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Academia Ghetto Thread

Started by Mesozoic Mister Nigel, September 05, 2014, 05:51:06 PM

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Suu

Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on September 02, 2016, 05:03:54 AM
Quote from: SuuCal on September 02, 2016, 01:28:46 AM
My first module for my professional certificate program starts tomorrow. It's an online course offered through Cal State Long Beach, and its for collection management and care of costume and textiles in a museum setting. Conservation, preservation, etc. History is over, now I get to learn the SCIENCE. I find it generally hilarious, and yet not at all surprising, to become a specialist in a museum field takes another year or so of extra work on top of a graduate degree. Because I haven't spent enough money yet.  :roll:

Is that like a post-doc fellowship sort of thing?

Not really. You get paid for post-docs, and they're typically research positions, which I'll probably end up doing once I finish my PhD someday. This is a professional designation, or certificate for post-MA grads to make them a specialist in their field for doing practical work versus academic work. A conservator has to have a specialization, so while I have the MA in museum studies which gives me the basic knowledge of the systems and processes, the specialization certificates are what set me in a specific field. So I'll be doing textiles and costumes (shock, I know) while some other folks do sculpture and pottery, paintings, etc. Each require a very specific skill set, so you really can't do each of them. I mean, I'm sure I could, but that would take a while, and I want to start working.

In addition, conservation specialists also work in archaeological lab to help process and preserve finds. So that's more of what I'd like to do. So in addition to having the historical and archival knowledge, now I need a healthy dose of basic organic chemistry and learn textile-specific treatments. It's short, only 5 1-month classes, and then 120 hours of fieldwork. Then I'm good to go to enter a conservation lab.
Sovereign Episkopos-Princess Kaousuu; Esq., Battle Nun, Bene Gesserit.
Our Lady of Perpetual Confusion; 1st Church of Discordia

"Add a dab of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you're laughing at it."

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: SuuCal on September 02, 2016, 05:27:26 AM
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on September 02, 2016, 05:03:54 AM
Quote from: SuuCal on September 02, 2016, 01:28:46 AM
My first module for my professional certificate program starts tomorrow. It's an online course offered through Cal State Long Beach, and its for collection management and care of costume and textiles in a museum setting. Conservation, preservation, etc. History is over, now I get to learn the SCIENCE. I find it generally hilarious, and yet not at all surprising, to become a specialist in a museum field takes another year or so of extra work on top of a graduate degree. Because I haven't spent enough money yet.  :roll:

Is that like a post-doc fellowship sort of thing?

Not really. You get paid for post-docs, and they're typically research positions, which I'll probably end up doing once I finish my PhD someday. This is a professional designation, or certificate for post-MA grads to make them a specialist in their field for doing practical work versus academic work. A conservator has to have a specialization, so while I have the MA in museum studies which gives me the basic knowledge of the systems and processes, the specialization certificates are what set me in a specific field. So I'll be doing textiles and costumes (shock, I know) while some other folks do sculpture and pottery, paintings, etc. Each require a very specific skill set, so you really can't do each of them. I mean, I'm sure I could, but that would take a while, and I want to start working.

In addition, conservation specialists also work in archaeological lab to help process and preserve finds. So that's more of what I'd like to do. So in addition to having the historical and archival knowledge, now I need a healthy dose of basic organic chemistry and learn textile-specific treatments. It's short, only 5 1-month classes, and then 120 hours of fieldwork. Then I'm good to go to enter a conservation lab.

So it's a certificate program? That makes sense.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Mesozoic Mister Nigel

I got my assistantship assignment today! It's Principles of Bio. I'm so relieved it isn't something I've never taken, like A&P!
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Freeky


Cain

Congrats.

I'm looking forward to Monday, when I can start putting in some more PhD applications.

Suu

Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on September 02, 2016, 05:34:26 PM
Quote from: SuuCal on September 02, 2016, 05:27:26 AM
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on September 02, 2016, 05:03:54 AM
Quote from: SuuCal on September 02, 2016, 01:28:46 AM
My first module for my professional certificate program starts tomorrow. It's an online course offered through Cal State Long Beach, and its for collection management and care of costume and textiles in a museum setting. Conservation, preservation, etc. History is over, now I get to learn the SCIENCE. I find it generally hilarious, and yet not at all surprising, to become a specialist in a museum field takes another year or so of extra work on top of a graduate degree. Because I haven't spent enough money yet.  :roll:

Is that like a post-doc fellowship sort of thing?

Not really. You get paid for post-docs, and they're typically research positions, which I'll probably end up doing once I finish my PhD someday. This is a professional designation, or certificate for post-MA grads to make them a specialist in their field for doing practical work versus academic work. A conservator has to have a specialization, so while I have the MA in museum studies which gives me the basic knowledge of the systems and processes, the specialization certificates are what set me in a specific field. So I'll be doing textiles and costumes (shock, I know) while some other folks do sculpture and pottery, paintings, etc. Each require a very specific skill set, so you really can't do each of them. I mean, I'm sure I could, but that would take a while, and I want to start working.

In addition, conservation specialists also work in archaeological lab to help process and preserve finds. So that's more of what I'd like to do. So in addition to having the historical and archival knowledge, now I need a healthy dose of basic organic chemistry and learn textile-specific treatments. It's short, only 5 1-month classes, and then 120 hours of fieldwork. Then I'm good to go to enter a conservation lab.

So it's a certificate program? That makes sense.

Yeah. I need the additional exp points, but there's no way in hell I have the brain capacity to continue to my PhD right now. The amount of work I had to do for my master's was intense, and I didn't see my husband through most of it. My mind is still fucking broken from my thesis, to the point when I had to give a presentation on it last month, I actually didn't want to look at it again. But, so many people are interested in my work, and it's currently under review for presentation at Kalamazoo at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, which is the largest conference of its type in the world.

I'm also working on a paper about cotton cultivation in medieval Anatolia and the culture of cotton garments from Byzantium into Western Europe, which probably sounds boring, but we were under this assumption that cotton didn't make it to Europe until much later, despite consistent cultivation in Egypt through most of the classical period. Farms in Anatolia means that the Byzantine Empire was controlling the trade like they were controlling their silk, but still only giving the cotton to the military and lower classes. It reads like, "You can't have this, it's OUR garbage!" There has to be more to it than that, though I wouldn't put it besides the Byzantines to bogart even inferior fibers.
Sovereign Episkopos-Princess Kaousuu; Esq., Battle Nun, Bene Gesserit.
Our Lady of Perpetual Confusion; 1st Church of Discordia

"Add a dab of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you're laughing at it."

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: Cain on September 03, 2016, 02:24:20 PM
Congrats.

I'm looking forward to Monday, when I can start putting in some more PhD applications.

Where are you applying, if I may ask? Will you likely be relocating?
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Cain

I'm applying anywhere which will pay in full for the course and has one.  So relocation is pretty likely.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: SuuCal on September 06, 2016, 02:00:42 AM

Yeah. I need the additional exp points, but there's no way in hell I have the brain capacity to continue to my PhD right now. The amount of work I had to do for my master's was intense, and I didn't see my husband through most of it. My mind is still fucking broken from my thesis, to the point when I had to give a presentation on it last month, I actually didn't want to look at it again. But, so many people are interested in my work, and it's currently under review for presentation at Kalamazoo at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, which is the largest conference of its type in the world.

I'm also working on a paper about cotton cultivation in medieval Anatolia and the culture of cotton garments from Byzantium into Western Europe, which probably sounds boring, but we were under this assumption that cotton didn't make it to Europe until much later, despite consistent cultivation in Egypt through most of the classical period. Farms in Anatolia means that the Byzantine Empire was controlling the trade like they were controlling their silk, but still only giving the cotton to the military and lower classes. It reads like, "You can't have this, it's OUR garbage!" There has to be more to it than that, though I wouldn't put it besides the Byzantines to bogart even inferior fibers.

That actually sounds fairly interesting; I find it fascinating that many of our long-held historical assumptions just don't hold up to scrutiny by an expert.

"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: Cain on September 06, 2016, 03:50:05 PM
I'm applying anywhere which will pay in full for the course and has one.  So relocation is pretty likely.

That seems exciting! Potentially, at least.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Well, it looks like they aren't going to take my thesis down, and my advisor says it's fine because we will revise it enough that it's not a big deal to have an earlier version floating about. So, as promised, here's the link if anyone is interested:

http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/honorstheses/340/
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Junkenstein

Read the abstract and felt quite dumb. Currently googling terms. Conclusion does beg questions RE likely to be replicated in mammals so would additional proof eventually lead to looking at human habitats? Curious as somewhere is now trialling guaranteed income (way above poverty line) and I'm expecting to see good results with lack of stress factors.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: Junkenstein on September 08, 2016, 10:47:52 PM
Read the abstract and felt quite dumb. Currently googling terms. Conclusion does beg questions RE likely to be replicated in mammals so would additional proof eventually lead to looking at human habitats? Curious as somewhere is now trialling guaranteed income (way above poverty line) and I'm expecting to see good results with lack of stress factors.

I know what you mean... I feel that way every time I read a paper from someone with a different specialty. I don't know if you've had the chance to get through the intro yet, but although no one has done my exact experiment in mammals (and frankly, I am not sure if most neonatal mammals have significant neurogenesis that could be reliably tested in this way... possibly shrews or voles? Nobody's going to replicate this with bears or raccoons), I think Meaney has some really robust data using rat and mouse pups that demonstrate significant difference in histone acetylation for glucocorticoid receptors between pups of stressed and non-stressed dams. Meaney is actually one of the seminal sources for this area of study... he's now doing some really exciting research on development in toddlers who were exposed to acute ongoing prenatal stress.

I, too, would anticipate that all of the impacts of prolonged acute prenatal stress would be ameliorated to a pretty high degree with basic income, so in ten to twenty years there should be some very strong data coming from that trial.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Mesozoic Mister Nigel

FWIW, the body of the paper is much less dense and more accessible than the abstract! I explain and define most of the terms I use; it's written for a diverse academic body.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Junkenstein

Handy to know, thanks! I assumed if I couldn't understand the abstract to a reasonable degree the main text would just be like trying to read wingdings or Proust.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.