pears
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Posts posted by pears
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Hmm, that's a really interesting question actually. My focus is in mortuary archaeology, so I'm an arch/bioarch fence-sitter of sorts. Admittedly, I have a big ol' soft spot for theory: learning about theories, debating theories, critiquing them, & so forth. It's amazing how much overlap with philosophy (of science, among other things) there can be.
My two first thoughts were Michelle Hegmon, who's at ASU, & Ian Hodder, who's at Stanford. Hegmon coined the idea of "processual-plus" theory, that is, the blending of processual & post-processual theory that seems to be en vogue in American archaeology. I'm interested to see where the whole processual-plus perspective goes, & there are many thoughtful critiques & criticisms of it out there, namely from scholars who lean in the feminist and Marxist direction — that is, theories that make a point of examining something specific in its own right (women/gender, economics/social struggle) & are also politically charged. Hodder is very much a post-processualist, so I'm not sure he's quite on the cutting edge of theory anymore, but he is a theoretical heavy-hitter f'sho. I now Barb Voss is also at Stanford, & she does some cool theoretically-bent work on ethnogenesis & gender in archaeology. Not sure what the rest of the Stanford faculty is like.
Pretty good timing, actually: I had a reading-based discussion in a seminar today about the role of ontology in anthropology, which seems to be a very new niche of interest, but a super interesting one (to me, at least!). Martin Holbraad, who's at UCL, came up often, as did Severin Fowles, who's at Columbia through Barnard College. Columbia's faculty has lots of familiar names for me that rang a "theory!" bell in my brain, but I think most are cultural in focus. Hmm. Otherwise, the other names that came up belong to people who are in Denmark, Brasil, & other places where language may be a barrier. The link that clicking Holbraad's name leads to may offer other people, too!
Theory is so, so broad, even in archaeology alone.. it just depends on what kind of theory you're interested in, I guess.
Not sure how helpful I was, but, as I said, I love all kinds of theory chitchat, so I'm interested to see what other names & programs pop up! -
Hmm, this is a tricky situation. When you say you don't like your department or campus culture, do you mean your home program, the one you're at now, or both? Either way, it sounds like you're in a really tough spot, so I do hope you find your second wind, wherever it takes you. Personally, I would press through the final months, but I'm so stubborn I make mules seem easygoing. In your situation, however, it sounds like the chance to start over in a new place with a new thesis topic that you're more passionate about could really be the boost you need, if you're still set on completing an MA. Have you looked into other programs, especially in terms of transferring credits? It would be a shame (& possibly a pain in the rump) to have to start from square one on coursework.
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I think you may have better luck posting in the Engineering forum, which you can find here (click for hyperlink). Sorry I can't be of more help than that!
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I actually didn't see it as a negative, as long as there's continuity between what you'd be doing in the MA program & what you would want to do in a PhD program. It totally depends on the coursework, though. If you can focus your classes on all things anthropological, rather than, say, political science, it could be a great advantage if you intend to keep your focus on Latin American things, since you'd have a solid foundation in that specific area of study than others who are coming from a more general 4-field background might not. That said, if the coursework component of the degree is pretty inflexible, it could be problematic, just because it might veer away from anthropology (although I think a socioculturally focused thesis could make up for that.. but what do I know!).
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I'm like super struggling with this. I feel like I just don't communicate in a mature way. I mean I can but it isn't my usual. I just want to be that super smart person who can like have super intelligent conversations. How the hell is grad school going to go? I mean I know I am unnecessarily freaking out but I am in a total panic.
When it comes to conversations, it's all about the code-switching. I'm using that term in the popular sense, i.e., changing between registers, if you can call "academic-speak" a register.. I guess it could be considered style-switching, too, because it's just as much about where your mind is at as it is the people you're surrounded by. Anyway, the way I speak in class is very different from the way I speak to classmates in casual settings, & the way I speak to professors varies with respect to the setting as well as whom I'm speaking with. Your setting, your state of mind, & whom you're talking to or with should play a big role in how you speak & act. I know a lot of my classmates are the same way, & we have to laugh about it: mid-week, we're all scholarly & polite, talking about theory & philosophy, but come Friday, we're putting down beers & colorful language goes flying. So, in that sense, having an awareness of how your spoken language & body language should change from setting to setting &/or from person to person is really helpful. I learned how to navigate the differences through work experiences, mostly, & it's really come in handy in grad school so far.
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Allow me to point out the striking irony of your post. You claim that I'm making 'assumptions' about MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, and then you proceed to make the opposing assumption about...MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
You also completely misread my post, twisted the meaning, and failed to account for the context of the other posts in this thread by OverworkedTA. I didn't say that no girls like beer. All I said was that most girls THAT I KNOW prefer wine to beer. I know several girls who prefer beer over wine, but they aren't nearly as obsessed with beer as OverworkedTA seems to be.
Although I mistakenly thought you disliked my post because of the use of chick, it turns out your reasoning was just as dumb. I think I can still make the point that maybe you should stop trying to find something offensive about everything.
As you are stating your own personal experience, I, too, am stating mine, as well as my interpretation (& apparently dstock's as well) of what you said. Regardless of whether my experiences or interpretations were correct, your follow-up post put me on the defensive, & I felt a need to explain my downvote. My apologies for the misinterpretation; as I'm sure you know, there is an extant, unfavorable stereotype of women who drink wine, as well as the assumption that all women are concerned with calories & carbohydrates to the degree it affects what they drink. I took your post to be an allusion to that, although you did not mention it explicitly, & that was my mistake. I see no need to fling around so many insulting words for that.
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I used 'chick' just to see if anyone would downvote it. You took the bait. Congratulations! It really amazes me that people find that word offensive. It's essentially the same as 'dude' (both are basically meaningless IMO). But I digress...
I have no problem with your word choice, & I'm sure I'm not alone in that. There's no need to mill around posting with an antagonistic "ooh, look, I'm doing the trolling!" attitude, either.
The issue, of course, is the assumption "[they]'ve got to be the biggest chick beer lover [you]'ve ever come into contact with." I find it very hard to believe that you have yet to encounter more than a few women who prefer to drink anything besides wine, &/or who have a strong working knowledge of all types of beer. Just like some dudes are all about wine or vodka, some chicks are all about beer or whiskey, & neither one is that unusual. Basically, gender doesn't articulate perfectly — or even very well at all, for that matter — with drinking choices.
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For those who live near a Safeway, the Safeway Select brand has epic veggie potstickers. They're on the salty side, but are actually pretty nutritious if you have an otherwise low-salt diet: no cholesterol, good fiber & protein, good vitamin A & iron (some calcium & vitamin C, too). I fry mine in avocado oil, which is expensive, but is a good clean frying oil with a high smoke point, & is easier to find than ghee. Om nom nom!
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Hey Daisy - what aspects of bioarchaeology are you interested in? Morphometrics, taphonomy, isotopes, something else?
Also, I second what pears said about Stojanowski and Knudson - had the opportunity to work on a project with them on the Green Sahara project and their work is amazing
what. WHAT. I just had a fangirl 'splosion. I'm probably gonna send you a PM at some point about them (sorry in advance)!
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You might already be doing this, but the way I found my potential POIs was by finding publications on the topics that interest me. They usually have a list of authors and their university affiliations.
A very quick google scholar search for "bioarchaeology + middle east" turned up this publication http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oa.749/abstract from UC Berkeley.
Again, you might already know/be doing all this, but I know there are plenty of other people lurking on this forum looking for similar advice;)
academia.edu is another great resource for finding papers & professors. From the folks I follow, here are some ideas:
• Ryan Harrod at University of Alaska - Anchorage: specializes in the bioarchaeology of violence, mostly, over a few regions. He just got his PhD from UNLV under Dr. Martin, so he's probably had great & up-to-date training. Bit of a gamble, though, as he's apparently the only bioarch-focused faculty member there.
• Deb Martin at University of Nevada - Las Vegas: not surprisingly, she also focuses on the bioarchaeology of violence, as well as social inequality. She's done work in Sudanese Nubia, & is doing work now in the SW US & NW Mexico.
• USF: in general, they have a really strong bioanthropology department. One of the department's "research themes" is the "biocultural dimensions of human health & illness." Besides the physical/bio folks (Himmelgreen, Kimmerle, Madrigal, & Miller), there are a few medical anthropologist staff members who focus on the same area. If I weren't dead-set on never returning to the East Coast, I would totally put in an app for their PhD program down the road.
• Sabrina Agarwal at University of California - Berkeley: one of my big nerd idols! She does cross-cultural comparative studies about the intersections of age, sex, & gender with bone frailty & maintenance, & how they contribute to the embodiment of social identities.
• Chris Stojanowski & Kelly Knudson at Arizona State University: my other big nerd idols (it's kind of embarrassing how badly I want to work with them down the road for a PhD, hah!). They do a lot of collaborative work about embodiment of social identities; Dr. Knudson is an expert of all things stable isotope analysis, & Dr. Stojanowski has done work on morphometrics & dental analysis in the SE US & the Sahara.
Unfortunately (sort of), most of these people are total academic superstars (read: I'm not the only one who covets the chance to work with them) &/or the programs are competitive. Still, check out their CVs - hopefully at least one of them will be of interest to you!
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Agreed with sarab - well said! When I was deciding between my top 2 choices, the second, third, & seventh questions really cleared things up for me.
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Just got a totally unexpected letter by email from University of British Columbia.
"I am pleased to inform you that we are recommending your admission into the PhD programme in Anthropology..."
and then it gets even better:
"Due to your outstanding academic record, you have been selected as a recipient of UBC's premier Four Year Doctoral Fellowship...."
Funding includes all tuition & fees and living expenses, and any TA money is on top of that. I'm floored.
Holy whoa! Congrats!!
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I've been just doing my snake bites lately. Magner's Irish Cider topped with Guinness. Really, any cider topped with a stout or even a porter will do. I've been drinking a lot of Black Butte Porter here in Seattle. There's this little place where I'm staying that brews their own and has lots of local beers. Had the West Side IPA and the Hoppurtunity Knocks the other day. Pretty good stuff. But nothing beats a Bushmill's Honey on the rocks. I'm a liquor guy. Gimme scotch and water, rum and coke, gin and tonic, honey bourbon neat, or a nice Whiskey Sour.
Mmm, bourbon & scotch. Also, it's funny that cider + Guinness = snakebite for you; I drank them regularly when I lived in Australia, & it was always cider with raspberry or some kind of current cordial/liqueur on top. I'd probably find them too sweet now, but that's how I came to love good, dry or dark ciders anyway.
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I always take offense to being called a part of the "entitled" and "lazy" generations. I have worked so hard to get to where I am today. I am self-motivated and give everything academic related, 100%. I'm not trying to sound pretentious, but I don't take lightly to being lumped into that category...
Agreed! & if we're "entitled" & "lazy," I'd hate to see what these armchair social pundits will be calling the kids born from the late 90s through.. well, now, pretty much. Lord knows I don't have too many nice things to say about them!
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Ok what about us cheap people because I like to drink but I hate spending a lot lol. I mean I am not looking for like natty light cheap but I want good beer (preferably sweeter) that's not super expensive.
Elysian has a jasmine IPA (hardly hoppy at all) which is faintly sweet. 21st Amendment has a beer called Allies Win the War! which is flavored with dates, and it's a darker, stronger beer. Shandy beers (really, beers with soft drink added) have very fruity flavors; Leinenkugel has a Lemon Berry Shandy, an Orange Shandy, a Berry Weiss, & a Summer Shandy, which are all relatively sweet - too sweet for me. Pumpkin beers (Smuttynose has a great one), lambics, & wheat beers (witbier, hefeweizen, weisse, etc.) are generally lighter, sweeter beers, too.
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FaultyPowers: I'd interpret that at a sign that committees are meeting & thoroughly considering applicants' materials. It's a busy time of year for departments — midterms, applications, funding, conferences, etc. — so that may explain the silence there. Also, professors (& therefore admin. staff?) may prefer not to be in touch with applicants while they're undergoing review until they have a decision. That would explain why all of your materials have been accessed somehow, & the silence, too.
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I'm not normally a stout drinker (I prefer hoppy beers), but Old Rasputin, a Russian Imperial Stout out of the North Coast Brewing Co. in California, is really tasty. I'm not sure how widely distributed it is, but I found it here in Missoula, MT, so it shouldn't be too limited.
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Are MA programs allowed to pressure you to answer before April 15? Doesn't seem fair
Yes, unfortunately, although I forget why/how it's permissible; I had two places that wanted a decision from me by the third week of March last year. I'm guessing places would be understanding about an extension, though!
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There are a few I can think of. They all graduated at great departments, just not top ten:
- Dr. Geoffrey Hayes faculty member at Northwestern, PhD @ University of Utah
- Dr. Charles Adam, faculty member at University of Arizona, PhD @ University of Colorado
- Dr. Barbara Mills, faculty member at University of Arizona, PhD @ University of New Mexico
- Dr. Caroly Rouse, PhD from University of Southern California, chair of the anthropology department at Princeton University
- Dr. Christian Tryon, faculty member at Harvard, PhD @ University of Connecticut (Great, great program. I just think Connecticut to Harvard is a step up in terms of prestige).
- Dr. Douglas Ubelaker, huge name in bioanthropology & curator for the Smithonian, PhD @ University of Kansas
- Dr. Dolores Piperno, archaeobotanist for the Smithonian Institute, PhD @ Temple University
Although it's likely a bit outdated now, this reminded me of the SAA's publication that attempted to rank PhD programs in archaeology; click here for link. I believe Michigan (U of), Cal (Berkeley), and Arizona (U of) fell in the top 3 positions, while ASU was 5th; not sure about the 4th spot. Unfortunately, I don't have the full list, but I think that this survey did a good job of finding a way to assess what matters the most. The five most important factors, in order: research opportunities for students, graduate funding, curriculum & quality of university library (tie), success of faculty in competing for funds, & a strong emphasis on method & theory. I interpret that as fit, funding, fit, funding, & not-quite-either-one (closer to fit, though).
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If you want the most flexibility, get another Mac. You can dual or triple boot Windows, Linux and Mac OS easily and have all three operating systems available if needed. In my experience the majority of anthro faculty may have a university provided PC on their desk, but their personal machine is a mac.
Semi-related: any advice on how to dual boot Windows with Mac OS? I can send you a PM, if that's easier.
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There are other nitro beers out there. For example, Left Hand does both their regular milk stout and a nitro milk stout. You could buy both and compare! (Note: I have actually done this at a beer tasting and it was pretty interesting.)
Nitro stouts (& others) are awesome! I wish I had the vaguest clue about the "beer science" behind Nitro vs. regular carbonation.
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First off, I highly doubt you'll have any offers rescinded. Seeing as you've been offered funding, I'm guessing programs will know it's an exception to the rule.
As for the rest: you're not alone in those feelings and worries! I'm at the program that was my top choice when applying and loving it, but I still feel anxious sometimes. One thing to understand is that going to grad school is inherently selfish, to at least some degree; you're going to a place that suits your needs in the short and long term to reach your goals. Go with the decision you know is best for you, then take that opportunity and run with it. It will likely be more disappointing if you chose somewhere to please everyone else, then struggled and didn't reach your full potential.
Taking your mind off it all is something of a two-part process. The first is to take your mind off of everything as much as possible: exercise, hang out with friends, indulge in a hobby that's not related to your academic work. The second is the more realistic part: acknowledge that your worries exist but are justified, and allow yourself to muddle through them. When I'm nervous, I try to remember why I'm so passionate about what I do, and think of the daunting task ahead as another step on the journey towards my "big picture" goals. I also like to think of the so-called Zone of Proximal Development; it reminds me that small risks and medium jumps are necessary for growth, but I still have to be cognizant of when I'm pushing myself so far that the risks outweigh the benefits. But, that's just my experience; you may have a different approach to rationalizing what you're doing and handling your worries. Hope that helped!
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May we all clink pint glasses at AAAs and SAAs some day, graduate degrees in hand! I'll wear a grumpy cat shirt so you can find me.
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I would neither be alive nor able to even get out of bed, feed myself, or sleep normally without the anti-depressants (and other medications) I'm taking. It is frustrating to know I have to spend at least $30 or $40 monthly for a cocktail of things I can't stop taking, but after 8 or so years, I've not only accepted that as being necessary, but as something to embrace, being doing so helps me be more at peace with my mental health status. I've learned that who I am as a person isn't dependent on what I'm diagnosed with; I spent too long of a long time seeing my mental health as being incompatible with being happy, healthy, and successful. Now it's a point of pride to see how much I've accomplished, but it is still an uphill battle every day.
If you can physically function most days, i.e. complete basic tasks, and – more importantly – if you don't want to take an SSRI or NRI, tell your therapist that. If you neither want nor need to, that's your call. It also takes months of trial and error to find the best possible option, and that process can be as crippling as the reason for the Rx.
I've found that I still get in a serious funk once in a while, and as silly as it sounds, things like changing my eating habits and how frequently I exercise always make an enormous difference. Ditto regular therapy, and talking it out with friends. I suggest changing all the above and giving the new routine a few weeks before considering a medication. I can't stress the physiological aspects and truly (frustratingly) all-consuming and chronic nature of mental health problems/MDD enough, and I personally wouldn't wish the financial, emotional, and physical burdens of psychiatric medications on anyone who can function normally without them. But, that's just my personal experience and opinion; I'm no doctor.
stress eating and weight gaining
in The Lobby
Posted
Preach. I'm super short, & my hips are pretty wide relative to my frame, so.. you can guess where most of the 25 pounds I've gained in the last 5 years have gone. Blergh. To be fair, when I first entered college, I was nearly underweight (i.e., a pound or two away), & I didn't drink + was super athletically active in high school. Drinking & one sport took over, & I put on 10 pounds my first two years. I put on another 10 my junior year when I lived abroad & was completely sedentary. The other 5 were a slow creep after graduating.
That said, I've been returning to healthy eating & exercise recently -- living with my S.O. who loves pizza & beer made me lose all self-restraint.. whoops -- & I've noticed that the first 5 pounds have left my face & my stomach first. Hmm. I'm hoping to lose another 10-15 pounds; the number depends on what I feel the best at, I guess. I am definitely a stress eater with a horrible sweet tooth, but a pescatarian one at that who has a really hard time eating fatty & dairy-rich foods, so I guess it's self-limiting that way. If I don't literally write in exercising & cooking into my schedule, it's easy to let it all slip. I've noticed that switching from drinking a beer or two daily & eating greasy/lazy foods to fewer beers, clean + home-cooked food, & exercise has done my sleep schedule & appetite some noticeable good already. I'm not so sluggish in the mornings (even without coffee right away), & I feel more full with less food, & don't crave snacks as often. Hooray, fiber & nutrients!