Castles and Coprolites

Exciting news from Newcastle today - the proposal I have been working on for over a year, for a new BSc Archaeology degree, was approved today (pending some minor paperwork tweaks). I am really excited about this - it is something I have wanted to do since I started at Newcastle, and it's been hard work getting all the paperwork in place, but it has paid off, and fingers crossed is the first step in broadening our archaeological science teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, in line with our expanding research profile in this area. Newcastle is actually quite unusual, being one of the only Russell Group universities not to offer  both a BA and BSc in Archaeology. Archaeology is one of those truly interdisciplinary subjects that places emphasis on both science and humanities, and students usually have the option to focus their skills in either area. Since I joined Newcastle I have developed a number of new 'science' based modules in environmental and geoarcha...

Well, August has come and gone, and no blog post. This is the first time since I started my blog that I haven't made at least one post per month. It will haunt me forever that 0 posts in the list. The reason August was so busy was largely due to the Developing International Geoarchaeology conference , which we hosted at Newcastle last week. So whilst I wasn't blogging, I was very busy live-tweeting and generally making sure the whole thing ran smoothly with my event management hat on. Who would have thought the job of an academic also included event management - I know more than I ever thought I needed about coordinating multiple external companies (hiring poster boards, printing, conference badges, a dinner for 70 people...), internal purchasing and booking procedures. Making sure we didn't accidentally leave someone stranded in the middle of nowhere along Hadrian's Wall during the field trip. I don't even know where to start about the papers - we genuinely had a f...

When I started at Newcastle one of the first major roles I undertook was taking over as Director of the Wolfson Archaeology Laboratory. This sounds rather grand, but in reality it mostly involves managing room bookings and making sure everyone has all the kit they need for practicals, research and teaching. Part of the job involves looking after a zooarchaeology reference collection, hence the post last month about attending the zooarchaeology  short course at Sheffield . I have also made various wonderful purchasing decisions, vastly expanding our suite of microscopes to include a range of Leica DM750P scopes for teaching, and dedicated scopes for research with even fancier specs including reflected light capabilities, image analysis software etc. The next stage will be to transform the side room, currently used mostly for storage, into a dedicated space for research. With a new lab based PhD and PDRA started in January, and possibly a Fellow later in 2017 (if all goes to plan), i...

It's been just over 3 weeks since I got back from fieldwork in Sicily and I'm still missing the sun, and the fun of doing fieldwork. I had hoped to be doing more over the summer and getting on with microscope work for the Ness of Brodgar midden samples , but for various reasons that isn't looking likely. I have a mountain of admin  to get on top of, including sorting out adverts and interviews for a PhD studentship I have been awarded (exciting stuff, I'll post more about it when the advert is live), sorting out adverts for a postdoctoral position I have, related to a successful grant application (even more exciting, more details as soon as the grant details have been confirmed!). As the grant is joint with Bristol's Organic Geochemistry Unit , I also have to make a trip down there in August to sort out details and a work plan. Added to all of this is our website migration to a mobile responsive system. This is very welcome news as the current site is a bit out of ...

The Reading PhD gown is not actually that bad!  Yesterday I attended my first graduation as an academic, in the procession for graduations at Newcastle. As it is my first year here I did not know many of the students very well, only the handful whose dissertations I supervised. Even so it was a surprisingly emotional occasion. It reminded me of my own graduations and how much I've changed since I first started university. My first graduation I was still in the midst of being a shy reclusive northerner in a very traditional and competitive Oxford, and I didn't really enjoy the whole experience of graduation, aside from my parents being there and being proud. It probably didn't help that the whole thing was in Latin, though now I'd probably find that quite fun. And in the Sheldonian Theatre - an absolutely amazing building. It's sad to reflect on how much more I could have gained out of my undergraduate experience, if I'd not felt so isolated. I hope that I c...

Back in February I announced that Newcastle would be hosting the 7th Developing International Geoarchaeology conference in 2017. Plans are slowly coming along and I am happy to say the conference website is now up and running, which you can view here . There is all sorts of information about travel and whatnot, and we will be updating it regularly, so keep checking. We have also issued the first call for papers , almost a year in advance so plenty of time to make your arrangements! Information on conference accommodation will be available soon and will be bookable at the time of registration, which we hope to have ready by the end of September this year. Student and early career researchers may be interested to know that we are going to have prizes awarded for the best paper and poster submissions, kindly sponsored by the School of History, Classics and Archaeology . We are also making arrangements with Geoarchaeology journal for a potential special issue related to the conference, su...

One of the main reasons I started my blog was in an effort to promote the first conference I organised, back in 2012 . After the stress and time it took  I told myself I was going to take a break from organizing big events. But now I've had a few years off I'm going to do something even bigger and better (hopefully!) for the 7th Developing International Geoarchaeology conference, which I'm pleased to say we will be hosting at Newcastle University in September 2017 . The call for papers is likely to be issued towards the end of this year, so follow us on Twitter and/or Facebook for updates. DIG is one of the first conferences I went to as a PhD student, and I am pleased to be focusing more on specialized events at the moment, after a few years doing the SAA and EAA . Those huge conferences are great for catching up across a wide range of research areas, but I find them very exhausting and not so good for networking. I'm much better at interacting with people in a mo...

It's the end of August, and there have been some big changes...again! All so very sudden I've hardly had time to catch up. Just a couple of months ago, I posted a rather long discussion about leaving academia; after 7 years of postdocs I was no longer eligible for early career fellowships, and it was becoming harder and harder to up and move the family for yet another temporary position. There comes a time when, no matter how much you love your research, all those grown up things like getting a mortgage, childcare and schooling become part of the equation. So my family and I made the decision to move back to my hometown of Newcastle when my fellowship at Edinburgh came to an end, and I was lucky enough to get a job doing outreach and social media for Civil Engineering and Geosciences at Newcastle University. So it came as a big suprise when Newcastle posted an advert for a permanent lectureship with a geoarchaeology focus, just as we were packing our bags in Edinburgh. I can...