Research Grant and Study Group Invite

I was driving home yesterday and I receive a much-anticipated phone call from the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg, Virginia. I was informed that I was one of a hand full of scholars selected to receive a research grant for 2012. I am so excited!  I was told that my proposal was both "dynamic" and "appeals to many scholarly fields." I am scheduled to visit the facility for two weeks this summer to collect information relating to my M.A. thesis project.  I can't wait!  As soon as I hung up the phone I received an email invitation to attend a study group session in Maryland.  I have been invited to talk about my thesis research at the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory in June.  I'm looking forward to both of these opportunities.  The study group session will be focusing on horse furniture and numerous interpretations of these objects will be shared amongst several researchers. 

AES Visit

As you know, I traveled to A.E.S. for a conference. There were less people than I was expecting, which I found to be a blessing in disguise.  The location was conveinient and the topics were quite interesting.  There was a panel that focussed primarily on the OWS movement and I attended another session that focussed on Indigenous issues.  I also spent a great deal of time book shopping.  If you're a student and you've never attended a conference before, I think A.E.S is a good one to attend if you're in the NYC/NJ area- simply to get that first-time conference "feeling."

American Ethnological Society & Nevis

This week I purchased my plane tickets to Nevis, with a bit of finagling.  It seems that all of the flights I originally wanted have since sold out.  These flights were not direct flights- they each had connections in Miami. The planes which were due to arrive in Miami were full, not those which would be flying from Miami to St Kitts. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise- as myself and a friend were able to book a direct flight from New York to St Kitts.  From there we will take our two-hour ferry boat ride to Nevis. I will actually need to travel from DC to New York to catch this flight, which is frustrating- but I'm saving about $50 in gas and tolls by going this route.  I will then be catching a train back from Jersey to Fredericksburg after our return from the island.  My friend and I will be staying overnight in a hostel near the airport, which will provides free airport shuttles.  At the end of the day, I'm spending the same amount of money as I would if I were driving to and from Jersey- except I don't have to do the driving and I don't have to put the miles on my car.  The trade-off is worth it. I'm so excited to be getting back into the field that I've already packed my bag!  No, seriously.  It's at the foot of my bed, full of toiletries, clothes, camera and an assortment of other travel things...

I am an officer for the History and Anthropology Club, which was recently resurrected at Monmouth University.  A few students and I decided that it was time to come up with our own way of paying for conference travel expenses AND to encourage students to participate in these conferences. We want to find a cultural, archaeology and history conference to start with for next year.  The archaeology students have already decided that the Mid Atlantic Archaeology Conference (MAAC) is the best "starter" for students who have never presented before. Our history students are investigating their option and tomorrow, I will be traveling to NYC to check out the American Ethnological Society (AES) conference.  Two of our cultural MA students is also traveling- if the conference is of interest- we may return next year!  I will do my best to participate as well-- my professional interests lie in archaeology but I am a cultural convert...  I'm interested in cultural revitalization movements and it might be nice to churn out a paper related to such a topic. We shall see!

I'll be sure to update within the next few days, informing you of my experience at AES...

Middle Atlantic Archaeology Conference 2012

I have recently returned from the MAAC.  This year the conference was held in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  I presented a paper entittled: "For Want of a Bit, the Bridle was Lost: Horse Bit Typology Across Historic Landscapes."  Sadly, I did not win the student competition.  The conference was not without success-  several individuals approached me after my session, telling me that they felt I had given both a strong and informative paper.  This paper demonstrated the preliminary stages of my thesis project, which is to develop a dating strategy for archaeologists via historic horse bit.

I am currently on the hunt for horse bits from a variety of archaeological collections in the Mid-Atlantic region.  If you happen to know of any with tight contexts, please contact me! 

I would also like to thank Mike Madden, the salesman who provided the students of Monmouth University with spectacular book deals over the weekend to supply our Archaeology Lab Library with some rich research texts!