That Anthro Podcast

Today Dr. Jacquelyn Williamson, an Associate Professor of Art and Archaeology (of the Mediterranean World) at George Mason University, joins the podcast to talk about her research in Egypt. Dr. Williamson focuses her research on issues of gender and religious power in Ancient Egypt, such as at the site of Tell el-Amarna, the site of Nefertiti’s Sun Temple. Dr. Williamson received her BA at Sarah Lawrence in Ancient History and Art History, and her MA/PhD The Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Williamson shares her deep love and scholarly fascination of Egypt in our conversation. She recounts her first visit, as well as subsequent visits to the Tell el-Amarna site, including the discovery of the Sun Temple. She also explains and helps unravel some of the mystery of King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti through artistic representations of them in the temple. Dr. Williamson champions that art is an artifact, and discusses the process of interpreting the history of this Ancient Egyptian site. I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed recording it.

https://historyarthistory.gmu.edu/people/jwilli98

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Today Dr. Jamie Clark an Associate Professor of Archaeology at George Mason University joins That Anthro Podcast. We discuss her academic journey including her dissertation research at Sibudu Cave in South Africa. We also discuss her first teaching appointment at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and what it was like to live and teach in Alaska. Then we cover the next phase of her career teaching at GMU, including her class that I took called "Archaeology of Climate Change." Dr. Clark is an archaeologist who studies human-environmental relationships in the late Pleistocene through the lens of zooarchaeology. We also chat about her most recent project that brought her to Sefinum, Israel this summer. I hope you enjoy this episode!

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Today I break down my first year of graduate school and reflect on living in Virginia and some of the important lessons I've learned as a graduate student. This isn't a traditional podcast episode, but I hope you enjoy getting to hear more from me about this year. Thank you always for the support.

On today’s episode we have my professor, Dr. Haagen Klaus, a bioarchaeologist at George Mason University. Dr. Klaus begins this episode by sharing the other side of his life with us, military aviation. Dr. Klaus is a nationally recognized arial photographer and scale model builder, as well as an author of several books on military aircrafts. We then discuss his journey into anthropology, and how he fell in love with Peru and decided to continue his career doing research there. We cover his MA and PhD education and the various lessons he learned from this advisors.

His work in Peru includes founding the Lambayque Valley Biohistory Project. This project is a multi-decade, international, multidisciplinary, and regional field bioarchaeology program on the desert north coast of Peru. He also recounts his favorite Peruvian dishes and restaurants. We then discuss the upcoming osteoimmunology project he and a group of GMU students will be traveling to Peru this summer to work on. Dr. Klaus has led a fascinating life and I hope you enjoy his stories as much as I do! 

It is my pleasure to welcome back to the podcast a friend of the show and repeat guest, Dr. Andrew Kinkella (Professor at Moorpark Community College). Dr. Kinkella joins the podcast today to discuss his media empire, his summer work at El Pilar, as well as his experience writing an archaeology textbook, Archaeology is Awesome https://he.kendallhunt.com/product-listing?search_api_views_fulltext=&search_api_views_fulltext_1=Kinkella&search_api_views_fulltext_3=&field_product_format_field_isbn_number=&sort_by=title2&sort_order=ASC&items_per_page=10

He takes you behind the curtain of his publishing process and gives advice to anyone considering publishing their own book. We also discuss his podcast, The Pseudoarchaeology Podcast, and the impact of the Netflix show Ancient Apocalypse. He also provides great advice for any students planning to attend conferences. Lastly, we discuss the rise in CRM jobs and how it is now more important than ever to teach practical excavation skills to anthropology students. Check out Kinkella's Youtube channel and podcasts here

Pseudoarchaeology podcast 

https://open.spotify.com/show/1F0A0T6FFozMUTo1HBzWK3?si=9702d46585cc4e43

The CRM Archaeology Podcast 

https://open.spotify.com/show/7IH8MJa1c80VZxjkLGQuVA?si=1c091abcd4084d66

Kinkella Teaches Archaeology 

https://www.youtube.com/@KinkellaTeachesArchaeology/featured

Welcome to the podcast, Lauren Malkoun, a senior and double major in Archaeology and Italian at the University of Southern California (USC). Lauren is an extremely accomplished undergraduate who is pursuing a graduate degree in Archaeology this fall. On this episode we discuss the origins of her love for history and other cultures and how that morphed into choosing Archaeology as her major. Her first excavation experience was actually in highschool with an ArchaeoSpain high school program in Menorca, Spain. After her first year of college she ended up going back as a mentor for the very same program, and then conducted a secondary excavation with ArchaeoSpain that summer in Pompeii. We discuss what this fieldwork entailed and her must have items for fieldwork. We also discuss the importance of archaeological curriculum in elementary and middle school education and the work she does with the Archaeological Institute of America to promote this. Lauren is currently apart of several research projects at USC including a virtual reality project revolving around a book of hours, a type of prayer book. Lastly, we touch on the amazing archaeological museums in LA (La Brea Tar Pits and The Getty Villa) and her experience as a college student in the city.

Today we have Dr. Ayana Omilade Flewellen, an assistant Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University, on the podcast. Dr. Flewellen is a Black, non-binary, feminist, archaeologist, who works with collections originating from the African diaspora, and focuses on small finds and the extraordinary stories those items tell. They work at plantation archaeological sites as well as underwater sites of slave shipwrecks. 

We begin by discussing their background in anthropology starting with their undergrad at the University of Florida and their first anthropology class there. From that first cultural anthropology class they were hooked, and their second class in Anthro was a class cross listed class with the African Studies department called “Archaeology of African American Life and History” taught by Dr. James Davidson. Ayana speaks about the profound impact this class on their archeological journey and the uniqueness of the subject matter that allowed Ayana to see themselves in archaeology. This class, and Dr. Davidson, would end up shaping Ayana’s subsequent career in archaeology.

Next, we discuss their first field school at Kingsley Plantation on Fort George Island, working with Dr. Davidson. We then speak about their favorite class to teach as a Professor called, A Will to Adorn: an anthropology of dress. Ayana describes this class as an ode to Zora Neal Hurston, and her piece where she described characteristics of negro expression and their “will to adorn.” Then we dive into their PhD research which examined small finds in a collection from the Levi-Jordan plantation. Ayana describes passionately the value in small finds being able to tell extraordinary stories. Lastly, we talk about their ongoing project at the Princess Plantation and the importance of community based archaeology projects.

Check out Ayana's other amazing work here:

https://www.ayanaflewellen.com/

Princess Plantation Project: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/a69f20809be64ed8aef1b7329c5dbd5e

https://divingwithapurpose.org/

Check out the amazing Society of Black Archaeologists: https://www.societyofblackarchaeologists.com/

Welcome to That Anthro Podcast Dr. Matthew Velasco, a Professor at Cornell University. On this episode we discuss how Dr. Velasco’s love for history and film led him to undergraduate and graduate degrees in Anthropology. We also discuss his experience taking his first anthropology class at Stanford and the impact Dr. John Rick’s Intro to Archaeology class had on his academic path. This includes being invited to join Dr. Ricks project at Chavin de Huantar the summer after taking that intro class. He expresses his love for Peru, the importance of community engagement, and how he has continued to conduct research there. Currently he is working on a book project regarding cranial modification in the Colca Valley in Peru, and how archaeologists can look at cranial modification within a specific community. We also take a tangent to discuss the graduate application process and he provides some very useful advice.

SAA conference info: The Bioarchaeology Interest Group (BIG) is organizing a Mentoring Event for the 88th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), to be held Thursday, March 30, from 9:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m, location TBD. This free workshop will provide an opportunity for students to receive mentoring from expert bioarchaeologists of different backgrounds and career tracks. Please complete this form to register for the event. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to e-mail the BIG Co-Chairs, Sara Juengst ([email protected]) and Matt Velasco ([email protected]). We look forward to meeting you in Portland! Sign up here https://forms.gle/bgRrS6kKxdduTh3a9

Today Griffin Fox (the archaeology cowboy) returns to That Anthro Podcast to share what he has been up to since we last talked! We cover some anthropology news segments as well! Griffin recounts his field school experience in Scotland, talks about applying to graduate school, the importance of science communication/public outreach, as well as the various groups he has joined to hopefully make a difference in the field. We spend a good deal of time talking about what it has been like for him working in CRM for the last year and some of the things in the job that could be improved. I hope you enjoy this episode! 

https://www.venturacountyarchaeologicalsociety.com/

https://stirlingevents.org/tolbooth-event/dr-murray-cook/

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Brought to you in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association check out their podcast library here https://www.americananthro.org/StayInformed/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1629

Welcome to the podcast Dr. Murray Cook, a Scottish born archaeologist working on various projects across Scotland. He runs a top notch field school, and introduces me to the inspiration behind the program. In addition to running the field school, Murray works on both the commercial and research sides of archaeology in Scotland, and discusses his roles on both sides. We also discuss his route to PhD through publication, and the benefits and drawbacks associated with that route. One of the projects he has been working on recently is digging a tartan mill in Stirling. This leads us to touch on my Campbell family Scottish heritage and my family tartan! Most of the episode is focused on his various field sites and the really cool things he is researching. This includes a Neolithic axe polishing rock that he hypothesizes could have been a pilgrimage point for people in the area to come grind their axes. I hope you enjoy today’s episode and check out the links below for more info on Dr. Murray Cook!

https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781789699302

Archaeology Reports Online

Field school website:

Rampart Scotland – Join the Team

Follow @thatanthropodcast on Instagram, and @ThatAnthroPod on Twitter for more behind the scenes content.

Brought to you in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association check out their podcast library here https://www.americananthro.org/StayInformed/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1629