Castles and Coprolites

I am a big fan of keeping my personal and professional life separate, and so have debated whether to blog about this. But I figured it might be helpful for other female researchers, and it's cathartic, so here we go. I had my first child in 2013. Aside from a week long bout of morning sickness at the beginning, the pregnancy was straightforward and I felt pretty good throughout it. I carried on with fieldwork and other physical activities, including a road trip from Florida to Oregon that included hiking around various national parks when I was about 7 months pregnant.  I was determined not to let being pregnant change my life in any way, and to carry on as normal. I wasn't trying to prove anything, I just like being busy and active. The actual birth was ok too, if not entirely straight forward (definitely not going to blog the details of that particular experience...). There were some complications but I recovered quickly and was out in the field again with a not-quite-2 mo...

Following a discussion elsewhere on the interwebs, I thought it might be useful to create a list of postdoc funding opportunities in the UK, distinguishing between those which are open to UK, EU and international applicants. All of these fund various aspects of archaeology, though some are more geared towards science than others so you will need to make sure your topic fits the remit. Having been a reviewer for several postdoc applications, I should emphasise that all of these are extremely competitive, and the best thing you can do to increase your chance of success is to have a plan for building your CV during your PhD, beyond the 'minimum' requirements. For all of these awards the criteria center on supporting individuals who show ability to become independent researchers, and that means you have to provide evidence that you are heading in that direction. So what sort of evidence are reviewers looking for? This includes most obviously, making sure that you have published...

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...