Hi everyone,
This is Cameron getting back to you all on some of my recent happenings with the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project. A month ago, a few of us from the Project (past and present) took a trip to Boston to attend the Society for Historical Archaeology’s conference (the SHA). This conference is what Dr. Nassaney calls “The granddaddy of all the historical archaeology conferences,” and it would be my first archaeological conference. Better yet, I would be presenting a poster about public archaeology during the 2019 field season at Fort St. Joseph. So, you could say that I had waited in anticipation for this trip for months.
During the beginning of last field season Dr. Nassaney had suggested that I should organize some students to make a poster for the SHA. I proposed that it could be about public archaeology, given that I have learned a lot from and enjoyed that facet of the Project. After I had put my initial idea out there, I organized a group of us to work on the poster, which included Raegan, Erika, Alex, Dr. Nassaney, and Hannah. So, throughout the rest of last year we worked on the poster, prepping it for the conference.
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| The poster we produced for the conference. Design courtesy of Cori Ivans. |
Getting to the conference was an adventure in itself. Alex and I carpooled to Erie Pennsylvania in a rental car to stay the night at Evan’s apartment. Evan had spent the last semester at Mercyhurst as a graduate student under the tutelage of Dr. Malischke, so he hooked us up with a ride from Erie to Boston in a large van with four other people. We really hit it gold on our ride there, as we had a spacious van to relax in as we traveled through the rest of Pennsylvania, the entire length of New York, and into Massachusetts.
Once we arrived at our hotel in Boston, we crammed six of us into a double, which included Evan, Alex, Raegan, and two other students from Mercyhurst. Let’s just say that we were all living in close quarters for the next five days. But this wasn’t too bad. All of the best memories are made with a slight tinge of adversity. And besides, most of our time was spent meandering about the hotel and the city.
All of this transpired between Monday morning and Tuesday night. But, once I had my early rise on Wednesday, the conference had finally begun, and I was ready to have at it. I spent my first day going from to presentation to presentation, listening to a variety of archaeologists discuss their research. This is what the majority of the conference consisted of, along with networking with other archaeologists. Which combined with all the late-night revelry, could easily lead me to burn out too quickly. I had to remind myself that I should treat my time like a marathon not a sprint, I had the entire week to meet new people.
By the time Thursday night came around somehow a group of us managed to sneak our way into a party thrown by the University of Massachusetts Anthropology department. You could say we were unofficially invited, but we didn’t know anybody there. So yeah, technically we crashed their party. This kind of carousing around while attending presentations and networking, continued on throughout the entire conference, and when Friday rolled up, I had burned out. I just didn’t have the will to pace myself knowing that I could be missing out on the next potential adventure. So, with my presentation coming up on Saturday, I knew that I would have to get up early since it was scheduled in the morning. A commonsense approach to time management would obviously imply that I should go to bed early, but this wasn’t the case.
With a bit of caffeine, I woke up feeling invincible and ready to take on my first presentation. Fortunately for me, despite my depletion the presentation went well. People were interested in the poster, and honestly it was much more of a relaxed setting than I had anticipated. People would stop by to check out our poster and ask questions. It was a good opportunity to show people what I have done for the past two years at FSJ, and how the Project conducts public archaeology with the Niles community. Afterwards Alex and I celebrated by having some oysters for lunch. But once again my exultant mood from my recent success started to wane, and the effects of the conference began to hit me. I tend to get despondent when I am feeling depleted, so despite my fear of missing out I had to get some rest if I wanted to enjoy the rest of my stay.
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| Raegan and I the morning of our presentation. Photo by Erika Hartley. |
With my final hours of the conference at hand, I had managed to utilize the most of my time to meet more professionals. This was one of my most important goals I had in my mind. Initially when I first arrived, I thought it would be best to playthings safe and act formal. But, after a few days immersed in the conference atmosphere, I realized that I had to lighten up a little or else people would think I was a rookie. Not that I wasn’t honest about my status as a burgeoning archaeologist and a first-time attendee, I just didn’t want to seem too green. This worked in my favor as I accomplished my goal, as I had met potential employers and professionals whose work interests me. And with the conference coming to a close I spent my final hours enjoying my time with friends over some Italian cuisine, and drinks at the hotel bar.
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| Fort St. Joseph members past and present reunite during the SHA. Photo by Amber Neeley. |
Overall attending the SHA was a rewarding experience that I plan on repeating in the future. I made some good memories and good connections. Leaving the conference was a hassle given that six other people were packing at the last-minute on about three or four hours of sleep. We still managed to get by without harming one another. It was an eight-and-a-half-hour ride from Boston back to Erie, and another five for Alex and I to drive back to Michigan. It was a quiet ride back, but we all survived the SHA. And reflecting back on it all, I realized that my adventures with these people aren’t over, as we are all working towards our future as archaeologists.
Until next time,
Cam
