This post is the first in a series of posts by WAC student members about their lives as student archaeologists. Everywhere in the world, archaeological education is different, but some lessons are universal. Here your colleagues will share them!
-------------------------------------------------------------
I am María Florencia Becerra and I am 30 years old. I have been a WAC student member since 2006, when I joined the first WAC Student Committee, during my fourth year in undergraduate school (Archaeology in the National University of Tucumán, Argentina). Now, almost 8 years later, I am the Student Representative in the WAC Executive and I have just got my PhD degree in Archaeology in the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina (June, 2014). My dissertation was focused on the study of mining and metallurgy during colonial times (17th and 18th centuries) in the Jujuy High Plateau, in the extreme northwest of Argentina.
Since I was a little girl I’ve been dreaming of becoming an archaeologist. That is why, as soon as I finished highschool, I moved to another city (1300km far from home) to study Archaeology. During the first couple of years I didn’t have any clue of what my research topic would be like… Any chance to go to do fieldwork orlaboratory work was a great opportunity to learn and evaluate whether I pictured myself researching that area and studying that kind of materials, or not. My first student grant was in fact dedicated to study pottery technology in the Jujuy High Plateau, but after the research was done, I decided that was not my passion. A year later, doing fieldwork in the same region, I visited a mining site, where four probably colonial furnaces were still preserved. I started asking my advisor about them and quickly made them my field of study. Researching colonial mining and metallurgy allowed me to join all my passions: doing fieldwork and chemical composition analyses, plus reading historic documentation, all at once. My undergraduate dissertation was then a first attempt to study this topic. A couple of months before submitting the thesis, I applied for a PhD grant and one month after graduating, I received the happy news: I was going to be paid for working on what I loved for the next five years… Nothing could be more exciting! This June I applied for a post-doctoral grant so I hope the results are as promising as there were in the past.
During these past 12 years (wow, it is a long time!), I had my ups and downs. Writing thesis is not the best time in your life, but I learned that it shouldn’t be the worst either… If you don’t love what you are doing, nothing works… Archaeology is far from this “romantic” profession that only involves fieldwork and great discoveries. Archaeology implies long hours in front of the computer, reports, grant applications, walking in the field under extreme high (or low) temperatures, digging and not finding, understanding the local people’s “no” and accepting to change the focus, reading and reading and always thinking “there is so much I don’t know yet”, etc. It is a challenge, as all sciences are, but it is great if you are willing to take it. Read, be patient, be sociable, talk and listen to colleagues, but also to the people who live in the region you are studying, be polite and generous, be eager to learn, accept when you are wrong, understand the rules in the academic system but do not get caught up in them, be honest, take advantage of all the possibilities our profession give us (travels, adventures, new friends) and also enjoy the lab routine, because both of them are part of the job. That is my advice!
-------------------------------------------------------------
I am María Florencia Becerra and I am 30 years old. I have been a WAC student member since 2006, when I joined the first WAC Student Committee, during my fourth year in undergraduate school (Archaeology in the National University of Tucumán, Argentina). Now, almost 8 years later, I am the Student Representative in the WAC Executive and I have just got my PhD degree in Archaeology in the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina (June, 2014). My dissertation was focused on the study of mining and metallurgy during colonial times (17th and 18th centuries) in the Jujuy High Plateau, in the extreme northwest of Argentina.
Since I was a little girl I’ve been dreaming of becoming an archaeologist. That is why, as soon as I finished highschool, I moved to another city (1300km far from home) to study Archaeology. During the first couple of years I didn’t have any clue of what my research topic would be like… Any chance to go to do fieldwork orlaboratory work was a great opportunity to learn and evaluate whether I pictured myself researching that area and studying that kind of materials, or not. My first student grant was in fact dedicated to study pottery technology in the Jujuy High Plateau, but after the research was done, I decided that was not my passion. A year later, doing fieldwork in the same region, I visited a mining site, where four probably colonial furnaces were still preserved. I started asking my advisor about them and quickly made them my field of study. Researching colonial mining and metallurgy allowed me to join all my passions: doing fieldwork and chemical composition analyses, plus reading historic documentation, all at once. My undergraduate dissertation was then a first attempt to study this topic. A couple of months before submitting the thesis, I applied for a PhD grant and one month after graduating, I received the happy news: I was going to be paid for working on what I loved for the next five years… Nothing could be more exciting! This June I applied for a post-doctoral grant so I hope the results are as promising as there were in the past.
During these past 12 years (wow, it is a long time!), I had my ups and downs. Writing thesis is not the best time in your life, but I learned that it shouldn’t be the worst either… If you don’t love what you are doing, nothing works… Archaeology is far from this “romantic” profession that only involves fieldwork and great discoveries. Archaeology implies long hours in front of the computer, reports, grant applications, walking in the field under extreme high (or low) temperatures, digging and not finding, understanding the local people’s “no” and accepting to change the focus, reading and reading and always thinking “there is so much I don’t know yet”, etc. It is a challenge, as all sciences are, but it is great if you are willing to take it. Read, be patient, be sociable, talk and listen to colleagues, but also to the people who live in the region you are studying, be polite and generous, be eager to learn, accept when you are wrong, understand the rules in the academic system but do not get caught up in them, be honest, take advantage of all the possibilities our profession give us (travels, adventures, new friends) and also enjoy the lab routine, because both of them are part of the job. That is my advice!
No comments:
Post a Comment