Castles and Coprolites

Creating an inclusive research culture means thinking not just about what  we discuss, but how and  when  we come together to do it.  One of the challenges of academic life is deciding when  to hold research seminars. These are important events for sharing our ideas, and hearing from researchers based in other institutions. I've worked at lots of different universities which have all had different approaches to this, and it seems to be an area where there is a lot of discussion around what is the most equitable way to organise these. Many places now offer a Teams/remote option as standard, which is brilliant, but often it's not just about listening to the seminar itself, but the opportunity to meet the speaker, and have more in depth and informal discussions after the main event.  A key debate is whether these events should be scheduled at lunchtime, or at the end of the day, and if the latter, how late is too late? A lunchtime slot can feel efficient, but ...

Go team! There was liberal use of the poop emoji. The blog has been quiet this year, but there is lots to report. As well as the announcement of the Earthslides relocation to Newcastle , our NERC project is now a few months into its second year , and we are beginning to see results from all the hard work that the lab team have been doing. Back in April project research associates Dr John Blong and Dr Helen Whelton gave presentations on the palaeoecological analyses and faecal lipid residue work respectively, at the Society for American Archaeology conference in Washington DC. The papers were part of a session we organised on Coprolite Research: Archaeological and Palaeoenvironmental Potentials. Despite being amusingly puntastic, the session really highlighted how coprolites are an extremely important archive of information, despite the fact they are often dismissed in archaeological analyses. I was also very proud to see geoarchaeology PhD student Alicia Sawyer give a great pr...