Posts tagged illicit antiquities trade
Earlier this year, I was super honored to be asked to present at the 2012 conference for the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA). When I’m not blogging for Bennington, I’m also part of another blogging community of academics, journalists, and museum people who talk a lot about the illicit antiquities trade and cultural heritage issues. (you can check my blog out here.) Last month, I did a guest post for the ARCA blog, after which I was asked to present. YAY, RIGHT? Well, now I have to figure out how to pay for it.
Luckily, Bennington is really into supporting its students doing things outside of the college. We have a conference grant where you can get up to $500 to attend or present, but that’s not totally going to cover traveling to Italy in the summertime. So then I emailed Noelle Murphy, whose job is all about finding grants, fellowships, and funding opportunities for Bennington students. She very helpfully did some research for me but unfortunately couldn’t find that many funding opportunities for undergraduates. So I brought up my issue with Carol Pal, my advisor, who told me to email her the call for papers so she can tell Duncan Dobbelman, the dean of students, about my work and how attending this conference would benefit me so he can see what other options are out there. I’m hopeful that with my advisor’s help and with the help of the administration, getting started with my Life Work Term will be a well-funded and supportive transition!
- Meg
This term for “Thematic Exposure”, a tutorial on creating exhibitions, we’re proposing two make-believe exhibitions: first, a time-based exhibition that we’ll focus on for the first seven weeks, and then a culture-based exhibition that we’ll do in the last seven weeks. Of the five of us who are in the course, four work right here in the Admissions office, so you’ll get to see what we’re all doing throughout the term!
My time-based exhibit is going to be a history of modern looting/the commercial exploitation of archaeological sites, from the Napoleonic occupation of Egypt to the mass looting currently going on in places like Iraq and Peru. These photos are some of my favorite examples of how horrifying and violent looting is. They were taken by archaeologists who work in Peru and use photography as a way to cope emotionally with coming across looted sites. As you can see, the looters basically dig holes as deep as they need to in order to get to the graves of people around 800 years old. Then, they tear everything apart in order to get to the most valuable objects, such as precious metals, ceramics, and perfectly preserved textiles. These objects are then sold on the black market for as little as a few dollars to tourists, or for millions of dollars to private collectors. What’s left is a horrifying landscape of body parts and artifacts that have been robbed of respect and of archaeological context. These are the kind of images that get me up in the morning and drive my work at Bennington.
- Meg ‘12
Finals: Make it Work, Designers
This week is our last at school. Finals have been going on for what feels like the last month, but most everyone is just about done and the energy around here is much calmer than it has been since before Thanksgiving. This term, I managed to make every single one of my final essays and projects applicable to my senior work in some regard. One of the reasons I came to Bennington is for the open curriculum, which makes it easier to take classes that serve a specialized vision, if that’s your thing. However, the classes themselves can also be super open and accommodating to each student’s particular interests. Here’s how I managed to make every one of my classes this term related to my focus in the illicit antiquities trade and cultural heritage issues:
Plan Anxiety: A Love Story
Today was the deadline for all Plan essays to be submitted to the Dean’s office, so for the last couple weeks all the sophomores have been freaking out over what they’re going to say, what a Plan essay should look like, and whether or not their Plan committee is going to approve it. Because I’m a senior who has been forced to write a more than usual number of Plan essays, one of my sophomore friends asked if she could read my first one in order to get an idea of what is expected.
Very reluctantly, I went digging through my old folders from fall 2009 to email her my first Plan essay. At first, I only opened it to make sure it was the right copy. In addition to being terrified of reading my old work, my Plan process has been so long and complicated that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to relive that first awkward Plan meeting. But in verifying that this was the copy I needed to email, I was intrigued by remembering that when I graduated high school, all I wanted to do was study Medieval Studies at Smith College, get my MA in Celtic Studies at University College Dublin, and spend the rest of my life mucking around in Irish bogs and libraries. So, out of pure curiosity, I read it.
