Gordon Drever

I came to Canada as an immigrant with my family, settling in Schuler, AB, in 1957. Then several years in Medicine Hat, where, while completing school, I worked in construction. In 1966, I joined a CPR signals crew before studying anthropology at University of Alberta. I pursued ethnographic fieldwork in northern Alberta before graduating in 1969. Graduate studies at Brandeis University included fieldwork researching traditional salt making in Mexico. I dropped out of academia after working for two years on a misguided doctoral dissertation, and returned to construction, working as a carpenter on commercial and industrial projects. I pursued research on fringe political and religious movements, eventually consulting with police, building up an archive of over 100 m of shelf space, which is now housed in U of A archives. I have since returned to Mexican studies.

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Research interests

• Anthropology of salt
• Extreme political movements

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Educational credentials

• BA Hons. 1969
• MA 1974