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It turns out that Blackpool are building an ancient aliens theme park. As an archaeologist I find this really distressing. Why you might ask. Theme parks are meant to be fun, and why does it matter to me what people believe?  Because this sort of thing is dangerous. The theme park will include a museum, it will present the (debunked) theories of  Erich von Däniken as fact. And the thing that underlies most of these theories? Racism. So much Racism. Racism as far as the eye can see. We *know* how the pyramids were built, and how the Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Statues were put in place. The Idea that it was Aliens is built purely on the logic that POC couldn’t have achieved such things. Its the same bullshit that the Victorians spouted when they claimed the Great Zimbabwe proved that Europeans must have already been in Africa (thus further justifying their brutal colonization).  Sure a theme park is all fun and games, and who doesn’t enjoy a bit of Stargate now and then. But its Insidious, presenting this as fact, and its damaging. There were multiple links between the sort of Pseudoarchaeology that  von Däniken spouts and the Violence that took place on January 6 in Washington DC. We can no longer dismiss ancient alien theory as thing to laugh at. It is something that we must debunk, we have to do better about talking to the public, because these ideas are not harmless. These ideas perpetuate the myth that some people were too primative to have achieved the great works attributed to them. Note how no one questions how the Colosseum was built, but anything outside of Europe is fair game. 

 Our understanding of the present is built very much on our understanding of the past. And in an era of ‘Alternative Facts’ we have to be be far more discerning about what we present as truth. 

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Archaeology in the UK is under attack

Three Universities in the last two months ( Leicester, Chester and Sheffield) have anounced major cuts to their departments, and in Sheffield’s case proposed completely closing the department. Sheffield’s department in particular is a very well renowned department, and the research conducted there has very much changed the face of archaeology. My own reasearch would not be possible without methodologies pioneeered there. Meanwhile the government is trying to scrap the current planning laws which mean archaeological survey must be carried out as part of the development process. Without these laws it will be perfectly legal to destroy the enviroment (historic and otherwise).  The cynic in me notes this is all happening while there is a push againt historical research that contradicts the narrative of British Greatness, I.E the idea that colonisation and the Empire are things to be proud of (instead of you know, really horrible things that fucked up large portions of the world). History is political, and the Tories have stated many a time that any heritage reasearch that doesn’t tow the party line is ‘rewriting history’ and ‘ disloyal to the nation’. 

Control of information is an important part of controling the national narative. The past is messy and complicated and diverse, and a far cry from the uniform white supremecist paradice the far right like to pretend it is. Archaeology is one of the best ways of getting at the truth of the matter and disproving the false nationalist narratives these people like to spin. Don’t let archaeology be a casualty of the Torries destructive agenda. Ways to fight back  (Copied from the BAJR page) Letter template to the Sheffield University Executive Board regarding the Department of Archaeology

Ensuring the protection of archaeology for future generations within Planning for the Future

Petitions: Save Archaeology & Heritage at the University of Chester!

Save Sheffield’s Archaeology Department

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This is the distal femur and proximal tibia/fibula of a juvenile pig. These bones were, as you can imagine, a New Year’s roast- and we are using them as examples of how juvenile animals can be a challenge to the zooarchaeologist. Before the ends fuse, you can lose epiphyses- and without the complete ends of the bones, they can be harder to identify. So it’s important to know what you might encounter, and what the bones of commonly eaten species look like with and without their epiphyses!

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10 Things I Learnt in the First Year of my PhD

I’ve just passed my confirmation review so I’m officially a second year PhD student!

I’ve learnt a lot over the last year (and I’ve realised what I need to do in my second year to make my life easier and more productive) so I thought I’d share the top ten things I’ve learnt during my first year as a PhD student.

Just a bit of background info: I’m a self-funded arts and humanities PhD student in the UK. Self-funding is fairly common amongst arts and humanities students in the UK (only a few people I know are funded) so my situation is very different from that of funded students and students in the USA or elsewhere.

1. A PhD is a marathon, not a race. I’ve finished one chapter and I’ve almost finished another (and I started another but that’s on hold for now) which is great for my first year but this isn’t a process I can rush. Research takes time and I don’t doubt that at some point I’ll go back over my first two chapters and rewrite them.

2. Drafts are meant to be bad. The first draft of my first chapter was horrendous but I needed to get feedback from my supervisors. I hadn’t written anything in over a year (yay for gap years) and I needed to find my style again. Don’t waste time worrying about how bad your drafts are, just send them in and use the feedback to improve your work.

3. Make friends and be social! I’m very lucky that I fell into a group of PhD students who share my interests and are amazing people. They’ve known each other for years but they’ve welcomed me with open arms and I finally feel like I belong somewhere. I’ve learnt a lot from them about research and about the PhD.

4. Share your research and go to conferences. I’ve presented at two (very different) conferences this year and I’ve gained so much from them. Yes, funding can be a problem but if you can afford to go then do it.

5. Maintain a work/life balance. I need to work on this one because I currently work on my thesis Monday to Friday and then I work a part-time job on Saturdays and Sundays. I had to take some time off from work due to ill health which was caused by (and I’m quoting my GP here) ‘burning the candle at both ends’. You need to make time for yourself and I need to do that more often. I did just go on holiday for two weeks to Florida and I feel completely refreshed now.

6. Keep your notes neat. My notes from my first year are on loose leaves of paper and I’ve had to collect them into a folder to try and keep them together in some type of order. I’ve bought a new notebook to keep my second year notes in though. Also, my conference notes are in my bullet journal but they’re going to be transferred into a new notebook too.

7. Apply for all funding possible. I managed to get a conference bursary (based on the quality of my abstract) for one of my conferences this year but I’ve also had funding from my department to cover some of the cost of another. £100 might not seem like a lot but it was £100 that I could keep in my bank account for another day. I’m currently in the middle of applying for £800 for an international conference.

8. Save everything you write. If you ever decide to delete something from a chapter then transfer it into a different word document (or whatever you use) and make a note of which chapter it came from and when you removed it from that chapter. You never know when you’ll need it. My document full of deleted paragraphs is called ‘deleted scenes’.

9. Keep your references and bibliography up to date. Future you will thank you for actually putting in the footnote rather than just writing ‘footnote’. Even a shortened version of the footnote will work, as long as it’ll still make sense to you in a year or so.

10. Read everything. If someone recommends a book or article to you then read it. Put it in your annotated bibliography and you’ll always have a record of what it was about even if you don’t think it will be useful to your thesis. You never know what will be useful in the future. Research is about reading and engaging with other research so don’t dismiss the work of others.

I wonder what I’ll learn in my second year. Hopefully, it’ll be how to teach a seminar!

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To all those currently in grad or postgraduate school who are currently stressing out on your dissertation or second semester work, I wanted to share the nicest thing a professor said to me when I was feeling inadequate, intimidated, and overwhelmed: You wouldn’t be here if the admissions committee didn’t think you could handle it. You are here because they know you can do it. So this is me telling you to take a deep breath, relax those shoulders and get back to work one word, one page, one citation at a time. You will be great!

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I had the most peaceful evening yesterday reading at the park, and even had a nosey visitor reading over my shoulder! 🐿️ 📖

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Some notes from a dissertation meeting. At the start of big projects I always feel a bit lost and tend to flail around a lot, so I definitely find it helpful to write down what I spoke about in each discussion with my supervisor and other students :)

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Set up my bullet journal this morning for next month - I can’t believe it’s July already! This year is going far too fast; it feels like a few weeks ago it was the start of this semester! I want to make some good progress with my dissertation at the start of this month as (once lockdown restrictions allow) I’m finally going to go see my family, and I know once I’m there I won’t be doing much work! I also feel it’s important to take a true break from studying, where I deliberately mentally distance yourself from your work. That way I feel more refreshed when I come back!

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Do you have any thoughts / advice on navigating academic twitter?

Some. I guess it depends what parts of academic twitter you’re talking about and whether you’re just starting to get involved or you’re already there and are feeling overwhelmed. Prepare for a long post...

First and foremost, I think it’s very important to consider what you want out of academic twitter. Do you want to know when CFPs (calls for papers) are announced? When books are being published? What individual scholars are talking about? Do you want to make yourself visible to other academics? Or do you just want to learn more about history/literature/etc.? If you go in with the intention of just wanting to know “what’s happening,” you’ll be overwhelmed because SO MUCH happens ALL THE TIME. Start with specific goals and don’t worry about being present for every major conversation at every moment. As you get more knowledgeable about your field, who is in it, and what topics you enjoy seeing tweets about, you’ll branch out on your own.

I started by following major professional organizations, journals, publishers, and conference profiles in my field (like ICMS, METS, EETS, ISSEME, JEGP, SOELLC, Medieval Academy, etc.). Not only do these types of twitter profiles let you know what’s going on in your field re: scholarship and upcoming publications/events, but you can see who else follows them. If you’re not sure what the major organizations/publishers/conferences are in your field, you can ask your adviser or, if you’re a medievalist, drop me a note!

If you’re not interested in these aspects of academic twitter and just want to learn about history or lit, you can try following individual scholars who are doing work on the topic you’re interested in. Search Google Scholar, for example, to see who is publishing on the Black Death or Beowulf or Malory. But be aware: scholars don’t just talk about their work. They’re people, so you may get a mixed bag - people tweeting about their work or just pictures of their pets. You can also follow more specific professional organizations/publishers/conferences (for example, Arthuriana if you’re interested in King Arthur, or New Chaucer Society, if you’re a Canterbury Tales fan), which will probably limit their tweets to things specifically related to the topic you’re interested in.

If you’ve had the opportunity to do some in-person professional networking, such as going to conferences, you can also follow people you’ve met IRL and see who they follow. I started by following my adviser and a few people who presented papers I really liked at ICMS. Sometimes a conference presenter might have their twitter handle on a handout, slideshow, etc. so that’s an easy way to find out who to follow, but it’s also pretty easy to look academics up by name. Most scholars don’t use an alias on their social media platforms because public engagement is becoming more of a thing in academia, so, if you have a book or article you really enjoyed, see if the author has a twitter and pay attention to what they’re talking about and who they’re retweeting. I’ve found a lot of interesting scholars to follow just by seeing who my adviser retweets, but that could get tricky if you have a negative relationship with your adviser. If that’s the case, try to find the twitter profile of a scholar whose work you like and see who they’re engaging with regularly.

I think it’s very important to follow scholars of color in your field. When looking up people whose work you admire, go out of your way to find things by scholars of color and follow them. Because the academy privileges white scholars, you may have to do some digging to find some names, but they exist, so don’t give up and don’t settle for the most famous/loudest white voices.

It’s also great to follow graduate students. You can find them either by seeing who individual scholars are following or, if you’re able to go to a conference, do some networking and ask if they have a twitter handle. Most of the grad students I follow I happened on by chance, usually because a scholar I know follows them or I saw them present at a conference and liked their work.

I’ve focused so far on how to find people to follow, but let me switch gears...

If you want to know what major conversations are happening in your field, my best advice is to follow a lot of scholars and see what kinds of topics are circulated among them. There’s no one place to go for, say, the conversations about the term Angl*-S*x*n in medieval studies - I know what is being said because I follow a zillion people who do early medieval English studies and see what ideas or individual tweets get circulated, not because they’re all summed up in one place.

That being said, you also don’t have to follow EVERY scholar or organization in order to get the most out of academic twitter. Twitter conversations fly by at a million miles an hour. It’s impossible to keep up with EVERY conversation that is happening in your field even without social media, so do your best to let go of any anxiety you may have about being in-the-know about EVERYTHING that’s happening (I know it’s easier said than done). Instead, try to see academic twitter as a very big conference: you can’t go to every panel, so focus on the ones that are most relevant to your interests or feature speakers you want to see. You’ll learn more by seeing what they do and who they follow, who they retweet, etc. Most of the people I follow are those who I saw get retweeted a lot by people whose work I liked, not people who I think are big names. And even though I’m a medievalist, I don’t follow a lot of Middle English or Old Norse specialists - I’m mostly interested in Old English, so my feed is filled with people who do work in that field. Limiting my scope ensures that I see what is most relevant to my field of interest. Even the big conversations, like racism in medieval studies, can be followed when limiting your scope.

On the flip side, if you’re looking for very specific conversations (like, you want to find people who are talking about X aspect of your favorite historical figure’s life), you might not find that. Scholars are people and their work is always changing. People engage in multiple conversations at once, post about their pets, do social justice/activism work, etc. Academic twitter isn’t really a fan club for specific things so much as it is a huge conference after-party: people sometimes talk about their work and have scholarly conversations, but it’s mostly casual and frequently interjected with jokes about Latin or how Sleipnir would wear pants.

And just in case you need this affirmation: you can always unfollow scholars that make you uncomfortable for any reason. You’re not obligated to follow scholars who are “big names” in order to get the most out of academic twitter - some of the biggest names in medieval studies are showing themselves to be racist assholes at the moment, and a lot of great work is being done by lesser known scholars. You won’t be “missing out” if you don’t follow big names - part of what makes academic twitter successful for people is not following who they think they ought to follow, but following those who model what they want academia to be. For me, that means I follow scholars who I find to be thoughtful, generous, anti-racist, pro-grad student, and who are supportive of junior colleagues. Sometimes, you won’t know until you’ve followed someone for a while, and that’s ok.

I don’t know if that helps or answers your question. If you’re wondering about something more specific, like how to engage with scholars or participate in academic twitter conversations, drop me a note!

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Anglo-Saxon 'Dark Age' House and Hall, Butser Ancient Farm, Hampshire, August 2019.

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Clickimin Broch, near Lerwick, Shetland

This is a well-preserved Iron Age style broch from roughly the 1st Century AD. The site was occupied since the Late Bronze Age and originally the peninsular would have been a small island, accessible by a stone causeway. The broch was probably quite impenetrable at the time. It has been restored and is maintained by Historic Scotland, but free to visit. It is quite well preserved for being right next to Shetlands biggest town. 

I have filmed around and inside the broch for my Youtube Channel. 

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John Romer explains how ancient olive presses worked. I hope this is useful and informative to someone. Olive oil was extremely important in the Roman world. 

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Kind of struggling to keep focused in the day at the moment when all I need to be doing really is read! Does anyone have any tips on how to stay focused for long periods on just reading? 📚

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A timelapse of my sourdough starter after feeding this morning 🍞

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Reflection is really important! :)

Thesis 101: Condensed version

In my experience, there is always someone somewhere starting their thesis, or struggling to the thesis finish line, or stuck in that middle part where it’s hard work without the reward. If you are just getting started on your thesis (or another big project) and you feel a bit lost and overwhelmed: fear not, I have your back. I created a list of tips that I found useful while writing my MSc thesis (psychology).

Let me know if this was helpful and if you want more. I originally wanted to post a whole series of tips on different stages of the thesis process, so consider this the drastically condensed version of that.

Getting started

Find a lab that works on a topic that interests you and with a team that you feel comfortable with.

Make sure you know where to go with questions and get to know the structure.

Set up your goals from the beginning and make a planning.

The best thing you can do at the beginning of your thesis is figure out what you want, what your university requires, and how the project works.

Planning

Create a list of all the steps you need to take to finish your thesis and divide them over the time (months, weeks?) that you have until the deadline.

At the very beginning, discuss this schedule with your supervisor.

Create in-between deadlines, with your supervisor and also with yourself.

At the beginning of each month, write down what you should do each week.

At the beginning of each week, write down what you should do each day.

Make a list of things you need to do each day, preferably the night before, so you can start right when you sit down.

You could even calendar block if that’s your cup of tea.

Steps

Here’s an example from a psychology graduate (me):

Literature search/brain storm

Research question, hypotheses

Summarizing results into proposal

Make a plan

Learn how to analyze data

Execute plan (e.g., data collection)

Analyse data

Write down results

Draw conclusion

Revision, feedback, revision, feedback, revision!

 Reflection

Every week (or at whatever interval you prefer), sit down for 20 minutes and reflect on your progress. Ask yourself:

What did I do this week?

What went well?

What did not go as planned?

What can I do to improve next week?

What is on my to do list for the next week? What’s my focus? Are there things on the long run that I need to start working on?

Reflection keeps you on track but also allows you to think about what you learned in the process.

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An early morning shot of breakfast while checking over one of my final module papers of my masters degree. Whenever I finish a report or essay, I always have to read over the next day before submitting it as I always catch spelling and grammar errors I missed the day before! I am now officially done with all my modules - now on to the dissertation. I’m actually quite excited to be focusing on one thing for a change!

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I tried painting with watercolours for the first time since secondary school today and it was actually so relaxing! As a student I’ve found some of my old hobbies like knitting and crochet expensive to maintain, so I picked up a tin of watercolours and a set of brushes for about £5, and it made the perfect post-study relaxation session 😊

One of my goals in life generally at the moment is to worry less about making something perfect, and focus on just making something positive - That way progress will come slowly, but surely!

I’ve following Shayda Campbell’s tutorials on YouTube and would highly recommend them! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iXbzCbg-Xr8