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.

 

 

Department 25th Anniversary Saturday Events

After a night of festivities to celebrate the Department of Archaeology and Art History’s 25^th Anniversary, alumni and current students got together to network and share information.  The morning activities included a session led by Andrew Reinhard (94) and Andrea Kendrick (10) about careers in media and publishing, a Skype session with Nigel Hetherington, co-founder of Past Preservers, about media opportunities for archaeologists, as well as a “speed-networking” session where current students met with and asked questions of alumni who have found work in various fields.  This event was well-attended with students gaining new and valuable contacts from the alumni who generously donated their time. 

After a break for lunch everyone reconvened at the Smythe Lecture Hall in the Schroeder Family School of Business Administration to hear Dr. Alan Kaiser’s exciting lecture detailing his experience as he wrote his new book Archaeology, Sexism, and Scandal:  The Long-Suppressed Story of One Woman’s Discoveries and the Man Who Stole Credit for Them. The lecture hall was packed with not only university students and faculty but also many from the Evansville community. 

 

Department 25th Anniversary Alumni in Attendance

Alumni of the Department of Archaeology and Art History came from many corners of the country to support the department as they celebrated 25 years of archaeology despite the bad weather.  Andrew Reinhard (94) one of the program’s first graduates, may have missed the evening festivities due to the icy conditions but he made it in time to participate in the activities the next day.  Also on hand was alumna Andrea Kendrick (10) who was essential in helping Dr. Kaiser get his book published at Rowman and Littlefield.  Rachel Lawrence (12) arrived from Illinois and Evansville residents Stephanie Weinhart (07), Justin Grant (11), and Kaman Hillenbug (12) attended as well.  All those that attended were glad they made the trip.

 

 

Stephanie W. talking with Dr. Jennie Ebeling

Rachel L. and Andrea K. catching up

Kaman H. sharing laughs with
Dr. Jim Berry associate professor of Anthropology.

 

 

               

               

2012 Graduate Michael K. Talks about Recent Experiences and Future Plans

Graduation! It happened. Then, post graduate life quickly became a reality. Fortunately for me, I had a plan. I returned home for a short respite before venturing to Israel with the Jezreel Expedition. Participation in this program provided me invaluable archaeological experience as we surveyed the area surrounding Tel Jezreel to prepare for future fieldwork. We also had an opportunity to explore other sites, excavate at Megiddo, and spend time with friends — new and old. It was a truly rewarding experience.

Mike at the Amman Citadel in Jordan after finishing the 2012 season at Jezreel.

After returning home, I continued applying for jobs and was fortunate to be offered a Team Member position at Target. My time at Target has been a worthwhile experience, and I have learned a great deal about the retail industry through my duties on the Sales Floor and Presentation Team. Most of all, I have developed my abilities to communicate effectively with other members of the team and with guests.

In my spare time, I prepared for my ultimate goal: graduate school. I continued studying Greek, Latin, and French in order to hone my language abilities. A solid understanding of these languages will be beneficial in graduate school and future research. The faculty at UE has even continued to support me since graduating, and I have spoken with them on multiple occasions and sought their advice on my future endeavors. When it came time to apply to graduate school, I enacted my plan and attacked my applications with great results. I recently accepted an offer from the University of Arizona and will begin work on my M.A. in Classics with an emphasis in Classical Archaeology this fall. I am very excited to begin the next step in my academic career.

If I can offer any advice to current and future students it would be this: whatever you do or wherever you go, continue to work hard and make the most of every opportunity. People will recognize you for your efforts and it will make you a better person.

Alumnus Alex T. ('10) at St. Andrews

Hello fellow archaeologists! I write to you from the cold, foggy beaches of St. Andrews on the west coast of Scotland. After graduating from UE in 2010, I started working on a Master of Divinity as a Pitts scholar at Candler School of Theology in Emory University. While seminary is a very different environment than the archaeology classes of UE, the skills I gained in critical thinking, historical research, and ancient languages have proved invaluable as I spend my time negotiating historical theology, biblical studies and their modern application to the life of faith. Besides my time spent in class, I was also chosen to take a trip to Israel with several students to discuss issues of peace and religion in Israel. Although the conference was exhausting, I made time to see several local sites including the excavation at Megiddo.

Alex visits Israel.

Two years into my theological education in Atlanta, Georgia, I was awarded the Bobby Jones fellowship for a year of funded study at the University of St. Andrews, where I am currently living and working on a Masters of Letters (similar to an M.A. in the States). While living in Scotland, I have had the opportunity to work with many noted biblical scholars including N.T. Wright, as I explore the connection between the Bible and its role in shaping theology. St. Andrews is a beautiful place with cathedral ruins along the rugged coast only a few yards from my room, not to mention the coffee shop where the now princess Kate and prince Will first met. Although I have been primarily focused on my school work and research on Acts, I plan on doing some travelling this summer once the weather gets nice. After finishing my time here, I will be returning to Candler to finish up my M.Div and applying to Ph.D. programs in New Testament and Early Christianity.

The cathedral ruins in St. Andrews.

Alumnus Jon-Paul M. ('07) in Sudan

This past winter, I went to Sudan to work with the Sudan Archaeological Research Society/British Museum survey of part of the 5th Cataract. This area is to be flooded by the construction of the Shereik Dam, which is likely to be built given Omar al-Basheer's specific reference to its eventuality. My specific interest was to pair my participation in the project with independent work to collect data toward a dissertation. I am working toward a PhD in Geography at the University of Cincinnati focusing on geoarchaeology. My intention was to determine how the environment of this cataract area changed with the southern shift of the rainbelt and how that related to settlement patterns in the area.

Jon-Paul at Meroe.

Unfortunately, despite promises that everything was in order from NCAM (the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums of Sudan), after only a week's worth of work we were confronted in the field by a group of villagers from a settlement in the region (though not from the specific island we were working on at the time) and told to stop. Despite a week of negotiating, no arrangement could be made and the project leader, Derek Welsby made the decision to utilize the remaining time productively rather than sit and hope for a change in circumstances. We closed up shop at the 5th Cataract and moved farther north near Dongola in order to conduct excavations at Kawa, a site where Derek has been conducting excavations for a number of years. The remainder of the season (4 to 5 or so weeks) was spent doing excavations in the settlement's cemetery. I am currently reworking the material for my dissertation, but I do hope to focus on environmental change in relation to cataracts along the Nile.

Dan M. ('10) to talk about CRM work

Join the Society for Archaeology and the History of Art (SAHA) at the University of Evansville Tuesday February 26 at 8:00 pm in Hyde 8 to hear Dan Mohorcic ('10) talk about his three years of experience working for Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc. CRA is an archaeological and historic preservation firm that specializes in cultural resources and related studies. Dan will present on some of the projects he's worked on as a staff member at CRA and talk about the life of a "shovel bum" more generally.

Graduate Melanie Miller in Belize

This summer I participated in the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project (BVAR). This project focuses on the research of Maya sites in the Belize Valley and it is presently working at three sites: Cahal Pech, Lower Dover, and Baking Pot. I had the opportunity to work at latter two sites.

 I spent the first couple days in San Ignacio, Belize learning the basics of excavation before I went with a group to the remote jungle site of Lower Dover for two weeks. We stayed in cabins in the jungle where we slept with mosquito nets, showered with rain water, and walked with flashlights at night to avoid stepping on tarantulas. The site was about a half mile hike in the jungle from the camp. Lower Dover is a Terminal Classic site where excavations only recently began in 2010. This field season focused on excavating a plaza structure to determine its architecture to establish a chronology of Lower Dover. I helped to excavate a ceramic cache, which also contained faunal remains and obsidian, and then painstakingly re-uncover it with a spray bottle and paintbrush after a torrential downpour covered it in mud. I also worked in another unit to establish the site’s chronology by uncovering as many stratigraphic levels as quickly as possible before the season ended. This involved recognizing when there was a level change and very reluctantly having to break through several plaster floors of the plaza with a pick.

The last two weeks I worked at the site of Baking Pot, which has been under excavation for about 20 years and dates back to the Preclassic Period. Baking Pot is covered by modern farms and we had to navigate through a maze of corn fields to reach the mound under excavation. The objective was to expose the architecture of one structure and determine the mound’s chronology with a test pit that measured around 20 feet at season’s end. Since it was the end of the field season, most of the work at the mound was last minute digging, endless screening, and backfilling. Most of the time I was washing and processing artifacts at the ‘lab’ located on a livestock farm. The lab was really just a barn for storage, the porch of the livestock veterinary office, and the outdoors. Thus, we had some curious four-legged visitors that would attempt to eat or play with our equipment and we periodically had to run for cover whenever a stampede of cattle ran through the lab area while we crossed our fingers that they would not trample our drying racks full of 

artifacts.

On the weekends I visited other Maya sites in Belize and Guatemala. I’m looking forward to participating in another field school next summer, whether it is with BVAR again or another program in Belize. Overall, I learned a lot from my experience in Belize and gained invaluable insight into archaeological fieldwork. Nothing in the classroom can ever completely prepare you for work in the field, but fieldwork offers invaluable experience and the best stories definitely come from the field.

Six UE Archaeology Alumni Present at AIA Conference

Annually the Archaeological Institute of America hosts the biggest conference of Classical archaeologists in North America. Archaeologists from around the world attend. Presenting a paper, poster or workshop there is a true honor. This year the AIA conference was in Philadelphia during the first week in January and no fewer than six alumni participated. Congratulations to the following:

Danielle Riebe (above) (University of Illinois at Chicago), author of the poster “Signatures in Ceramics: Identifying Prehistoric Interaction through Ceramics on the Great Hungarian Plain”

Melissa Eaby (The Institute for Aegean Prehistory, Study Center for East Crete), coauthor of the paper “Death and Burial in Early Byzantine Chryssi, Crete”

Theresa Huntsman (Washington University in St. Louis) who authored the paper “Eternal Personae: The Performance of Etruscan Identity in Chiusine Cinerary Urns”

Theodora Kopestonsky (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), co-organizer of the session “Silent Participants: Terracottas as Ritual Objects”

Andrew Reinhard (American School of Classical Studies in Athens) who led a roundtable discussion entitled “How to Prepare Digital Images, Maps, Plans, and Tables for Archaeological Publications”

Robert Wanner (EAC / Archaeology) who organized the colloquium “Roman Dacia and Moesia: Developments in Archaeology and Heritage Preservation in Romania”

Way to go UE Archaeology Alumni!

Alumna Deb T. Wins Prestigious NSF Grant

The National Science Foundation recently awarded alumna Deb T. (pictured at right) a Doctoral Dissertation Improvment Grant. Deb is a PhD candidate at Florida State University and will be in Greece this spring doing research on Mycenaean (1600-1200 BC) cooking pots from two different regions. She is trying to uncover the economic and political significance of these vessels. NSF does not award this grant to scholars in the humanities very often; Deb's was an outstanding application. Congratulations Deb! For more information, follow these links:

http://classics.fsu.edu/News-and-Events/News-Highlights/Deb-Trusty-NSF-Grant

http://ogfa.fsu.edu/Students/Students-of-Distinction/Debra-Trusty

Student Lauren Weingart reports on summer NSF REU program at Notre Dame

In the months of June and July, I participated in the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF REU) in Bioarchaeology at Notre Dame. This program was a perfect fit for me because it combined my interests in bioarchaeology and Near Eastern studies. The undergraduate research fellows involved worked with the human remains from three sites in the Levant: Bab edh-Dhra', Byzantine St. Stephens, and Tel Dothan. My team worked with the Early Bronze Age II and III (3000-2750 BCE; 2750-2300 BCE) remains from Bab edh-Dhra'. We were interested in determining whether or not the individuals buried at the site were locals or migrants. During Early Bronze I-III in the region, a transition from a more pastoral lifestyle to a more settled agricultural, and eventually urban lifestyle took place. While some scholars have theorized that this urbanization was an internal development, others have suggested that outside influences, perhaps from the already urbanized areas of Egypt and Mesopotamia, may have played a part in this transition. After examining the evidence for both theories, my group hypothesized that we would find individuals who appeared to be locals. In order to distinguish local from non-local individuals, we examined the radiogenic strontium isotope ratios of 25 tooth enamel samples taken from the remains unearthed at Bab edh-Dhra'. Our results are not yet available.

Lauren drills a tooth.

Participating in the program was an excellent experience. The first two weeks were spent learning human bone anatomy and biology, as well as learning to recognize some common pathologies that can affect bone. The remainder of the seven week program was spent conducting research in small groups. Throughout the program we were visited by scholars from a diverse range of fields, whose expertise all ultimately related to our research in some capacity. This was a great opportunity not only to network with eminent scholars, but to explore our interests in a wide range of fields and specialties. I learned that not only do I have a passion for research, but I have a great love and talent for drilling teeth, and I reaffirmed my active interests in bioarchaeology, Near Eastern studies, and public archaeology. The experience in conducting relatively independent research, and the opportunity to continue that research, were irreplacable experiences. Invaluable are the many connections forged with visiting and resident scholars and my fellow students. I am in tremendous debt to Dr. Sue Sheridan, Dr. Jaime Ullinger, Lesley Gregoricka, and Theresa Gilner for their hard work and guidance.

Alumna Profile: Rachael G. ('03) in California



I graduated from UE in 2003, and immediately began my graduate studies in Industrial Archaeology at Michigan Technological University. I spent two summers excavating at the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring, New York, and completed my thesis in May 2005.


I became a “shovelbum” after graduate school in an effort to gain more fieldwork experience. In two years, I worked for four different companies and surveyed in New Jersey, North Carolina, Kansas, Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, and Georgia. The locations were less than glamorous, and the projects ranged from fascinating to boring. However, I met interesting people and learned something new with each project.


Mapping a dredge tailing pile in
Merced County, CA.

In May 2007, I became an archaeologist with the Indiana Department of Transportation. My responsibilities included archaeological records searches, survey, report writing, consultation with local historical groups, and documenting archaeological sites. My office time increased, but I learned how to use ArcGIS (highly recommended!) and gained a better understanding of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. However, I wanted to expand out of the Midwest, and began applying for jobs in the western United States.

 

In November 2009, I accepted my current position as a historical archaeologist with Garcia and Associates in Lompoc, California. In the past eighteen months, I have recorded shipwrecks along the Pacific Coast and historic farmsteads on Vandenberg Air Force Base, coordinated Phase II excavations at an oil storage facility, documented two hydroelectric power plants, and surveyed many prehistoric sites in the Owens Valley. 

Although my archaeological career is vastly different from my studies at UE, I owe my successful career to the supportive UE faculty and their high educational standards. I know the writing and presentation skills I gained as a student prepared me for the wonderful position I have today.

Alumna Profile: Deb T. ('05) in Athens, Greece

I graduated from UE with a major in Archaeology and a double minor in Classical Studies and Anthropology. I was also the Archaeology Club president (and president of my sorority!) and really enjoyed the wide range of scholastic and social events that UE had to offer. Also, UE’s strong endorsement of study abroad programs got me more interested in having the life of a travelling archaeologist. In the fall of 2003, less than a year before the 2004 Olympics, I spent a semester in Athens, Greece with the College Year in Athens Program (CYA). Combining what I learned in the basement of Hyde Hall with on-site instructional classes solidified my decision to become a classical archaeologist.

After graduating from UE, I immediately went on to graduate school at Florida State University, along with three other Aces from the Archaeology program (Philip Griffith, Maureen M., and Lafe Meicenheimer). I was admitted into the Classics Department at FSU, where I earned my MA in Classical Archaeology, and was accepted into the PhD program with a full scholarship, allowing me to teach courses in mythology and Latin. I spent the 2010-2011 school year in Greece as a regular member of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (ASCSA) and received the Philip J. Lockhart Fellowship from the ASCSA, which provided room, board, and a stipend for travels in addition to a Thompson Fellowship from FSU's Classics department. In the fall semester, I, along with other students at the ASCSA, traveled all over Greece – from Vergina to the Mani – giving on-site presentations and learning more about ancient sites from excavators, as well as the modern culture and its recent history.



Deb gives a presentation on the Delphi Charioteer at the Delphi Museum.

In the spring semester, I worked in the Corinth and Mycenae museums, beginning work on my dissertation entitled "Pots in the Periphery: Ceramic Analysis of Mycenaean Cooking Vessels and its Implications for an Integrated World-Systems Model." With the help of my advisor, Dr. Daniel Pullen (FSU), my dissertation involves stylistic, microscopic and chemical analyses of cooking vessels from several Mycenaean (1500-1100 BC) sites, including Mycenae, Zygouries, and Kalamianos, the recently-discovered site under co-directorship of Dr. Daniel Pullen (FSU, Classics) and Dr. Thomas Tartaron (University of Pennsylvania).


Deb working on pottery in the Corinth Museum.

I am now in the fourth year of my PhD at FSU, having earned my candidacy just last year, and am writing this blog entry from Athens, Greece. Even this far away from UE, I still find connections with my alma mater: I’m working on the same vessels from Zygouries that Dr. Thomas did for his dissertation; I continually get asked if I know “so and so” from UE, even though he/she graduated in ’92; I even ran into several Aces on our trips: Vince Valenti, who joined the ASCSA trip to the Argolid, and Melissa Eaby, who is now working at the Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP) on Crete. Back at FSU I am classmates with a UE alumna (Hillary C.) and we often talk about going to teach at a school like UE when we graduate. It seems I can’t go anywhere without being reminded of my days as an Ace.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Drs. Thomas, Kaiser, and Ebeling, as well as Dr. Berry in Anthropology and Dr. Ware in Religion, for their support and encouragement to follow the path that I am taking today. I know that the undergraduates at UE are in good hands! GO ACES!

(Left: Deb in front of the Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae)

Alumna Profile: Ti M. ('07) at Fort Garland, CO and in Cincinnati



Ti at Fort Garland, CO.

In the summer of 2008 I participated in Adams State College’s archaeological field school at Fort Garland, CO. We lived at the Fort in our own little tent city (I went through two tents by the end of it as the zippers on the first one I bought broke and the tent leaked like crazy!). It excavation lasted 6 weeks. During the first part of the season, we dug in the garbage section of the Fort for practice, and after that we moved on to the area near the stables and into the cellar of one of the buildings that is no longer standing (the building had burned down, but there was still some food remains, including seeds, left in the cellar). The well I helped excavate was 25 feet deep (below). At the bottom we found literally hundreds of horse shoes, and we have no idea why they were thrown in the well. We had lots of other experiences including Civil War days where reenacters came to the Fort to live like they would have during the Civil War era, and also went to see some early Native sites. It was a wonderful experience overall.



Ti goes down the 25-foot well.

Since graduating from UE I have been working for my father’s company, Nightingale-Alan Medical, and at Old Navy. I've worked on and off for my father for years, and the current accountant is planning to retire, so the job was offered to me by my father and his business partner. I had trouble finding a job in Cincinnati using my degree, and I decided not to do CRM, so I was glad to take this job. In exchange the company is helping pay for my Masters of Science degree in accounting and financing (I am undecided on pursuing an MBA) online through the University of Maryland. My boyfriend Scott and I recently bought a house, and we are doing some major remodeling. Between the house, school and two jobs, I keep very busy.



Alumna Profile: Julie C. ('07) in California

At UE, my passion for historical interpretation and the protection of historic sites and collections was solidified. After graduating in 2007, I spent a summer interning with the Department of Prehistory and Europe at the British Museum in London. I was a member of the “Etton Registration Project” team, which was charged with cataloging a decade’s worth of archaeological material from the prehistoric site of Etton, UK. In addition to photographing, sorting and storing human and animal remains, as well as more flint than one can possibly imagine, I was allowed rare access to the museum’s largest storage facility, Blythe House, which it shares with the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Science Museum. For instance, I saw the Vindolanda tablets up close, I learned the BM’s newest conservation methods for textiles and Iron Age artifacts, and I witnessed the restoration of Egyptian temple reliefs. I cannot even mention some of the stuff they have locked away in the basement!

Julie in the gardens at Bhaktivedanta Manor, Watford, UK

It was a few tube stops away at the Victoria and Albert Museum that I developed a new, but deep appreciation for the art of South Asia, particularly the religious art of India. After doing a bit of research and, ironically, just walking a few blocks away from the British Museum, I discovered the School of Oriental and African Studies, part of the University of London. It was there in the fall of 2008 that I began my MA in the History of Art and Archaeology specializing in the art of South Asia. In my Master’s dissertation I was able to merge my love for the city of London and my interest in Hindu art by examining how modern British Hindus have had to adapt urban secular spaces to become temples for lack of space and creative license due to cultural and governmental controls. The centerpiece of my study was Bhaktivedanta Manor, a Tudor-style manor house on the outskirts of London that devotees have converted into a temple with multiple shrines both inside and on the grounds. It was gifted to the Hare Krishna movement by George Harrison, which I like to think made my dissertation a tad bit more rock ‘n’ roll than the rest!

California Oil Museum, Santa Paula, CA

Today, I am the Assistant Museum Educator at the California Oil Museum in Santa Paula, CA (follow us on Facebook!). As assistant to the museum’s director, I am responsible for creating marketing materials, such as press releases and posters, installing exhibitions whose contents range from fossils to paintings, and ensuring the day-to-day running of the museum. As assistant educator, I give tours to the public and to school groups and am currently developing new activities for students that meet state curriculum standards while utilizing the history of our building, the second story of which retains its appearance and contents from the late 19th century. On the weekends, I am a docent at the Malibu Lagoon Museum and Adamson House in Malibu, CA where I guide visitors through a 1930s-era Spanish Colonial Revival-style beach house and also get to enjoy a wonderful view of the ocean! My degree in archaeology and art history from UE has allowed me to view some rare and spectacular sights/sites and has definitely imbued in me a unique way of looking at the world. I cannot wait to see where it takes me next!

Alumnus Profile: Andrew M. ('06) in Tallahassee

After graduating from UE in the spring of 2006, I attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to earn an MA in Anthropology, specializing in Professional Archaeology. I chose to attend UNL so that I could learn more about conflict (battlefield) archaeology and gain some experience in that subfield. I did my master’s thesis on an artillery shell scatter from a frontier military post site in western Nebraska dating to the mid-1860s. As part of my thesis data collection, I also assisted my thesis advisor and a member of my thesis committee in the survey of several other battlefield or military associated sites dating to the same period in western Nebraska. While I was at Nebraska I also worked part-time as a teaching assistant for two semesters and as an archaeological technician with the National Park Service’s Midwest Archeological Center for a year. During that year, I assisted in the excavation of test units at several prehistoric sites at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to help determine their eligibility for the National Register and also completed several site assessments. When I was not in the field, I was working in the MWAC lab cleaning, identifying, labeling, and storing artifacts that we collected.

After graduating from UNL in December of 2008, I took some time off and worked on co-authoring an article with a member of my thesis committee regarding the history and projected future of conflict archaeology. I also married a fellow UE alum, Hillary C. (’07), during this time. In October of 2009, I started working for R. Christopher Goodwin and Assoc. out of New Orleans as a second tier archaeologist doing archaeology across the southeast. I am currently nearing the end of my first year with this company and have worked in Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida completing all phases of archaeological work on both historic and prehistoric sites that will be affected by construction.

Alumnus Profile: Nathan E. ('02) at Yale

I graduated from UE with a degree in Archaeology and Classical Studies in 2002. After that, I received my M.A. in the City of Rome program at the University of Reading in 2003 and then immediately returned to the United States to study Greek and Roman Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri. I defended my Ph.D. dissertation there in September 2010. Presently, I am a postdoctoral associate at the Yale University Art Gallery and also a lecturer in the Department of Classics at Yale College for the 2010 fall semester.

It was only after I left UE that I realized UE’s archaeology program – one of the few in the nation – is so solid and well-respected. In the M.A. program on Roman topography at Reading, I was the only student with any background in archaeology; it gave me a strong advantage since I was already familiar with specialist vocabulary and many of the city’s monuments. During my first week in the University of Missouri’s doctoral program in the Department of Art History and Archaeology, I met another student in the program who was a UE alumna. Later, one of the professors remarked to me that they always found UE students well-prepared for the M.A. and Ph.D. programs in archaeology.

Undergraduate education is an important formative period in anyone’s life. My teachers and experiences at UE helped to prepare me for opportunities that have come my way since. In addition to the small classroom sizes, which fostered instructor-student interactions and spurred critical discussions in seminar settings, I was able to develop close professional relationships with my teachers. Prof. Steven Tuck, now at Miami University, and Prof. Patrick Thomas were my advisors. Outside of the classroom, they always counseled me on my career ambitions and provided me with strategies to meet those goals.

I owe much to UE’s high educational standards and particularly its focus on quality liberal arts education. Virtually every one of my courses demanded at least one paper of 15-20 pages in length. This emphasis on writing and independent research elicits critical and independent thought. Furthermore, Prof. Thomas and Prof. Tuck often encouraged me to pursue my own research interests in my term papers and to present findings at undergraduate research conferences. These experiences and freedoms no doubt prepared me with the basic tools to begin publishing peer-reviewed research.

After I finished my doctoral coursework in October 2006, I immediately traveled to Frankfurt, Germany to begin dissertation research, supported by a DAAD research grant. The institute at which I was based invited me to return as a waged employee after the grant expired; I worked there until I took up my present position in fall 2009. In Germany too, my experiences at UE proved to be invaluable. My advisors stressed to me that, although I had studied French as my requisite modern language, German was essential for advanced research and education in Greek and Roman archaeology. Therefore, I studied German for two years while at UE. I passed my doctoral reading exams in German relatively easily and had a foundation to improve my working knowledge of the language while living in Germany.

UE’s educational environment, which promotes critical thought, independent learning, and peer-teacher interactions, is its greatest strength. This tight-knight community of students and teachers mirrors what one finds in graduate programs and so the transition from UE to postgraduate education was, for me, relatively painless.

UE has a strong sense of academy and community; I still correspond regularly with my former teachers and the friends I made at UE.