norwalk, CT. Lepofsky studied at the University of Michigan (BA), In particular, she has demonstrated the antiquity of herring fishing Lepofsky's research is multidisciplinary, combining archaeology, paleoethnobotany, historical ecology, and incorporating traditional knowledge from Indigenous peoples. She has been the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Ethnobiology since 2013.

Selected publications

Lepofsky, Dana, Blake, M., Brown, D., Morrison, S., Oakes, N., & Lyons, N. (2000). The Archaeology of the Scowlitz site, Southwestern British Columbia. Journal of Field Archaeology, 27(4), 391–416. Lepofsky, D. (2004). The Northwest. In P. Minnis (Ed.), Plants and People in Ancient North America (pp. 267–364). Smithsonian Institution Press. Lepofsky, D., Armstrong, C. G., Mathews, D., & Greening, S. (2020). Understanding the Past for the Future: Archaeology, Plants and First Nations’ Land Use Rights. In N. J. Turner (Ed.), Plants, People, and Places: The Roles of Ethnobotany and Ethnoecology in Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights in Canada and Beyond (pp. 86–105). McGill-Queen's University Press.