If you’ve been following CAP for a while you’ve probably seen us post about the “Moor” artifact: a small piece of mortar sporting the letters “Moor” in handwritten cursive script. Despite its unassuming appearance, what makes this artifact so fascinating is the incredible story behind …
Dr. Terry Brock is a historical and public archaeologist, and is currently the Assistant Director of Archaeology at the Montpelier Foundation in Orange, Virginia. He served as the first Campus Archaeologist from 2008 to 2010 while a graduate student at MSU. As someone who was …
Dr. Kate Frederick, a recent MSU graduate, worked with Campus Archaeology for two years, where she says she gained wide range of skills sets. She stated that though she had a decade of archaeological experience, there was a steep learning curve in the role of a CAP Fellow due to the diversity in job duties, including cultural resource management, public outreach, and digital humanities. Her reflection upon her time as a fellow highlights public engagement via social media and public outreach events. Check out our Q&A with Dr. Frederick to see why she believes public engagement is such an important component of Campus Archaeology, as well as some of her favorite memories and contributions to the program.
Q: What years were you a Campus Archaeologist?
A: I was a CAP Fellow from August 2013 to August 2015.
Q: What were the major projects that you worked on/with fellows on?
A: In terms of construction projects, I oversaw the Phase III and Phase IV of the steam tunnel reconstruction. It was during the third phase that we found the original Vet Lab, and during the final phase that we discovered the privy near the MSU Museum. In terms of other projects, I instituted the Apparitions and Archaeology tour. I thought it would be a fun way to talk about the history of MSU. I also started the CAP Café, a casual archaeology lecture.
Q: What was the most important thing you got out of CAP?
A: The power of social media and public outreach. I learned that archaeology cannot thrive as a discipline without public engagement. If we do not disseminate the importance of archaeology and stewardship to the public through outreach programs and social media, then we are shooting ourselves in the proverbial foot.
Q: In what ways did CAP make you more marketable when searching for a job?
A: Because the Campus Archaeologist wears many hats, I learned several valuable skills that I’ve found useful in my jobs since. CAP taught me to be flexible in the field and to juggle several projects at a time. In a single day, a Campus Archaeologist can go from shovel testing a series of sidewalks in the morning, to archival research in the afternoon, and ending with a campus tour.
Q: How did the skills and knowledge gained in CAP help you in your job now?
A: Before becoming Campus Archaeologist I was a social media minimalist. I quickly learned not only how to productively utilize social media platforms, but also how integral social media can be to public engagement.
Q: What was your biggest challenge as a Campus Archaeologist?
A: The biggest task as Campus Archaeologist is captivating an unwillingly captivated audience; the construction workers. An integral aspect of the position of Campus Archaeologist is explaining why CAP is important. This is most often done in front of an audience of construction workers that are required to listen, but definitely don’t want to listen. Getting on my soap box and explaining why it’s important we halt construction for a few days so we can excavate an historic privy, does not captivate the audience. Telling workers that we’re going to delay their deadline because we found some cool ceramics is a tough pill to swallow when it means late night and earlier mornings for the workers who now need to make up that time delay. Construction workers are the first eyes on the archaeology. They have the power to call us or just inform us after the fact; obviously, our goal is the former. Because we run the risk of being seen as a nuisance, we have to instill a sense of stewardship in the construction workers. We have to show the value in our work through the big picture.
Q: What was your favorite part or memory of CAP (highlights)?
A: My favorite aspect of being Campus Archaeologist was becoming intimately familiar with MSU and its history. I started at MSU as an undergrad in 2004, then continued my graduate career here in 2011. I bleed green. It was always exciting to uncover some little known or long forgotten piece of MSU’s history.
We would like to thank Dr. Frederick for taking the time to answer questions about her time as an MSU Campus Archaeologist. She truly reveals her love of public engagement in a way that encourages future archaeologists to consider ways in which they can disseminate information to the general public in a captivating manner.
Dr. Amy Michael is a biological anthropologist whose research examines the microstructure of human bones and teeth in order to address questions ranging from health and social identity in the ancient Maya to the effect of lifestyle factors on skeletal age. She is currently a …
Michigan State’s Campus Archaeology program has provided fellowships for a number of graduate students in anthropology. These fellowships are awarded to enthusiastic, motivated students who are interested in gaining a unique learning experience. The fellows dedicate a lot of time and energy into conducting research …
As a new member of the Campus Archaeology Program and as someone starting my first year in the anthropology program, I have not yet chosen a project, so I was delighted when the opportunity to interview a former member of CAP came up. As I had hoped, the interview and my preparation for it taught me a lot about CAP that I do not think I would have picked up otherwise. This blog post is share that what I learned and to promote Lisa Bright, the former MSU campus archaeologist who graciously took time out of her busy life to talk to me about her experiences with CAP. Lisa may be the only MSU graduate to work in so many capacities for CAP. As an undergraduate Lisa worked on the 2005 CAP field school at Saint’s Rest, and after returning to MSU to pursue her PhD. Lisa worked as a CAP fellow (2014-2015) and later as the Campus Archaeologist (2015-2018). In these different capacities, Lisa was able to grow with CAP and to grow the program’s presence on the campus throughout her tenure. I was very lucky to speak with Lisa Bright about these experiences and to gain some insight on how the Campus Archaeology Program helped her become a successful and employed archaeologist.
Lisa Bright is a PhD candidate at Michigan State University. She is currently finishing her dissertation, focusing on the health/pathology of a historic era California potter’s field, with an anticipated graduation in 2019. Lisa is also the District Native American Consultation Coordinator/Archaeologist for the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) District 3 and an adjunct Anthropology instructor.
Lisa started with CAP in her first year in the PhD. program in 2014, she became campus archaeologist in August of 2015 and remained in that position until leaving CAP for her job with Caltrans, teaching at California State University, Chico, and dissertation writing in May of 2018. Needless to say, Lisa has remained busy since leaving MSU and CAP.
Lisa is also the only campus
archaeologist whose tenure lasted three years, most hold the position for two.
I asked her how she felt about being campus archaeologist for this length of
time and she told me three years was fine, not a problem at all, but that the
campus archaeologist position does take a lot of work. Although I never worked
with Lisa, my brief experience as a CAP fellow has shown me how much work being
the campus archaeologist at MSU can be. I have seen Autumn Painter, the current
campus archaeologist, coordinate and assist with all the current projects CAP
fellows are working on, as well as being the one to respond when ever
archaeological materials are uncovered during construction on campus.
During her tenure as campus archaeologist Lisa oversaw several significant projects, including the Abbot’s entrance rejuvenation project which discovered the Station Terrace basement, finding the soon to be excavated sugar shack foundation, the excavation of nearly 350 shovel tests pits for the Wilson Road survey, creative outreach projects like the MSU food reconstruction project, and working to ensure all collections were accessioned and projects reports were being finished.
In 2015, Lisa’s first year in the position,
CAP’s main objective was to sort, catalog, and accession the artifacts from the
Gunson excavation. The field school earlier that summer dug five excavation
units, none of which hit sterile soil, the excavations were forced to stop at seven
feet below surface where they hit the water table. Out of those five units came
roughly 46,000 artifacts, an enormous amount of data to be sure, but also a
daunting task for any curator. Thanks to the efforts of Lisa, the CAP fellows,
and undergraduate volunteers in 2015 the artifacts from Gunson were preserved. Lisa
suggested that the collection would make a great research project for anyone
interested.
In 2017, Lisa oversaw the Campus
Archaeology field school which excavated six 2 x 2 meter units at the Station
Terrace site, no small task in just four weeks! Lisa is very proud of her role
in implementing the field school project and of all the undergraduates and
volunteers who worked to make the project possible.
To get a sense of how all these
various projects helped Lisa to develop as an archaeologist I asked her if she
could mention a few of the most useful skills she learned from her time as
campus archaeologist. Unsurprisingly, Lisa listed a great number of these. The
foremost was what she learned acting in a management position. This role sees a
project through from conception to implementation and curation processes and also
acts as mediator and public face of a program. She pointed out that this is a
unique role in archaeology, mostly reserved for project managers or owners of
cultural resource management firms. Very seldom do students get an opportunity
to develop these necessary skills, giving Lisa and other campus archaeologist a
competitive edge when applying for jobs. In fact, Lisa credited this experience
as a major reason she beat out many other archaeologists for her current job. I
can think of no higher praise for CAP’s training than stories like these.
I also asked Lisa about the challenges she must have face in her years as campus archaeologist. The first she mentioned was developing her authority in the position. Her background was in osteology and mortuary studies, not historical archaeology, yet Lisa committed to connecting her knowledge base to historical archaeology throughout her tenure as campus archaeologist. This is a challenge we all face when starting a new job, integrating out skill sets into existing frames and hopefully learning new skills along the way. Lisa also mentioned challenges with learning all the systems of the program and learning as she encountered new issues. A lot of her success in adapting to these systems came down to knowing what the previous campus archaeologists did and how they organized things and solved problems.
To close out our conversation, I wanted to ask Lisa what she most enjoyed during her time in CAP and as campus archaeologist. The first that has to be mentioned is when Lisa was excavating the West Circle Privy as a graduate fellow and uncovered the now famous doll head affectionately know as Mabel. This event is made more serendipitous because Lisa eventually returned to MSU and to CAP. Lisa and Mabel are forever connected to the Campus Archaeology Program.
The raspberry seeds were another
favorite. Though slightly less of a cosmic coincidence, Lisa led an effort to
use Beal’s techniques to germinate and grow the privy seeds and even though the
experiment did not work out, Lisa takes a positive outlook, enjoying the effort
and attempt. One a more successful note Lisa mentioned that working with the
organic farm and the food truck was another highlight of her time as campus
archaeologist. When you look through Lisa’s numerous blog posts a dedication to
creative public archaeology and outreach through it all. CAP’s potential and
Lisa’s goals came together in this aspect and a real connection between the
public and the university formed.
Lastly, Lisa told me that the best
part of her four years with CAP and three years as campus archaeologist was
constantly working with wonderful people. It was clear that she valued the
relationships she developed with everyone she worked and studied with. I also
want to thank Lisa Bright for allowing me to interview her for this blog post.
I hope that this provides some insight not only into Lisa’s time with CAP, but
also what it is like for all the fellows and the current campus archaeologist
to work in MSU’s Campus Archaeology Program.
Sources
Burnett, Jeff Interview with Lisa Bright 10/5/2018 Notes
taken by hand