NSF Archaeology grant success and the University of Arizona
Last week, Doug Rocks-MacQueen posted an article on his blog Doug’s Archaeology titled “Top Organizations Receiving NSF Archaeology Funds.” I was surprised to see my current grad school at the top of...
View ArticleAddressing the Archaeology Professor Myth: Is it Possible to Realize Tenure...
Sometimes you read the obvious, but it doesn’t really sink in. Sometimes the obvious sinks right in to your core. I just finished reading two blog posts this week about the travails of post-PhD life....
View ArticleRecap of My First year of an Archaeology PhD
“School has become the world religion of a modernized proletariat, and makes futile promises of salvation to the poor of the technological age.” Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society (1971) I’ve decided to...
View ArticleHow archaeologists can enjoy the fruits of travel hacking
I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Boise, Idaho (Java Coffee and Café to be exact) enjoying Boise’s best coffee drink— the Bowl of Soul. This coffee didn’t come easily though. I’m coming off a 3-hour-long...
View ArticleRiver Street Digital History Project gallery
I’ve been busting my hump this whole week working on the website that will eventually contribute to my PhD dissertation project at the University of Arizona. It has been a long haul, but the River...
View ArticleBringing a Slice of the Archives to the Internet: the River Street Digital...
As a long-time historical archaeologist working in cultural resource management, I’ve been overjoyed to see how much archival information has been brought to the internet. I do not think there will...
View ArticleHow I got my first D in graduate school
This weekend, the unthinkable happened. I got a 60% on an assignment in one of my historic preservation graduate seminars. I haven’t done this poorly on an assignment since 9th grade geometry. How the...
View ArticleThe adjunct crisis and archaeology
Depending on your sources, between 49 and 66% of all college professors are adjuncts. Full-time, untenured faculty composes 19 percent of professors, which means, at most, only a third of professors...
View ArticleDoes academic archaeology have Grimm tales too?
This morning, I read just about the most frightening story a young PhD student/aspiring academician could read. In case you didn’t know, Stefan Grimm, a toxicology professor at Imperial College London,...
View ArticleWhy is it a big deal when universities discuss whiteness?
Last week, Fox News helped my dissertation research immensely. I learned about five books that I definitely need to read based on their coverage of a course at Arizona State University titled “U.S....
View ArticleIs education and #freearchaeology really a substitute for actual archaeology...
We’ve all seen the following clauses in a job description: – A combination of education and experience which includes College-level education or training that provided knowledge equivalent to that...
View ArticleWhat does student loan bubble mean for archaeology?
Small liberal arts colleges are starting to lose the battle against the “educational-industrial complex.” This month, two colleges in the eastern United States—Sweet Briar College and Tennessee Temple...
View ArticleWhat do you think should be included in an archaeological field school?
Yesterday, I received good news. The property owner of the Erma Hayman House in Boise, Idaho has given permission to conduct an archaeology project on this property. This will be the next step in my...
View ArticleGetting your archaeology PhD in a world of stupid politicians
This is a summary of what I learned from my second year as an archaeology PhD student. Sometimes it feels like the world is falling down around us and the only light at the end of the tunnel comes from...
View ArticleThe difference between archaeology journal articles and blog posts
Some people drive cars festooned with bumper stickers. It seems like, in the West, more than half of the cars and trucks traveling our roads have at least one. A few of us have covered our cars in...
View ArticleDo archaeology graduates have unrealistic expectations?
Tweet I recently had a conversation with a college undergraduate who was at #SHA2016 looking for a job. He spoke with such intensity and stared me in the eye as he spoke. “I don’t care what job I get...
View Article6 Reasons why CRM companies shouldn’t hire archaeological field techs with...
Tweet Last week, I talked about how degree inflation is making it harder for young archaeologists to land entry-level archaeological field technician jobs without having a graduate degree. There is a...
View ArticleThe Archaeology Education Financing Paradox
Tweet Let me tell you a story about how I used money to buy the education (and simultaneously) the social proof that allows me to do cultural resource management archaeology today. Back in 1997, after...
View ArticleHow to keep college archaeology classes from sucking, Part I
Tweet (This is the first in a two-part series on how we can use anthropology courses to engage undergraduate students and further the cause of historic preservation. Read Part II to see my suggestion...
View ArticleHow to keep college archaeology classes from sucking, Part II
Tweet (In case you missed it, this is the second in a two-part series on how we can use anthropology courses to engage undergraduate students and further the cause of historic preservation. Read Part I...
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