Alumni Jobs - Various

This is the final post about jobs held by department alumni.  Included here are four graduates who have jobs in various fields.  Their successes just go to show that with a degree from the UE Department of Archaeology and Art History you can do anything!

From the world of publishing - Andrew Reinhard

Andrew Reinhard graduated from UE in 1994 with a double major in archaeology/art history and English (writing). He has an M.A. in art history and archaeology from the University of Missouri-Columbia (1996). Andrew worked as Director of Publications for the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) with offices in Princeton (although the picture is of him at work on the porch of Loring Hall in Athens across the street from the Blegen Library). He published the journal Hesperia and .the excavation monographs of Corinth and the Athenian Agora (among others). He also worked to build the digital publishing strategy for the School. He managed a small staff, edit, applied for grants and subventions, and handled marketing and promotion for archaeological publication. In December 2014 Andrew began his tenure as the publisher for the American Numismatic Society in NYC. ASCSA link: numismatics.org

 

At the ANS, Reinhard is responsible for creating the strategy for digital publications, which includes Open Access and Linked Open Data initiatives for coins of all periods and regions, as well as creating digital editions of the American Journal of Numismatics, ANS Magazine, and monographs. Reinhard has excavated at Poggio Civitate (Italy), Isthmia (Greece), as well as in Illinois and Kansas. He most recently excavated the “Atari Burial Ground” in New Mexico, featured in the documentary Atari: Game Over. He is a member of the Punk Archaeology collective and Linked Ancient World Data Initiative.

 

Success in the library - Dan Cavanaugh

 

 

 

Dan Cavanaugh graduated from UE in 2003, majoring in Archaeology and History. He received an MA in History from the University of Massachusetts in 2005 and then spent several years working at Pearson PLC as a Test Writer and Editor. In 2012, Dan received a MLIS from Drexel University and started a new career as an archivist.

He is now a Historical Collections Specialist at the University of Virginia’s Health Sciences Library. The library has a rich collection of personal papers, archives, artifacts, and books that are relevant to the history of medicine from 1493 to the present. His job is to help expand this collection, manage it, and promote access to it. At this moment much of his time is devoted to the development of workflows and systems for managing digital content and to the creation of a small exhibit about Renaissance anatomist Andreas Vesalius.

 

 

From archaeologist to veterinarian - Adrienne Pesavento

Adrienne (Penney) Pesavento graduated from UE in 2003 with a Major in Archaeology and a Minor in Anthropology. She went to Louisiana State University  for a Masters Degree in Physical Anthropology with an emphasis in Forensic Science and graduated in 2005. 
After defending her thesis Adrienne realized that she did not want to further pursue forensic anthropology  and moved home to Michigan. While home she got a job at the Michigan Humane Society where she realized that she really wanted to work with animals the rest of her life. Adrienne went back to school and got a job at a veterinary hospital. She is now in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program at Ross University. Even though she had a change of life path she is still happy with her undergraduate degree.  She feels it gives her a unique perspective in her new career. She says that if she could go back and do it over again she would still have at least a minor in archaeology, besides the Latin really helps in anatomy! Here she is at her white coat ceremony!

Success behind a desk - Keri Wile

Keri Wile graduated in 2007 as an archaeology major with a bio minor. Keri would have minored in anthropology as well had it been offered as that was her stronger interest.

She moved to Houston right after graduation and was unexpectedly offered a job managing logistics and customer service for a natural pet food distributor. She had expected at the time to enroll in grad school soon, but instead found herself very adept at her new job and making a higher salary than she could expect in most archaeology-related jobs. Keri stuck with it, advanced quickly, and now spends her days setting delivery routes for drivers throughout TX and LA, answering questions about pet nutrition, interacting with manufacturer partners, and generally managing many aspects of a thriving family-owned business. Bonus: her foster dogs can come hang out at work!

Alumni Jobs - Professional Archaeologists

This is the third post in the series about alumni jobs. This alumna found work soon after graduating in 2002 with MoDOT.

Brianne (Olson) Greenwood graduated from UE in 2002 with a major in Archaeology and minors in history and business. One week after graduation, Brianne started what was supposed to be a 3 month internship with the Missouri Department of Transportation. She has now been there for over 12 years. During her time with MoDOT, Brianne has excavated everything from a prehistoric village site to a portion of a 20th century African American neighborhood but also walked miles upon miles and not found a thing. She has recently taken on the role of lab coordinator, making sure that collections are processed and analyzed properly and then preparing the collection for curation. Most people don't equate archaeology and transportation, but any time federal funds are used, cultural resources must be considered. Most states use contractors to accomplish the work but Missouri is one of a few with a permanent staff of archaeologists, architectural historians and historians that complete the initial assessment and then pass it on to a contractor to complete if a Phase III is needed. However, their office successfully completed a Phase III completely in-house on 13 city blocks in downtown St. Louis in advance of a new Mississippi River crossing. Most recently, they have begun work near the Gateway Arch, looking for (and finding!) remains from the French Colonial settlement of St. Louis. Brianne has been fortunate to enjoy long term stability in a CRM setting and is looking forward to many more years in her position. She also recently learned to drive a snowplow and can be found clearing the way for drivers during snow emergencies. You just never know what you're going to do in state government!

 

 

Alumni Jobs - Academia

This is the second post in the series about positions that department alumni hold.  This alumna is one of our early graduates from the program (1994) who is now teaching at the University of Utah.

Alexis Christensen graduated from UE in the spring of 1994 with a B.A. in classical archaeology and a minor in history. In the fall of 1994 she started working on her M.A. in classical archaeology at Florida State University, writing a thesis on Etruscan glass from Poggio Civitate (Murlo). As she was finishing her degree, FSU started a new Ph.D. program in Classical Archaeology which Alexis entered in 1997. While working toward her Ph.D., she spent two semesters teaching for FSU Study Abroad programs.in London and Greece, and picking up a second M.A. in Latin. As Alexis was wrapping up her dissertation (on the spatial dynamic of mosaic floors in Late Republican era houses at Pompeii) in 2006, she was offered a two year position as visiting assistant professor in the Classics Department at the University of Iowa. In 2008, she took a job with the University of Utah as visiting assistant professor in the Languages and Literature department, which houses Classics as well as modern foreign languages and comparative literature. At both Iowa and Utah, Alexis has taught all levels of Latin and Greek, mythology, ancient literature in translation, and different aspects of ancient Greek and Roman civilization and reception studies. She typically teaches three courses per semester, but sometimes picks up a fourth Honors class. In addition to teaching, Alexis is the faculty advisor for the U of U's chapter of ΗΣΦ and is the 2015-2016 president for the Utah Classical Association, which works especially with secondary school Latin teachers. Since 2011, she has been field director for the Sangro Valley Project's excavations in the southern Abruzzo, where they’ve been excavating Roman villas and Samnite habitation sites.

This photo  is from the ΗΣΦ marathon reading of the Aeneid in fall 2013.

 Follow Alexis on Twitter @ProfChristensen

and on her classics blog http://www.nescioquid.com

Department of Languages and Literature at the University of Utah: www.languages.utah.edu

 

Sangro Valley Project: www.sangro.org

Alumni Jobs - Museums and Galleries

This post begins a series with information about positions that department alumni hold in many different fields. 

 

This first one is about a 2002 alumna who is now employed at a museum in Illinois.

 

 

 

 

Candace Summers graduated in 2002 with a BA in Archaeology and minors in History and Art History. She worked at Angel Mounds State Historic Site for a year and then went to grad school at Illinois State University in Normal, IL. She received her MA in History in 2006. During that time Candace was the Public Programs Intern at the McLean County Museum of History in Bloomington, IL. While working on her MA (and after completing an internship), Candace started working part time at the Museum as the Sunday Coordinator and Assistant Educator in the fall of 2005. In Jun 2006 she was hired full time as the Education Program Coordinator and then was promoted to Director of Education in September 2007 and has served in that capacity ever  since.

 

Most of the educational programs that come out of the Museum go through Candace’s department. From school programs at the Museum, exhibit programs, the annual History Careers Day Camp in the summer (which features a whole day about Archaeology!) to outreach in the community, her department helps to educate about 14,000 people of all ages per year. Their mid-size museum focuses on Illinois and McLean County, IL history. They have 15 full and part-time employees and over 240 volunteers. Their signature event, dear to Candace’s heart, is their Evergreen Cemetery Walk, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2014!

Check out their website (and like them on Facebook) to learn more about this fabulous institution: www.mchistory.org

The picture here is of Candace during History Careers Day Camp in 2014. Each day of the camp (5 days long) features a different career using the field of History. She is giving a group of campers a behind-the-scenes tour of her Museum (this photo is from the Small Artifact Storage room) during Museum Studies day. 

 

The History Careers Day Camp is entering its 12^th and Candace is very proud to say that she has been helping students learn about careers in the field of history for 11 of those 12 years.