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The Spookiest Part are the Ears: Alex Versus the Plastic Halloween Skeletons (Again)
It’s that time of year again, folks – the spookiest time of the year, where the most frightful and terrifying creatures are out and about to scare us mortal beings… I am, of course, talking about Halloween and, more specifically, the terrifying haunted beings which are the inaccurate animal skeletons that are sold at every…
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The Archaeology of Memories and Mementos: An Archaeologist’s Review of “I Am Dead”
Please note that this blog post contains spoilers for the game “I Am Dead”. So, one of the things I was most excited to get to post-PhD was my ever-increasing backlog of video games (damn you, Nintendo Switch sales!), and I was particularly excited about tackling the long list of indie games. One of these was, of course,…
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Standing on the Shoulders of Animals: Applying Zooarchaeological Approaches to Data in Digital Archaeology
Note: This blog post is adapted from an orphaned journal paper I started writing back in 2017 – as such, some of it may be out of date, but I think the point still stands regarding the potential of adapting zooarchaeological approaches and attitudes to datasets within digital archaeologies. Zooarchaeology as a discipline has always…
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How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating and Do My PhD Corrections
A little over nine months ago, I successfully defended my PhD thesis with major corrections. And then, just a month ago today, I submitted my corrections. A total of 15,414 additional words and 70 pages over what I’d love to say was a six month period…but due to procrastination? More like a two month period.…
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On Liminality: Space, Time, and Identities
The following is the text from a talk I gave during the ‘Spring into Science: Queer Representation in Research‘ seminar series at the University of Oxford. I haven’t really talked much about being a queer archaeologist and as someone who often uses self-reflection to spur on discussion, I feel like I need to rectify this.…
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“He Tampered in God’s Domain” – Looking at the Mix-and-Match Fossil Trope
What is it with fossilised remains and the desire to defy the laws of nature? No, I’m not talking about reviving extinct species (well, not exactly), but of the Mix-and-Match trope that sometimes gets applied to fossils…and then often gets revived into some sort of strange creature. For example, let’s take a look at perhaps…
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A Sort of Urban Warfare: The Future Archaeology of Hostile Architecture
One of the reasons why I like speculative archaeology, or hypothetical archaeologies created in the future of our present, is that is allows us to look at current issues from a different perspective. In particular, I enjoy speculating on how specific iconography and design choices might be interpreted – for many of us, one of…
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Hey, is That a Great Auk in My Assassin’s Creed Game?! Reviving an Extinct Species in the Digital World
Okay, so a disclaimer: despite me being a so-called “video game enthusiast”, I have actually only played one out of the 12 games that make up the bulk of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Yeah, I know, feel free to boo me. That said, I was surprised to find out that I actually have more of…
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Building Barricades and Breaking Sh*t: The Archaeology of Protest and Dissent
After a year of many protests, it will be interesting to examine what the archaeological record says about 2020. Protests have always interested me as a form of archaeology given how varied the characteristics of a protest can be – is it an impromptu, one-off event? A pre-planned occupation that lasted several days? Did it…
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The Benevolence of the Billionaires, or Why are So Many Mansions Museums?
My first real job in the heritage sector was in high school, when I was a volunteer (and then paid) docent at the Vanderbilt Museum on Long Island, NY. As you may be able to gather from the name of the museum, this was originally owned by the Vanderbilt family – descendants of Cornelius Vanderbilt,…
Animal Archaeology
All things archaeology…but mostly dead animals.