Hope Sands

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Hope Sands
 graduated in 2021 with a major in Anthropology with a focus in Archaeology and Artifact Conservation, as well as a major in Philosophy. As an Honors student and a member of Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi, honor societies at EWU, Hope was selected to present at the Western Regional Honors Conference on “Exploring the Physical Realm of History Through the Holocaust.” In the Summer of 2019, Hope traveled abroad for a two-and-a-half week program, the Summer Institute on Diversity, Inclusion and the Holocaust, hosted by Hanze Honors College in the Netherlands. Hope said the institute taught her how to critically think in tough situations and how to act not as a bystander but as an active participant in the fight for social justice.

For her EWU McNair Summer Research Internship, Hope studied Fort Spokane under the mentorship of Dr. Brian Buchanan. Hope was accepted with full funding to the Masters program in Anthropology at Wichita State University. In 2021 Hope began working in her field as a Cultural Resource Management Field Technician for Historical Research Associates and plans to apply to PhD programs after getting this critical field experience.


2020 McNair Faculty Research Mentor: Dr. Brian Buchanan

Research Title: Understanding the Historical Past of Fort Spokane through Landscape Archaeology

Presentation Poster

Abstract: This project will look at the historical past of Fort Spokane in an attempt to understand the archaeological and geographical significance of the Forts construction. Previous archaeological projects at this location have focused more so on the Fort itself, rather than the Fort and its surrounding environs. This project hopes to close that gap by looking at a wider scope. The project will use a combination of Landscape Archaeology as our methodology of choice as well as GIS (Geographic Information System) analysis using digital models and viewsheds. The viewsheds will help us determine the geographical advantages, if any the Fort has to its surrounding areas. It was built near two Native American reservations and possesses a long history with these tribes spanning over 50 years (Riser and DePuydt 2012). The results of these viewsheds brought up some interesting findings, including that the Fort is in fact not able to see as much of the surrounding landscape as we originally thought. We have concluded that Fort was built not for its geographic location, but more so for its convenience along the river and being near two Native American reservations. In future projects, we hope to look at the artifactual remains of the Fort as well as explore other avenues of possibilities to build a bigger picture of the Fort and its historical past.


Congratulations Hope Sands

EWU McNair Scholar Hope Sands Accepted by Wichita State University Masters Program

Congratulations to EWU McNair Scholar Hope Sands! Hope was accepted by Wichita State University’s Anthropology Masters program with full funding. Hope graduated in the Spring of 2020 from Eastern Washington University with a major in Anthropology with a focus in Archaeology and Artifact Conservation, as well as a major in Philosophy. For her EWU McNair … Read more

EWU McNair Scholar Hope Sands Completes Summer Research Internship

Congratulations to EWU McNair Scholar Hope Sands for completing her 2020 EWU McNair Summer Research Internship! For her EWU McNair Summer Research Internship, Hope studied Fort Spokane under the mentorship of Dr. Brian Buchanan. Hope’s project looked at the historical past of Fort Spokane in an attempt to understand the archaeological and geographical significance of … Read more

Nine EWU McNair Scholars Present at Baylor McNair Research Conference

From looking at community perceptions of reentry barriers to formerly incarcerated people to the impact of chemical weathering from Mount St. Helen’s on streams, EWU McNair Scholars have been hard at work researching all summer under the guidance of their mentors. On October 1st and 2nd. Nine of these scholars presented at the 2020 Virtual … Read more

18 EWU McNair Scholars Present at EWU Virtual Symposium

EWU McNair is proud to announce that 18 EWU McNair Scholars presented at this year’s Virtual Symposium. In the midst of regular reminders of the suffering from COVID-19, in particular its disproportionate effect on communities of color, as well as recent police murders, we hope that lifting up our scholars will continue to support their … Read more

Hope Sands Selected as an EWU McNair Scholar and Awarded Summer Research Internship

Congratulations Eastern Washington University student Hope Sands! Hope has been selected as an EWU McNair Scholar and awarded a summer research internship. McNair Scholars must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher, are first generation college students and low-income and/or underrepresented students. They are selected for their promise as scholars and commitment towards attaining a … Read more