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Completing a Master's Amidst a Pandemic feat. Megan Schlanker - Ep 20
46 Plays3 years ago
In this episode, we talk with Megan Schlanker who just finished her MSc in Bioarchaeology at the University of York. Join us as we chat about her work, research, and master's experience amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
*Content warning: Due to Megan's research there will be a discussion of domestic violence*
Links
- Megan’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/meg_sch
Contact
- Show
- Twitter: @idigitpodcast
- Email: [email protected]
- Alyssa
- Instagram: aal.archaeology
- Twitter: Lyssakemi
- Michaela
- Instagram: mm_digitalized
- Twitter: m_mauriello
Affiliates
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Transcript
Introduction to iDicket Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. You're listening to the iDicket Podcast. A podcast where we talk about the student perspective of navigating the world of archaeology and anthropology. I'm your host, Michaela. And I'm your host, Alyssa. Just a content warning, this episode will contain some mentioning of domestic violence and skeletal remains.
00:00:29
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of the iDigit podcast.
Meet Megan: Journey to Bioarchaeology
00:00:32
Speaker
Today we have a guest. We have Megan, who just finished their MSC in bioarchaeology at the University of York and did the BA in ancient history and archaeology. Hi. Hi, Megan. Hi. How are we doing today? I'm doing all right. How are you guys? Doing all right.
00:00:54
Speaker
So where are you located currently? So I'm currently in the UK and I'm in the West Midlands. Not too far from Birmingham but not in Birmingham. Nice. I almost went to Birmingham for my Masters but ended up going to York. How has your time at York been? Was your programme also one year or were you part-time?
00:01:17
Speaker
Yeah, so it was it was a one year program. Obviously, was particularly weird last year. I did enjoy it. And I really did love York and like living in the city. But yeah, it was I don't think I had a typical year. That's crazy.
00:01:39
Speaker
The first half of it was regular normal in person, right? Yeah. And then when did it start to go sour?
The COVID-19 Shift: Learning & Dissertation Challenges
00:01:47
Speaker
So there was a weird little atmosphere from the end of January into March, where we were all chatting. It was always the elephant in the room of, is something going to happen? And we had one experimental archaeology class, where we had to wear masks. And it was a situation where they went,
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, keep the masks because you'll need them. And we sort of thought it was a joke. It was that sort of level. Obviously, now I have about seven reusable masks. So it's less of a joke now. But we had two cases. We had the first reported cases in the UK. And one of them was a York student. She wasn't an archaeology student, as far as I know. But there was a lot of
00:02:45
Speaker
worry about that for sure. And it was, I managed to finish all of my talk classes and I was in the library looking at stuff for my dissertation and I got an email saying, your dissertation can't go ahead as planned because there's big nasty virus. I don't know if you've heard about it. So yeah, that was
00:03:14
Speaker
I think that was disappointing for everyone that had that situation and also for the lecturers, I think because they obviously wanted us to have the experience other people have had and have the best year that we could. But they also had to make sure that people were safe and that they were safe.
00:03:34
Speaker
And Makayla, weren't you, you were in York, like January. Yeah. Yeah. I went to graduation in January, like end of January. And right as I was leaving, like some friends and I, like we all got an Airbnb together. Yeah. And so it was like the day that we were all leaving York was that we got an email or we were seeing in the news that a York student who was in the hotel with their parent,
00:04:01
Speaker
came down with COVID. They hadn't left the hotel and they were supposed to go to graduation and then they didn't because they were really sick, but it was like COVID. And so we're just like, what? And then I was hopping over to Spain and then things kept happening in Spain being like COVID. And I'm like, what is this thing? So then I was going back to the US and it was just like, oh, somebody on this plane had COVID. And I'm like, all right, I don't know. I was sanitizing everything. So that was a wild trip.
00:04:29
Speaker
Yeah, because we finished our York Masters 2019 September, so the graduation was this last January. I was living in Cambodia, so I wasn't able to come back for graduation. But yeah, all of our friends were able to. That's when it started getting scary. That's weird to think it's nearly been a year. I know. I can't believe how long this has lasted.
00:04:52
Speaker
People are getting vaccinated. That's a plus. Yeah, my mum had it on Saturday. She's had the vaccine. Oh nice. And I think my grandparents had it yesterday as well. So it's real. Do they work in healthcare or anything? Or is it just normal citizens getting it now?
00:05:13
Speaker
Yeah, so my mom's got it because she works in healthcare and then my grandparents have got it because they are 80 something and that's the age group that's the sort of citizen age group that is being offered to at the moment. Yeah, I've heard no word of that here. Some of our healthcare people are getting it, but there's still been issues with like distribution and stuff. Yeah, I mean, I hope it sort of gets sorted soonish.
00:05:45
Speaker
Is it sooner the better really? Yeah. So were you able to go out and do your dissertation or what was your dissertation plan and what ended up happening with it?
Research Focus: Domestic Abuse in Roman Britain
00:06:00
Speaker
Okay. So the plan was I started thinking about sort of things that happen. We know that are happening today, but I haven't seen much, um,
00:06:14
Speaker
archaeological research on. And one of the things that stuck out to me was domestic abuse and intimate partner violence, which is sort of interchangeable phrase. And I was like, I really haven't
00:06:31
Speaker
seen that much about it and I started looking into it and there are sort of bits and pieces but they've all been done on quite small samples and I sort of thought, well, has anything been done on Roman Britain?
00:06:49
Speaker
I sort of have a love-hate relationship with the Romans and this seemed a bit perfect for it. So I had a bit of a search and I couldn't find anything to do with Roman Britain and intimate partner violence. So I proposed that I was going to look at the skeletons that are housed at the University of York from that period and I was going to analyze them and see if I could find any indicators
00:07:19
Speaker
of injuries that are typical of people who are being abused by a partner physically. It's quite a dark topic. I feel like maybe this episode might need a little content warning for that. Originally, I was going to be in the lab, so it was going to involve a lot of lab work,
00:07:49
Speaker
sort of physically looking at the skeletons. I was also planning on using the new X-ray machine that they've got. And I was going to get trained in that and I was really excited. And then face-to-face teaching and anything lab based was, you know, a big no-go because you'd be breathing germs on people. So I got the email from my supervisor saying, I'm really, really sorry, but we can't go ahead.
00:08:19
Speaker
And that was maybe a couple of weeks before I was due to start it, like it was in my diary, lab work starts on this date.
00:08:27
Speaker
So I sort of, I had to submit a new proposal and I know a lot of other people did as well. It wasn't, obviously it wasn't just me in this boat, especially the people that want to do like paleoproteonomics and ancient DNA and anything like that. They couldn't go into the lab, so they couldn't do it. So I was like, could I do it based on data that is already existing and is already out there? And my supervisor was like, yeah, yeah, we could do that. So I ended up,
00:08:55
Speaker
going through the reports of over 3000 individuals over like the nine months from, I think it was 70 something sites all in England. And I went through all of those and noted down things like preservation and any injuries that
00:09:17
Speaker
these individuals had. And I did find some quite convincing cases. There were one or two that I was like, yeah, there was something going on here. But it is quite a difficult thing to say for certain. Well, most things are quite difficult to say for certain, but this is like a particularly difficult one because you don't know who has caused the injuries or even how the injuries were sustained.
00:09:43
Speaker
Wow, that's awesome that you were able to get access to such a huge data set from remote study. Yeah, I was very lucky that one, my supervisor was really helpful and got a lot of reports for me. And also
00:10:02
Speaker
I was able to reach out to other researchers who would just email me stuff, which meant that I had a lot of reports. And I just kept finding more and it got to the point where I was like, I have to stop now. That's a good problem to have, though. It's having too much here.
00:10:22
Speaker
Yeah, but yeah, so I did all of that. Most of it I did from home, so my parents' home. It was about a week before the national lockdown in the UK was announced and I was absolutely terrified because I woke up with a sore throat and I was supposed to be going home and I was so, so scared that I was going to bring it back and bring it back to my family. I just had a sore throat.
00:10:50
Speaker
That was it. No, it wasn't anything. It wasn't anything not good. So in the end, my mom ended up, because I was supposed to be going on the train, my mom ended up driving up to York and picking me up. And I packed stuff, but I packed for about a month, a month and a half, because I thought that's how long the lockdown was going to be.
00:11:18
Speaker
And I ended up being back at home for six months. So is your stuff still on campus or were you able to go back and get everything? I ended up going back for a couple of months. So I went back at the end of July and then I moved out of my house in September.
00:11:44
Speaker
So I managed to go back up and get everything, but it was all very, very eerie because I was the first person back in the house. And one of my housemates just didn't come back. But I was I was the first one back in the house and I'd left everything sort of I'd left like a notebook on the side and things like that. And it looked it looked like I'd intended to come back.
00:12:12
Speaker
quite soon and the fact that everything had been there for six months. Like I'd left like a pen out on the desk and things like that. It was very odd.
00:12:21
Speaker
It's like post-apocalyptic. My professors here, when we first started the term, they were all talking about how they had gone into the office for the first time in like five months and it was super weird. And one of them was like, I definitely left an apple on my desk and I'm scared to go find it. Scared to go see what it looks like now. I bet like people's fridges were pretty nasty after.
00:12:55
Speaker
I cleared out my fridge before I left, so there were no horrible surprises when I got back. Were you in student accommodation or were you in a house house? A house house. So looking at going back into student accommodation, I wasn't super keen on just because I was like, these rooms are very small.
00:13:15
Speaker
Definitely, yeah.
00:13:22
Speaker
or the studio apartments were quite a lot of money and I didn't have that money. So I ended up finding a house with a couple of other students. So we were all the same age, but some of us were undergrads, some of us were post-grads, but it was a nice mix. I wish I would have looked into that more. I felt like it was too hard as a foreign student to find housing housing.
00:13:51
Speaker
Yeah, I was in a shoebox in Halifax. I splurged on the bigger Wentworth room.
00:14:00
Speaker
I'm like, oh, everyone's like grad students, so I'm not going to hear all the partying of the undergrads. So I'm just like, all right. And then I was just like, ah, there's a bigger room. OK, I'll do that. And it was like double the size. I'm like, nice. So I had my VR headset in there, so I was able to do like my research and stuff. Looking back on it, I wish I did Student Castle, even though it was more expensive.
00:14:25
Speaker
student castle was nice. Um, someone on my course was there and yeah, it was very, very snazzy in there. Yeah. Yeah. One of our best friends was living in there, but it wasn't because she wanted to, it was because it was the only thing left when she looked for housing, but it ended up being fine. Yeah. But yeah, that was a nice area, like right in the center of the town.
00:14:52
Speaker
I remember when applying for student housing, I thought archaeology would be like on campus. So I was like, Oh, I'll get something on campus and it'll be like an easy walk. And then when I got there, I found out archaeology was like way across town. It's like, Oh, nevermind.
00:15:10
Speaker
Just kidding, got to travel now. I went to an open day and I, for some reason I couldn't go to the post grad open day. So I went to an undergrad one and just like every opportunity I was like, by the way, I'm looking to do a master's. And I was like, looking on the map, I was like, where is the archaeology department? And they were like, you have to get on the bus. So got on the bus and went. And I was like, this is really cool.
00:15:38
Speaker
But because I did bioarchaeology, I was split between King's Manor and the actual campus. But my house was in quite a convenient place in Hang Hall that meant I could get the bus. I could walk into town, it would take me about half an hour, but if I was feeling lazy, I could get the bus. And then I was not too far away from Wentworth, which is where like
00:16:03
Speaker
all the bio-arc stuff is, so I could go there as well. So it was a nice location. What were some of your favourite places on campus? I really liked, I think it was the Edge when you guys were there, the cafe that's in Wentworth. Yeah, and they turned it into veg.
00:16:27
Speaker
Oh yeah, they're like in the process of turning it into something else when I was there. And I was just like, all right, whatever. Let's go to the library. Is that where they had the Starbucks drinks? Yes. Okay. So when I started, there was like big signs everywhere that was like, come to the only vegetarian restaurant on campus. And I was like, well, I can't not. I have to.
00:16:54
Speaker
Because I'm a vegetarian and then I'm also lactose intolerant so I eat a lot of vegan food. I'm vegan.
Navigating Academia: Conferences and Research Topics
00:17:05
Speaker
So this was a place that had a lot of vegan options and I was like, nice.
00:17:12
Speaker
Why didn't this exist when I was living right next to it? I'm mad. It turns out it was right opposite where I had all of my labs as well. So convenient. Whenever we had, because labs were like four hours, they were really long. So whenever we had a break, we would go there and get
00:17:33
Speaker
We always would get Starbucks, and then we'd be like, we've already had breakfast, but they have the breakfast burritos. So there'd be four of us out there eating our breakfast burritos. This is fine. We're exerting a lot of brain energy. Exactly.
00:17:50
Speaker
Oh, that sounds so good. Yeah. I worked in that little lab right across from there also for a little bit, because I was working with Penny Spikens doing like a GIS project for some of her old research, but that was our, what was it? Work placement is what they called it. And that was my work placement out there. Yeah. Did you do a work placement also? No, I don't know whether maybe I would have had the option to, if things had been different.
00:18:20
Speaker
Um, but yeah, because sort of, I had about six months of normal teaching and then, uh, it just sort of all went out the window. Especially with the digital program, we had to do one. I know other programs didn't have to do a work placement. Yeah. So I'm not, I think it was us and cultural heritage management had to as well.
00:18:47
Speaker
So how did your classes go and everything? I'm glad you got to finish your classes before everything went down. Yeah, I'm really glad as well. I feel really lucky because I know some other people, not necessarily at York, but from other unis, I know people they didn't finish their teaching.
00:19:08
Speaker
which is really, really rough for them. Yeah, I think they went well. I did really enjoy it. Yeah, it was a nice routine to have. There was a very nice atmosphere with the bio-arch students and then also the people who we crossed over with.
00:19:30
Speaker
So we did like a couple of like group projects and things or like we'd work together in a seminar and it was just like a very like friendly atmosphere.
00:19:42
Speaker
which is what you want when you've just moved to a new city. Yeah. That's so good. Did you guys have to do assessed lectures? So I was actually kind of looking forward to that. And then they were like, no, you can't do that. So our dissertations were marked entirely on like the dissertation itself rather than like presenting it.
00:20:11
Speaker
I mean, I was like super anxiety about this. So I would have loved that. Because yeah, I think I was I was quite anxious about it. But also I was like, this will be like good experience. And like,
00:20:30
Speaker
because I want to develop my public speaking. I'm kind of doing that because I've been accepted to a couple of conferences, which is mountain terrifying. But congratulations. Thank you.
00:20:52
Speaker
Is it from your dissertation research? One of them is, but it's one, I'm doing a poster presentation. And that's for like a Cambridge student conference. And the other one is in Iceland, and it's the Haskalee Islands.
00:21:17
Speaker
conference on the medieval north. I think it's the full name of it. But I'm going to be talking about Viking age disability. And that paper isn't finished yet. So it needs a little bit of work. So I'm working on that after my day job at the moment.
00:21:40
Speaker
So I'm quite busy. Congrats. That sounds awesome. I hope the Iceland thing actually happens in person. Yeah, so they've sent emails out saying,
00:21:56
Speaker
Let us know if you want to do it in person or online and if things haven't improved enough because it's in April. If things don't look like they're going to improve enough, we're going to do it all online. But at the moment, the plan is to do some online, some offline. But I love Iceland, so I really want to go and I haven't been on a plane in so long.
00:22:19
Speaker
You're just like, sign me up, I'm going. Yeah. I was like, please, can I go? Oh, that's so exciting. Iceland's definitely on my bucket list. It looks so beautiful. Yeah, it's make sure that you budget for it because it's a pricey country. Yeah, if you have like a kitchen, it's one of those places where it's not too bad. But if you're like going out to eat,
00:22:49
Speaker
You need like a sizable budget for it. Oh my gosh. I've heard things about just the economy and just how everything's just really pricey. I'm like, you know, it makes sense. Yeah. But dang, my theoretical wallet already hurts. But their coins are really pretty and they have fish on them. Oh. So it sort of balances out. Yeah, their currency is really pretty. Yeah. And we'll be back after this break.
00:23:18
Speaker
COVID permitting, what are your goals for your post-grad life? What's the ideal path? Ooh, the ideal path. The ideal path. And then backup plan B and C. Yeah, it's sort of a difficult question because my initial plan was I was like, well, I'm going to
00:23:41
Speaker
While I'm doing my dissertation, I might see if I can get a bit of field work experience. And also I'd be getting that lab experience. So I was like, lovely, nice things to put on my CV. And then I didn't get that. And a lot of places are very reluctant to have volunteers on digs at the moment because of health and safety. So I've been trying to get on to some archaeological traineeships. And so far it's not gone.
00:24:11
Speaker
Well, maybe it's not gone horribly, but it's not gone well yet. I'm holding out. So I'm working on trying to get my sort of field work off the ground. But I have also seen a couple of like PhDs advertised that I'm a bit keen on. So that's another
00:24:31
Speaker
little after work activity that I've been doing is looking at applications. So yeah, I really don't know at this point, just because everything is so up in the air, it's very difficult to pin down anything or set my hopes on anything, if that makes sense. Like,
00:24:55
Speaker
No, yeah. Sometimes I'll think, oh, I'd be really great. So some some museum jobs I'll look at and be like, oh, yeah, I'd love to do that. And then I look at the sort of situation that museums are in at the moment. And I'm like, is it feasible right now? I'm trying my best. And I'm trying my best to sort of stay hopeful about the whole thing. Yeah. But I think it is a situation of I'm going to keep working on my skills, keep sort of developing my portfolio and whatever.
00:25:25
Speaker
but I'm not looking for anything in particular to sort of jump out at me yet. That's fair. Especially it's like nothing that's happening in the world is anything that like we can control and so it's just like okay what can I do in my own bubble to progress myself and like what can I do to help me be better for other things that will come along and like whenever they do.
00:25:50
Speaker
So that's really cool that you're doing them like you applied to all those conferences and you're going to be doing all that cool stuff.
00:25:56
Speaker
Yeah, I'm trying to see what I can do online mostly. I was actually supposed to be doing a dig in Wales in November on like a voluntary basis and I was like really, really looking forward to that and then sort of the week before there was near restrictions announced and even though it's only about an hour away from me, travel to Wales was just completely
00:26:24
Speaker
cut off. So it would have been illegal for me to go there. And I wasn't about to break the law. So yeah, that was a bit of a tough one. And sort of getting used to the fact that like you say, there are things completely out of my control that do sort of factor quite heavily into my life and like into my future. So that's, yeah, that's something.
00:26:51
Speaker
Yeah, I think everyone's going to have like a one or two year gap on their resume. So hopefully it's not two jobs can't be like, so what were you doing these one to two years? It's like, oh, you know perfectly well what I was doing in 2020. Yeah, they can't be like, it seems like you personally had a bit of a rough year. Yeah, man, what a year.
00:27:20
Speaker
I just, it feels like it's dragged on forever, but also like it only just started. Yeah, it was just March, now it's December, but also
00:27:32
Speaker
It feels like it's been 14 years. Yeah. It was June for like 16 months. So yeah. March 657. Yeah. Yeah. I just saw some news today about cases in Britain getting a little scary with like a new strand of COVID tour. Like Hong Kong is closing off flights to Britain or flights from Britain.
00:28:01
Speaker
Yeah. So my understanding of it as just a person who's here with no other qualifications in COVID knowledge is that there's a new strain and they've said it's not more like deadly. So the mortality rate isn't any worse, but it travels, it's more contagious, which is not what we want for cases. So yeah.
00:28:30
Speaker
Oh no, well I hope you stay safe and away from that as much as you can. Yeah, I've managed to get a job working from home so that was I think one of my big concerns was that I needed a job but I didn't want to have to go out into the germ world.
00:28:52
Speaker
So I've managed to get one where I can- Is it archaeology related? It's not. And that's fine. Yeah, I haven't managed to get anything sort of degree related, but it's a three month contract is the job that I'm currently on. Nice. And I can do it all from home, which- Even better. Yeah, which really suits me right now. Yeah.
00:29:21
Speaker
Working from home and money. Beautiful. I love it. What kind of led you down the path of archaeology and how you first got interested in the topic?
Inspiration and Aspirations in Archaeology
00:29:35
Speaker
Yeah, so I think there are several things that all pointed me in this direction. Because you know when you're looking back and you look back at things in your childhood and you go, yeah, that was the beginning of something. I don't know if you guys ever saw it. There was a Canadian TV show called Mystery Hunters.
00:30:01
Speaker
was like for kids and it was on Discovery Kids and I used to watch it when I was at my grandparents house after school and it was really cool and sometimes they would look into ghosts and sometimes they would look into things like Egyptian mummies and be like well how did this person end up where they are in a pyramid or in a cemetery somewhere and they I remember this one really distinctly and I spoke to my dentist about it the other day
00:30:30
Speaker
So this is how I must have been about six or seven when I watched this, and it's stuck in my head. There was one where they were talking about this ancient Egyptian woman, and they showed a facial reconstruction, and they were like, and archaeologists have looked at her and have worked out how she might have died.
00:30:52
Speaker
They showed that she had a dental abscess and they were like, when you get a really bad dental abscess, you can get blood poisoning and it can kill you. I was like,
00:31:03
Speaker
oh my god, how cool is it that they've worked that out? But also, oh, I really need to go and brush my teeth right now. This is why I was talking to my my dentist the other day and I was like, I think I've got a problem. Like I keep grinding my teeth. And he was like, no, I mean, I can't see anything wrong with them. Like they're not that bad. And I was like, yes, but I'm really scared that I'm going to end up like that Egyptian mummy.
00:31:29
Speaker
And he was like, what are you on about? And he was like, I promise you that will not happen because you've come to a dentist. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's true. But yeah, they had so they had that that one. And they also had they were talking about like Peruvian child ice mummies. And I thought they were really cool because
00:31:57
Speaker
you can see their braids and I thought that was just like amazing. And you know, I still do think that's amazing. Yeah, it's one of those things that's like, was this appropriate viewing material for children? Who knows, but I was absolutely fascinated by it.
00:32:17
Speaker
When you said Discovery Kids, that just gave me so many flashbacks. I haven't thought about Discovery Kids since I saw it on TV. I'm genuinely quite bitter that it was cancelled. Wow. I'm going to go on a Google binge now, Discovery Kids stuff after this.
00:32:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure a lot of mystery hunters was not factually correct, but it was a gateway. The other sort of thing that I think opened doors for me and opened my eyes to things was I went to a grammar school. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the concept or whether I should
00:33:02
Speaker
Explain. Explain please. Okay, so in the UK there are secondary schools so 11 to 16 that are
00:33:17
Speaker
called grammar schools. They were designed, to my knowledge, to give almost like a private school experience, but to kids that weren't paying fees. You sit an exam to get in, so it's supposed to be, it doesn't matter what your background is, if you pass the test or if you're in the top.
00:33:44
Speaker
150 people who pass this test, you get to go to this school and you get this like high quality education. Doesn't always work in practice, but that's the theory.
00:33:58
Speaker
because they have this whole thing of it doesn't matter what your background is, and then you have to pay £400 a year for the school bus, and you have to buy the uniform from specific shops, and the trousers have to have a logo on them. So, if you're coming from a low-income family, it is actually quite tough.
00:34:18
Speaker
But anyway, I went to a grammar school and in year seven, which is like our first year when we were 11, they gave us the option to choose an additional language. So we have to learn French. And then they were like, and you have to choose another language as well. And the language options that I had, I think were Spanish, German, and Latin.
00:34:43
Speaker
So obviously I chose Latin because that is the most useful in the modern world. And now I'm like, why can't I speak Spanish? So I did Latin and part of our Latin courses were Roman history, essentially.
00:35:05
Speaker
And that's when I got really into it. I got really into ancient history. And I was also like, there's a lot of things that the books don't say and that there isn't written down. And I was like, oh, there's this thing called archaeology and you can find things that aren't written down and you can interpret things. And that all really became
00:35:32
Speaker
like a big thing for me when we went on a school trip to Pompeii. And I was like, I was like, this is cool. This is very interesting. And I've been back to Pompeii a lot. Like I know it quite well. I can find my way around, like somewhere that I've lived, but I've never worked. I'd like to work there. That would be interesting. But yeah, that was like one of the first places for me that
00:36:02
Speaker
really sparked my interest. I think because it is frozen in time, isn't it? And I feel like it's one of those cliche places, like they tell you not to write about it on your personal statements, but realistically, it was the place that sort of
00:36:19
Speaker
Yeah. And it's not like you're just like watching it on TV. You are there, so you can write that all over your personal statement. I love how they have to tell you not to write that. I bet everyone in the UK gets to visit Pompeii for school, or quite often, huh? Yeah, maybe not for school, but it's like
00:36:41
Speaker
If you go to Italy, you can go to Pompeii and you can go on the slightly terrifying train journey from Naples to Pompeii. The trains are very little and rattly. It's part of the experience.
00:37:03
Speaker
Yeah, I went with my family a couple of years ago. And I've obviously been on this train journey like a couple of times and the first time I did it I was 14. So for me, I was like, I know where we're going.
00:37:16
Speaker
And my dad was like, we're on the wrong train. You've taken us on the wrong train. We're going in the wrong direction. He was like, we're going to get robbed. We're going to die. And I was like, we're on a train. We're fine. And we were fine. So it all worked out. Who's been here? Me. I ain't ready to go. My family were like, we don't need to pay a tour guide. We have you.
00:37:44
Speaker
Oh God. That's cute. Yeah, that'll be 14 pounds an hour. And actually, I'm going to charge you a euro. 14 euro an hour. Where's that compensation? Yeah. They bought me a lot of pasta, so it all worked out. Yeah, they probably pay for things. Parents on trips, you know. I really want to go to Bombay. I've yet to go at all.
00:38:16
Speaker
I feel like that's a rite of passage. My next destination of travel is Italy. I've been learning Italian because I'm going to go to my ancestral area where my family originated from. And so I got to go to Pompeii. Yeah, you have to. You have no option there. No. If I'm there, I got to go. I think Rome is really interesting as well because
00:38:45
Speaker
the archaeology is such a prominent part of the modern city, which you don't get everywhere. I guess in York it is, but in a lot of places, the archaeology, you don't see it. Whereas in Rome, it's big. You can't miss it. I really can't miss it. There's a giant Colosseum over there or something.
00:39:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think maybe, yeah. Maybe. Possibly. I thought that was the new football stadium. I wouldn't be surprised if that happened. I just think about the Lizzie McGuire movie sometimes when I think about the football stadium. That's my only exposure to film. It's like my first exposure Lizzie McGuire movie in like 2003 or whatever.
00:39:41
Speaker
Just kidding, just kidding. Quality TV. I think that's what I envy most about other countries is living in the past, just surrounded by monuments and stuff. Living in Cambodia, you have these massive temples all over the city that have been there for thousands of years. And people are just hanging out on the steps casually drinking a coffee. It's so cool.
00:40:08
Speaker
And we'll be right back after this break. So one last question would be, if you could work anywhere in the world, work with any data set in just particular areas, where would you go?
00:40:26
Speaker
Hmm, yeah. There's too many places that I want to go. Top three. Top three, okay. I do think that I'd like to do some work in Egypt. I don't know how the food will agree with me.
00:40:47
Speaker
But yeah, I would like to get involved with some work over there if possible. I think Pompeii has to be on the list. Oh yeah, I was waiting for that one. I know, I was waiting for Pompeii. It doesn't have to be anywhere new. Yeah, there's a project I think
00:41:12
Speaker
I'm not entirely sure on updates of it, but back in 2018, 2019, there was a project that was focusing on x-raying the plaster casts, which obviously the bio-archaeological evidence hasn't been looked at as much as the quite upsetting visceral horror of these people died this way.
00:41:42
Speaker
But there's a lot more that you can find out from using bioarchaeology than just how a person died. I think that's something that people miss when I tell them what I studied. They're like, oh, so you can work out how someone died? And I'm like, most of the time, no. Most of the time it's you work out how someone lived.
00:42:02
Speaker
which you know is sort of like a lot more interesting to me than working out how someone died. But yeah, I think looking at looking at like the people from Pompeii and seeing like what we can figure out from them, that would be like a really amazing experience. And also I just
00:42:24
Speaker
I want to know a bit more. And then I think a sort of a dream that I don't have enough knowledge in this area would be to look at sort of pre-Columbian mummies. I'm thinking mainly Peru.
00:42:42
Speaker
And like that, that area, um, that, that's something that I'd be really keen. I don't know whether I'd be able to work there or whether it'd be me being like, tell me stuff, please. I want to learn because I don't know. I don't think I have that knowledge. I don't think I'd, yeah, I think it would be a situation where I'd, I'd just want to learn. Hmm.
00:43:07
Speaker
But yeah, that would be pretty amazing, especially given the sort of Mystery Hunter's inspiration for me. I see it. I see it. Megan Mystery Hunter going around the world, solving mysteries. I really don't think that they solved much on that show, but it was cool. But do you know what you will? Yeah, I will. I'll solve those mysteries.
00:43:35
Speaker
They created the viewers who will solve them. They're just like, oh yeah, we can do it. Somebody else do it so we can hire you on later on in life. It needs to come back. It needs to make a comeback. You should do it. I'll write to the... I'll come back from you. Whatever the Canadian studio was and be like, hi. I'm interested. Continuing your mystery hunters.
00:44:03
Speaker
I'll be your host. Yeah. Pay me to go do these different researches around the world. Thank you. Bye bye. Except to be a TikTok series instead of TV. Oh yeah. No one can focus for more than like a minute anymore. We have to make it TikTok.
00:44:24
Speaker
You know, I can see that. I can see it working very well. Yeah. Yeah. Have you guys actually, have you guys seen the Black Country Living Museum on TikTok? No, no. So I'm going to big recommend that now. If you use the app, look it up. That is my local museum. So you'll have noticed at the beginning, I said, I'm near Birmingham, but I'm not in Birmingham.
00:44:52
Speaker
I'm in the Black Country. Nobody knows where that is. You mean that geographical location was very helpful. I was like, I'm here but not here. Yeah, this is my local museum. This is somewhere that I went a lot. Everyone looks so cool. They all dress up and role play. That's awesome. Yeah, so it's a living history museum and the staff are
00:45:19
Speaker
are all in costume and they all have individual roles. It's not manufactured in the sense that they have built these buildings. Any building that you see, it has been moved from somewhere in the Black Country brick by brick and rebuilt in the way that it was originally built. They have, I think, the earliest they go back to as the Victorian era, but then they also have a 20th century street as well.
00:45:47
Speaker
and they have like working restaurants and like sweet shops. I've already actually liked some of their posts. I've come across it. Yeah. That's so cool. What a cool. But that museum is now the, it's in the top 100 UK TikTok accounts and it's also the most followed museum on TikTok. Wow. I think it's pretty cool for a place that no one knows where it is. Yeah.
00:46:17
Speaker
Thank you for sharing.
The Role of Social Media in Archaeology Outreach
00:46:19
Speaker
That's awesome. I feel like I feel like it's sort of put us on the map a bit. Yeah, I do think social media, I think particularly now is maybe like the future for like museums and science communication and outreach and all of that. Like
00:46:38
Speaker
We need to be like focusing on that. I do think like some people are a bit iffy about it. There's a big I think social media is like a dirty word for some people. Like I know I know that I've mentioned it to like some groups and they've sort of been like, oh, oh, I don't think we should do that because
00:46:57
Speaker
there might be some issues that's like, yeah, but there might be some issues with anything like you have to sometimes you got to take the risk. Yeah, I agree. I think it is the future. There's only going to be more social media. I don't think we're ever getting rid of it.
00:47:13
Speaker
And especially with COVID and all the closures of museums, people can't go to go see these artifacts and objects, especially the traveling exhibits as well. It's just like, oh, well, we're canceling everything. So putting everything online or doing virtual museums
00:47:31
Speaker
or making TikTok accounts and showing everything that's in them and like YouTube, especially like the YouTube tours. Super cool. It's amazing. Yeah, I've been to a couple of conferences this year online that I wouldn't have been able to go to if they weren't online. Like I wouldn't have gone. I know that I wouldn't have gone.
00:47:54
Speaker
uh, because it would, I would have gone, oh, you know, I've got to pay for that. I've got travel there. I've got to do this. And like in my head, I think particularly because I was unemployed at the time, I'd have been like, well, you know, is it worth it? And do I, do I deserve to go? And like, would my input be valued? Whereas these sort of online, online conferences I went to, like,
00:48:17
Speaker
They had like really good vibes. So I went to like the museum association conference and I went to the Fair Museum Job Summit. And then I've also been to like a couple of like archaeology talks as well that have been hosted online. And I've like found those really interesting. And like, because a lot of them were based either like, they were like in the US, one was in Cyprus. A couple were in York while I was at home.
00:48:44
Speaker
And yeah, they were just things I would have missed if we weren't doing things online. It's become a lot more accessible to people. Yeah, but that's really cool because it adds on to accessibility and it's like people who haven't been able to access these conferences and being able to go different places.
00:49:04
Speaker
been struggling with this for their entire lives. And then now there's just so many more doors that have been opened, unfortunately, because of COVID. But I'm glad that these doors are opening and people are seeing the benefits of putting things online. Yeah, I think it will have so many benefits in the long term. And I really hope that we do
00:49:29
Speaker
continue to keep things accessible. Because yeah, there has been this big push for accessibility recently as well, which I'm a big fan of. Love to see it.
00:49:47
Speaker
I think one of the things that I've noticed, particularly with online conferences and things like that, is several people have commented, this is really good because I didn't have to arrange childcare. Something that I've noticed this year is a lot of the researchers that I really, really admire are women who have young families or just have children in general.
00:50:15
Speaker
societal expectation that's placed on them could make things less accessible for them. And I'm glad that there are things that are being put out there that mean that more people have access. That means that they could also be like they can succeed. Yeah, I think like big companies are realizing how much they can do online too, which is really cool. And people can work from home not having to
00:50:41
Speaker
find places for their kids and stuff. So yeah, my mom's been talking about that a lot lately too. And just about like how much she's been able to get done around the house because she's at home instead of having to wait until she gets home at five or six every day.
Reflections on Pre-Pandemic Social Life
00:50:55
Speaker
So yeah, I think we're all realizing how we can change our world to make it a little more easy for people.
00:51:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's been a big thing for the disabled and chronically ill communities as well. So I know a lot of people have been talking about how working from home has really improved their quality of life and how that was not something that employers considered before. A lot of people were turned away from jobs because they said, I would like to work from home some days. And they were told that it would be too completely impossible.
00:51:30
Speaker
but this year has shown how muscle is. It's like, no, it's not. It's quite easy actually. It's like, hopefully they can keep it up and for the people who need and want to be working from home and not be in an office setting that they can. Cause it's like, it's totally doable to do your work from home. Mm-hmm.
00:51:55
Speaker
I do miss seeing real people though. Yeah, definitely. It's nice when it's a choice and not forced. Remember when we could be in an elevator with more than one person? What? No. Not sure I understand. Yeah, it's when you start watching like a TV show and there's people that are too close to each other and it just
00:52:24
Speaker
It like throws you off because it's just like, wait, what? People can do that? That seems so eerie now. Why are people in this crowd not wearing masks? What? Or even like looking at your photos from January and you're like, oh, my face is so close to someone else's. I miss that random person from that train.
00:52:50
Speaker
Well, thank you so much for coming on today. Thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's been a nice chat. I'm glad you were able to finish your degree and get everything sorted, even if it was a little unexpected. Yeah, I'm looking forward to my virtual graduation next month. I'm sure it'll be great. Yeah. Is it going to be on Minecraft?
00:53:18
Speaker
It's not going to be on Minecraft. Those are so cool. Might be on Animal Crossing. There we go. Well, thank you so much, Megan.
00:53:32
Speaker
And thank you everyone for listening. Megan, do you have any like social media links you want us to put up? So I am on Twitter at Meg underscore SCH, but I'm pretty sure if you search
00:53:50
Speaker
If my full name is in the thing, if you search it, I will come up. Cool. But also, if anyone in the UK in particular is involved in a student archaeology society on the committee, feel free to reach out to me via Twitter because I'm currently working on a project with the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists.
00:54:14
Speaker
that is connecting different student archaeology societies around the UK together with each other, sort of forming those connections. So if you reach out to me via Twitter, I can I can get that get the ball rolling for you. Awesome. Thank you so much. That sounds awesome. Be sure to check out our social medias. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye.
00:54:49
Speaker
This show is produced by the Archaeology Podcast Network, Chris Webster and Tristan Boyle, in Reno, Nevada, at the Reno Collective. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com.