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Wednesday, August 31, 2005
First Week
My first week of graduate school classes has come and gone. I've had all my classes now and I'm more convinced than ever that I made the right decision. Having my archaeological methods class yesterday reminded me of the excitement of research and yes, even lab work (I’m a nerd like that). I soon realized that my professor for this course is the most visibly published I’ve ever had. It’s kind of neat to have a teacher that’s “the guy” in some specific area, in this case something to do with Mediterranean archaeology although he has simultaneous projects literally scattered all over the world (re: my dream job). Chiefdoms, which I had today, will be interesting for me because the professor for that class works in Mesoamerica and co-directs the university’s archaeological field school in Honduras. And as it turns out, I only have to audit and not officially register for the undergraduate linguistics course that I’m taking to play catch up. The financial aid gods are pleased about that one.
Most exciting of all, however, has been seeing familiar faces in all of my graduate classes. At least two people I’ve met are in all three. Also exciting and quite new is the diversity of both the faculty and graduates. My alma mater, UNC-Wilmington, is an insanely diversity-lacking institution in general, to say nothing of the anthropology department (unfortunately, minority archaeologists are extremely few). Having moved to Tampa, which is a far more diverse community than Wilmington, I’m already opening my eyes to the fact that I’m going to be presented with a number of varying opinions and views about anthropology and the world in general. One new student, a PhD candidate, is straight from the Philippines and was offering some excellent “outside” observations about American anthropology. As exclusive and elitist as the United States in general often is I can’t imagine being new to a country and being trained in an almost completely different way of thinking, as American anthropology is indeed quite unique in a historical-theoretical sense.
Posted by Will at August 31, 2005 06:51 PM in Graduate School