STUDENT NEWS

Michels on the road doing field work in Ontario,
Canada.

Anthropology Doctoral Student John Michels Explores the Byways that have been Bypassed

What happens to a small town when it’s bypassed by a new billion-dollar highway? John Michels will spend the next six summers in Canada looking for answers. The PhD candidate in anthropology plans to study half a dozen communities, each home to about 1,000 people, in the Almaguin Highlands of Ontario.

"The entire highlands are being four-laned," he said. "Sundridge and South River are being bypassed and others have already been bypassed—Burk’s Falls and Powassan. The most recent to be bypassed was Trout Creek. The results were pretty devastating—the one gas station there was closed. You hear people say, ’You don’t want to end up like Trout Creek.’"

Large-scale changes like this are happening all over North America, where farming and timber aren’t as profitable as they once were, the aspiring anthropologist said. Tourism is up, as are visits by "cottagers"—people who summer in the hilly area, often making their second home in a rustic structure that formerly lacked electricity. Rural gentrification is converting former farmhouses to residences and farms to housing subdivisions. The new people say they don’t want more development, but the long-term locals see the benefit of new stores and light industry.

The quiet main street of a bypassed town.

When Michels was looking for rural communities to study, he was steered to the Highlands by his dissertation adviser, Molly Doane, who knew Tracey Heatherington, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who has family in the area. Heatherington told Doane, "If you know a cultural anthropologist who is interested in rural research, send him my way." After meeting with her, Michels said, "I knew it was a project I wanted to pursue."

So far he’s had 25 sit-down interviews and many more informal chats with locals. "People have been extremely receptive and interested in me being there," he said. "I’ve been spending time in restaurants or people’s homes. They invite me for lunch or dinner." He’s been surprised by the complexity of change in the area. “Every time I talk to someone I have to put an asterisk by the list of things I have to look into in more detail."

His research poses questions about what lies ahead for rural communities. He asks, "What is necessary for sustainability, for prosperity, for progress?"

Michels is a native of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and anthropology and a master’s in education, both at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. He spent a year teaching English and communications at a college in Finland before pursuing his PhD. He and his wife Holly live in Wicker Park.

Adapted from a UIC News story by Gary Wisby, November 26, 2008.