Summer 2013

Thursday: June 13, 2013

On Friday, I am training one of the newbs on the white light confocal profiler. She will be taking over my responsibilities for the DENTALWEAR Project. She’s the gal that allowed me to meet Milford Wolpoff at the AAPA’s. Have I mentioned that yet? If not, I will some day. She will also be subletting my apartment for a few weeks while I am away, which is fabulous.

On Sunday, I leave for a 4-week field school in Kentucky, along the Ohio River. The project is led by Matt, who is testing the site for his dissertation. The people who lived there were part of what is called the Fort Ancient culture. I know little about this, other than what I’ve learned from a presentation Matt gave. The area covers parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. Essentially, at the time of contact, the French were north, in Canada, and came down west, along the Mississippi River. The English were in New England, but didn’t make it west enough to breach the cultural zone. The Spanish were in Florida, and de Soto traveled inland and west, but never came north enough. Ergo, we have a lot of historic documents about other cultures, but a gaping hole in knowledge for Fort Ancient around this time. I have several articles to read about the time period and culture, but with my thesis looming over my head, I haven’t been able to start those.

After the field school, I have a 1-week window to defend my thesis if I am still expecting to go to Sapelo. I may not get to – my advisor suggested I collect more data, but I had to come home instead of staying at school considering I will not have that option for the next 4 weeks. It is a bummer, but science is science and certain things just must be done. If I can’t go to Sapelo, I just keep telling myself that there is always next year. I am still in the process of editing too – obviously I do not have all my results yet since I am in the midst of collecting new data, but the majority of the paper is done, and I’ve been getting good feedback from my advisor and reader.

This is the last push til I officially graduate. After that, I should have an adjunct position at my undergrad alma mater (I checked in with them, considering I heard of a huge budget deficit, but all looks well). I will also begin the big cattle-call for getting people interested in the county-wide survey I’ve mentioned. I truly hope that once grad school business is all over, I have time to recap my experience as a grad student. I’ve done so much, it would be a shame not to share!

 

See other entries with similar topics:
DENTALWEAR • field-school • thesis