Posts tagged archaeology

I am SO PUMPED about my senior work this week. After a kind of traumatizing start (I started writing a week later than I scheduled, then spent a whole day staring at a blank Word document and flipping the eff out), I am finally in a really confident place and feel good about what I have so far. Double spaced, I have five pages. It doesn’t sound like much BUT that means I’m already halfway done with the first part of my three-part, 35 page paper! It’s been really scary to sit in front of so much research and raw information and not know what to do with it, but after I gave myself a whole day to really truly freak out about it, I feel a lot more capable. Look at that awesome and productive-looking screenshot. SO MUCH WINNING HERE. - Meg

I am SO PUMPED about my senior work this week. After a kind of traumatizing start (I started writing a week later than I scheduled, then spent a whole day staring at a blank Word document and flipping the eff out), I am finally in a really confident place and feel good about what I have so far. Double spaced, I have five pages. It doesn’t sound like much BUT that means I’m already halfway done with the first part of my three-part, 35 page paper! It’s been really scary to sit in front of so much research and raw information and not know what to do with it, but after I gave myself a whole day to really truly freak out about it, I feel a lot more capable. Look at that awesome and productive-looking screenshot. SO MUCH WINNING HERE.

- Meg

This week in Andy Spence’s Thematic Exposure tutorial, I made a lot of headway in my exhibition on the modern history of looting. I decided to divide up my exhibition into three parts: the first will focus on looting in Egypt during the 19th century, the second on when looting became industrialized in the 1960s, and the third on how overwhelmingly widespread and mechanized looting is today. Here are some really cool images I found for my section on Egypt. During the 19th century, Europeans got really into Egyptian antiquities and style. In addition to traveling to Egypt to get their exotic fix, they also brought a lot of Egypt back to Europe and created super elaborate and exaggerated exhibitions. I could spend all day looking for more images like this, and I actually I have to remind myself that I CAN because this is homework so it’s totally justified. 

- Meg

This week I

  • interviewed Richard Hodges, the director of the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania. (If you want to go to grad school for archaeology and go on to be a big shot, UPenn is where you go.)
  • interviewed George Bass, the father of underwater archaeology and the first archaeologist to excavate the entirety of an ancient wreck from start to finish. He also founded the most popular archaeological museum in Turkey. HOW COOL.
  • was invited by the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art to be a guest writer on their blog.
  • ate the most amazing processed meat at Ben’s Chili Bowl (with my friend and fellow FWT-er Madison) and the Shake Shack in Dupont Circle, all for under $7 each.
  • did work in the Starbucks in my old internship building and surprised my friends Becky and Stevie at their FWT internships at Smithsonian Folklife and Smithsonian Folkways!
  • will be interviewing James Delgado, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Maritime Heritage Program. He also explored the Titanic, what what.

One of the purposes of field work term is to help us figure out what we do and don’t like in a job. So far, full-time research in D.C. with the National Mall only five metro stops away and countless coffee shops to work in and cheap eats all around and a handful of great people to hang out with and a schedule I can create myself and talking to the most famous people in the archaeology, museum, and cultural heritage fields is ok, I guess.

- Meg ‘12