Listen to Anthro.mp3
Goodbye Seniors
Claire, Emily, Leandra, and Tim reflect on their time at UMass and in Anthro.mp3, how they got here, and their plans after undergrad.
Transcript
Leandra
Hello friends, and welcome back to Anthro by MP3. We’re students from UMass who love anthropology. Anthro Hub is a website we help run to love all things anthro. Make sure to check it out to see some incredible blog posts and creative works made by students from our school and others.
My name is Lea, and I’ll be one of your hosts. Today’s episode is going to look a little different. I’m joined by not just one or two co-hosts, but actually four of them. And that’s because
All
We’re graduating!!!
Claire
So we wanted to use today’s episode to say goodbye to all of the seniors who have been a part of Anthro.mp3 for the past few years. We’ll be talking about some of our favorite memories, what we expect to do after graduation, and everything we love about anthropology.
But first, a quick round of introductions. You might recognize my voice. My name’s Claire. I am a major in anthropology with a focus in archaeology. I have a secondary major in English creative writing, and I have a minor in classical archaeology, which you have all heard quite a lot about because I’ve done two episodes on how much I love Greek ceramics.
I was one of the founding members of the podcast. I’ve been here for my entire college career. So this is rounding out my 4th year with the podcast, which is exciting and emotional. And I’m a little heartbroken to be leaving. I’m going to miss, I’m going to miss this.
Anyway, who wants to go next?
Tim
I’m Tim.
Claire
Hi, Tim.
Tim
Hi, everyone.
I am an anthropology major and also a linguistics major. You know, I’ve done a few episodes talking about linguistic anthropology. It’s been a lot of fun, among other stuff.
Claire
Oh yeah!
Tim
You know, I’ve been doing the podcast for I think I started like the beginning of my second year, but I’m graduating in three years.
Claire
I believe your first episode was the Valentine’s Day special we did together.
Tim
Yep. Yeah, it was. And I was nervous. A couple of years ago. If you go back, I was like talking really fast. I was like, oh shoot, how do I? I’m nervous, you know?
Claire
You killed it. And now you’re a pro.
Tim
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Yeah, no, I’m bummed to be leaving the podcast. But you know, it’s been a lot of fun being part of it, you know?
Leandra
Yeah. Hey, guys.
Tim
Hey, hey, hey
Leandra
What’s up, YouTube?
Claire
Hey, chat.
Leandra
I’m Lea. I’m Lea, or Leandra, I’m also an anthro major, unsurprisingly. And I have a focus in evolutionary anthro, which checks out since I’ve made quite a few episodes on evolution based things.
Tim
Mr. Evolution.
Claire
Oh yeah. Feeling Finchy.
One of my favorite episode names to date.
Leandra
Good Times, good Times.
I think I joined the podcast in my sophomore year.
Claire
Yes, but interesting, interesting fact about you, Lea.
Leandra
Oh, what is that?
Claire
You made our art the first year before you officially joined the podcast.
Tim
Yeah, that’s a little trivia fact.
Claire
Yeah, the little the monkey on the blue background listening to our podcast.
Leandra
It’s true, it’s true.
Tim
Go on and throw it on MB3 on Spotify, you can see it.
Leandra
Yes, so I guess I joined my second semester of sophomore year.
Claire
Yes.
Leandra
And I’m going to, I’m really sad that it’s almost over.
Claire
I know. And then we have our two graduating members of our tech crew. You’ve heard at least one of their voices before, but now you’ll hear them both because we’re going to make them introduce themselves.
Tim
Well, you’ve heard both of them, but one of them is a little Easter egg. It was a very brief introduction.
Emily
Hey everyone, it’s been a while. My name is Emily, and I’m an anthropology and computer science dual degree, and I actually also have a minor in linguistics. I don’t really have a concentration, but I feel like I am probably most interested in like archaeology, even though I feel like the two, the two like episodes I’ve recorded in, I don’t really, I guess one of them was archaeology related, even though it was mostly Claire talking, but the other one was, I guess, more cultural.
But yeah.
And I’m actually one of the other founding members of the podcast, which is definitely, yeah, it’s definitely like going to be interesting suddenly not participating in the podcast anymore because I remember like, it’s kind of like my baby, you know, like I’ve been there, like I was there when it started. I like, I came up with a name, like I made a bunch of decisions. It’s all of a sudden it’s going to go on a different life trajectory than where I am.
So. Yeah, I’m definitely excited to see where the podcast goes without me.
Tim
You can like watch it from far away like a parent.
Emily
Yeah, exactly. The podcast is like going off to college.
Leandra
We also have another buddy that is keeping an eye out on the tech board, so she can’t join us, but her name is Fong and hi Fong.
Claire
Hi Fong.
Fong
Hi
Leandra
And she’s also an anthro major, of course, with a focus in evolutionary biological anthropology.
Claire
Yeah, she’s a primatologist.
Tim
Primatology.
Leandra
It’s true. And she’s also a founding member.
Emily
I think she also is a minor in NRC. Yeah.And a certificate in GIS
Tim
Yes.
Leandra
Is she going to nod?
All
Yay.
Tim
All right.
Well, introduction’s out of the way, right? Let’s talk about anthropology, you know, off the cuff. Off the cuff, no script, nothing. Well, kind of a script. We have a script. Disclaimer.
Claire
We have a roadmap.
Tim
Yeah, we’ll be fine.
Really, this is a, this is a, this is a heart to heart, you know, kind of moment. Because what made you want to be an anthro major? Can I just ask?What made you want to be an anthro major?
Leandra
Deep cut.
Tim
Can we just start with this?
Claire
So I have kind of an interesting story for this because I didn’t want to go into anthropology or archaeology for most of my life. I did the thing that I think a lot of small kids do where they’re like, I changed professions pretty much every year that I wanted to do. I wanted to do marine biology, and then I wanted to go into theoretical physics, and then I took a physics class, and it made me want to cry, so that dream ended in 10th grade.
Tim
I was 4, I wanted to be a firefighter.
Claire
You would have made a great firefighter
Leandra
as a four-year-old.
Claire
As a four-year-old, not as a five-year-old, though.
Tim
So what led you to the anthropology path?
Claire
So I
have always really been into folklore, mythology. So I always kind of wanted to pursue that in some way. I wanted to tell stories. I’ve been a writer ever since I was little. I’ve always loved talking to people, interacting with people, hearing their stories, sharing stories that haven’t gotten to be shared. And that’s what led me to archaeology.
And then when I reached out to UMass, I said that I wanted to go into archaeology. And the person I talked to said, perfect, you should get a major in anthropology. And I hadn’t heard a lot about anthropology at that point, but I started researching it after I committed and I was just blown away by the sheer emphasis on empathy and connection and humans because something about me is that I, I love humans. I think we’re a beautiful species. I could talk about us for hours. I am just so enamored with the human experience. And so the instant that I set foot in my first anthropology class, it wasn’t even something for my focus. It wasn’t an archaeology class or anything that had to do with folklore or anything like that. It was an intro to biological anthropology class. And I just, I sat down in that lecture hall and I just, I knew. I don’t really know how to explain it. It was a gut feeling.
Tim
Who’s the professor, can I ask?
Claire
Brigitte Holt.
Leandra
We had the same class.
Claire
We did, we did.
Tim
Oh, wow!
Leandra
We discovered this, this year.
00:09:14 Claire
This year.
00:09:14 Tim
Wow.
00:09:15 Claire
Yep. Happy, happy 10 A.m. 102. No, it wasn’t 102, it was 103. Sorry. Happy 10 A.m. 103.
But there were a few of the bigger classes that I didn’t realize I had with people in the podcast or peer advising. And then we were chatting and one of us would bring up a class and the other one would be like, hey, wait, I think I saw two rows behind you.
So that’s my kind of little convoluted path as to how I got into anthropology. But it is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I love the field. I love the people. I love the people I work with and I love the people I work about. I just, I love helping people share their stories. I think it’s really important.
Tim
Yeah.
Emily, what brought you to anthropology?
Emily
Yeah, so actually, like Claire, I also did not know what anthropology was, I’m not gonna lie, before I came to UMass. Like, honestly, when I, I kind of applied to UMass kind of on a whim. And then I was like, they’re making me select a major. What do I, don’t,
Tim
Shoot, what do I like?
Emily
What do I want to study? And so I was literally just like scrolling like the majors, like list of majors. And I was like, it’s like astronomy. I was like,
Tim
You didn’t have to scroll that far, I guess.
Emily
No, literally, because I was just like, I was like, anthropology, what’s anthropology? And then I looked at the UMass anthropology website, and then they had the four concentrations. And I was like, this is interesting. Because I was like, I like archaeology, because I read Percy Jackson, and then all that from there.
Tim
It’s the bug that bit us.
Emily
No, like literally.
And then I was like, cultural. I was like, I like learning about different cultures, why not? Linguistics, I was like, languages are cool. And then biology, it was like, I did good in AP bio. Yeah. I don’t know about love, but I was like, I could do that. Because I didn’t, I didn’t realize like the classes were going to be so separate. But so I was just like, what, let me apply. And then if I get in, I get in. If I don’t, I guess I’ll figure something out.
And then, and I’m really glad that I picked anthropology because like, you know, without getting into anthropology, I would not have been able to do this podcast, would not have been able to meet you guys. And yeah, I also, I think my left trajectory would have been very different without anthropology. So yeah. So cute. Yeah.
But it was definitely like, not like any sort of like, I’ve always become, always wanted to be an anthropologist kind of deal.
Yeah, What about you, Tim?
Tim
So I also, it was kind of this windy path, you know. So a little trivia about me, I did fail high school by a math credit. So then I, like a year or so later, two years later, maybe, I got my, it’s kind of like a GED. It’s called the high set. It’s like high school equivalency test, maybe. Maybe. And I did that. And then I was like, all right, well,
Now what?
When I was like 16 or 17, I was like, man, I want to go to college for philosophy. I was like, what I wanted to do, I thought it was cool. I liked reading books and stuff. So I was like, maybe I’ll do that. And I was like, wait a minute, I don’t know anything about philosophy. Maybe I won’t do that. And I also liked history. So at the time, when I got my high set, I was working at a co-op and I was a meat cutter.
And I was working with this guy, Mike, And he actually just finished his community college associates in anthropology. And I was talking with him and I liked history. So we had stuff to talk about, and we just talk shop all day, just like talking about nothing, these cool convos. And, he put me on anthropology and I was like, man, what is this? Sounds like all like history, but sounds cool. I was like interested because it wasn’t all like, the thing about history is it’s all about like wars and stuff. Like I care more about like tools and carts and stuff, I like that. I think the culture is cool. And that seems to be what the deal was with anthropology is we just talk all day for like hours and hours and hours, like every other day, pretty much just about like whatever and anthropology. And it was cool. He’s like really into Tolkien. So he also. You know
Claire
Me too.
Tim
So this is like some naturalistic kind of anthropology situation, but that also meant he was really interested in linguistics. So him and I would talk about linguistic anthropology a lot. And that got me thinking like, man, anthropology is pretty cool. Now at this time, I was already accepted to UMass for history. And then actually before I even Before I even had a meeting with my advisor or anything, I switched majors to anthropology, like immediately! And then a little bit after that, because of Mike, I was officially an anthro major. And then I was talking with Sarah in the online advising seminar thing. And that’s how I ended up in anthropology.
Leandra
So I’m hearing is…
Shout out Mike.
Tim
Shout out Mike, mentor figure. He’s living in Cleveland now. He has his wife and kid.
Claire
Leandra, I think it’s your turn.
Tim
What about you, Lea. Leandra
Leandra
Well, I’ll tell you guys.
Claire
Please.
Leandra
Okay, in 6th grade, we’re going all the way back.
Tim
Oh my goodness.
Claire
Wow.
Leandra
We had like an anthropology unit and I don’t.
Tim
Really?
That’s awesome.
Emily
That’s kind of crazy though.
Tim
What? That’s cool.
Leandra
And it was, but it was like.
It was like, interesting because it wasn’t very structured. So it was kind of like we made cave paintings with cardboard, like paper and drew or put paint on our hands and then did little animals or whatever. And then a few days later, we built little like Roman arches with wooden blocks. And then we, what was the other thing? Oh, we had like terracotta like bowls that you put plant pots on top of and drew like with Sharpie Greek things.
Claire
Oh my gosh. Patterns like meanders and such.
Leandra
Yeah.
Claire
Oh my gosh. Meanders are my favorite. And you guys should totally go listen to our Greek ceramics episodes because.
Tim
Sick plug
Emily
Plugging other episodes in our episode
Claire
I have to. I can’t not.
Tim
Do you think that was the intention of your 6th grade teacher?
Claire
You guys are going to miss me talking. Your 6th grade teacher was actually me, but as a Time traveler.
Fun fact, did you know that Greek meanders are named after a river in Turkey? I believe.
Tim
Was it meander falls?
Anyways,
Claire
No, but close.
Tim
Anyway, anyway, anyway.
Claire
So back to you, Leandra.
00:16:35 Leandra
Thank you, Claire.
I don’t know.
So that was really, I really, really liked that unit. we also learned about Mesopotamia and stuff and I was pretty good at it. Then I forgot everything.
Tim
Okay, smarty pants.
Leandra
Yes, thank you. And then eventually we did like, I think we did other like small like anthro stuff in middle school, but then in high school it was like, The Revolutionary War.
Tim
Yeah, I loved that one. I was like so into it. Oh my God. So into it. That was good.
Emily
I feel like as someone who lived in Mass, like I swear we were taught the Revolutionary War like every single year.
Tim
Yeah, bro, because I was in Iowa. I was like, “oh my God, this is so interesting”.
Claire
Yeah, no, growing up in Pennsylvania, I went to visit places like Valley Forge like 5 plus Times throughout my entire K-12.
Tim
Yeah.
Claire
Scholastic experience.
Tim
Dude, I visited my girlfriend. She’s in Woburn, and I saw a sign that said Lexington. I was like, “is that like the Lexington and Concord?”
Emily
Wait, you haven’t been to Lexington Concord?
Tim
She was like, “yeah”. And I was like, “that’s awesome”. She was like, “why? What’s so awesome about that?”
Emily
Wait, that’s actually kind of funny. You should actually go visit. Cause like, it was cool to me up until I had to learn it like five times. But you know, if you’ve never been, It’s actually a pretty nice place.
Tim
Dude, I was on a bus to the Logan Airport and I saw Bunker Hill and I was like, “that is the Bunker Hill from the battle.”
Leandra
Have you seen the like Boston Tea Party?
Tim
No, I haven’t.
Leandra
Museum thing.
Tim
If I went, you know what I’d say. I’d say like, “is that from the Tea Party?”
Emily
You can also go to where the Boston Massacre happened.
Tim
The Massacre. That’s how I’d be, because I’m still like a fanboy. Anyway, anyway, anyway.
Claire
Anyway, back to you, Leandra.
Leandra
But so in high school, it was just very like American Revolution, shooting people stuff, and I did not really care. And oh, just speaking of our conversation 10 seconds ago, when I was in 3rd grade and 4th grade, we went to Plymouth Plantation, which is not a plantation.
It is like a reconstruction of like, what are they called?
Pilgrims?
Like pilgrim houses?
Emily
Yeah.
Leandra
Like earlier colonial.
Claire
Yeah, like one of the colonies.
Leandra
And so everyone’s like dressed up and then there’s like a section for like an indigenous village. And then we played like a soccer game, like where they like taught us like, what, I don’t remember because I was an out of shape kid and I was not going to play a game in the hot weather. But that was really cool because I liked seeing an actual constructed simulation, which obviously, maybe wasn’t as realistic as history, but it’s okay.
But anyway, so college, I applied to UMass, and similar to Emily, I was like, oh, I have to choose my major before I do anything else. And I don’t even freaking know what a major is. Like, I really had no idea about anything college related. And so when I clicked on the tab. I scrolled down once one time and I saw anthropology and I was like,
Tim
It’s an alphabetical tab.
Leandra
If you couldn’t figure it out. I saw anthropology and I was like, that sounds really familiar. And then I Googled it. And then I went on the Wikipedia page and I was like, I like all these things.
Click.
And then I got accepted. And then I completely forgot about it. And then I was like, yeah, I’m an Anthro major.
Tim
Oh, that’s awesome.
Leandra
And now I love it.
Tim
Everything works out, right?
Leandra
It’s true.
Emily
Good thing anthropology starts with an A.
Tim
it really goes to show that everyone that starts studying it loves it, right? There’s like a class for everybody.
Claire
Yeah, we’re all, have very different ways that we got into it. And coincidence is so special, which is really cool. And, oh, I had something to say and it’s gone directly out of my head as tends to happen. Oh, I remember. Sorry, guys. I hope you enjoyed that.
So something special that I’ve talked about before, I think, is that after we picked our majors, Tim sort of mentioned this, we had an advisor meeting to help us choose our fall classes, freshman year. And that’s when I met Sarah Reedy for the first time. So for those of you who don’t know, she’s the anthropology advisor right now. This is her last year in that position, but now then she’ll be going further into teaching, which, lucky students. We’re going to miss that. Yeah. But she is the one who pulled us all together to start this podcast, and she’s really been a great catalyst for it. And she’s also sitting right behind us.
Tim
We’re looking at her.
What’s everyone’s favorite anthro class? Like just throwing it out there. Like I know a lot of, like we call ourselves, well, we call ourselves our discover major, like we take a class for like, oh, that’s cool. Like what was everyone’s favorite class?
Leandra
I have three.
Tim
Okay. Spit ‘em, spit ‘em.
Leandra
Okay. The first one, maybe, okay, not in a particular order.
Tim
Yeah.
Leandra
Women’s health across the life course was taught by Oxa Dorsey.
Tim
Interesting.
Leandra
I loved that class. Oh my gosh, it was. It was amazing. And that was more of like a medical or like bio anthro approach to like women’s health and medicine and talked a lot about misogyny and the healthcare system and also just life. And I really enjoyed having that space. And then I really liked, I’m gonna group these two together, primate conservation and primate behavior. I took both of those this year because it was the only time that I could take a primate-centered class. And then that really solidified my decision to go into primate bio stuff. And then my third favorite class, I had it in my head. Help. I really like historical archaeology, which I took with Claire.
Claire
Yes, that was a really good class. And I’m actually going to interject here because that leads directly into my favorite classes. I also loved historical archaeology. That was one of my top ones. It was just a really interesting hands-on class. And it kind of jump-started me into my focus within archaeology, which is funerary ritual, gravestones, grave sites, sort of just that the way that humans interact with grief and post-mortem ritual. And I also really liked, that was with Hayden Stewart. And like Lea said, we had that one together and that was really fun. And I also really liked a different class with Hayden Stewart that also really kind of pushed me to pursue archaeology further. And that was the North American archaeology class that he teaches. And that’s one of the bigger classes in the anthropology department. It’s a pretty large lecture that a lot of people use as a gen ed. But again, like Tim said, we call ourselves a discovery major. And that’s one of the classes that people take to discover the major. And that’s when I learned about, you know, how indigenous peoples use acorns and about garbology. That was my introduction to trash archaeology, which I find really interesting. And feature members of the podcast, if you’re listening to this, you should do an episode on trash archaeology. It’s a lot more, not glamorous, but fun than it sounds. And that’s also where I learned about atlatls. And I got to throw a spear using an atlatl today. So big wins for Claire.
Tim
What about you, Emily? What’s your favorite class? Favorite anthro class? Go.
Emily
This is hard. Okay,
Leandra
I feel like we’re all waiting and watching.
Emily
Oh no. I also really enjoyed my North American archaeology class. Not the same, I didn’t say at the same Time as Claire. I think I had it with Professor Pasiga. But it was definitely an interesting class, but I feel like I have to shout out 105.
Tim
Yes, bro.
Emily
It was a linguistic anthropology student. I, at that point, like I did not know much about linguistics at that point. I mean, like I had also like picked up a linguistics class, linguistics 201, also a fun class, you should take it. Sorry, this is not a linguistics. Oh my gosh, Kyle Johnson. Okay, anyways, this is not a linguistics podcast. Anyways, 105 with, oh no.
Tim
Do you have Dr. Arnold?
Emily
Yeah, I had Dr. Arnold. Thank you. It was like the first Time I was like even like considered linguistics in that way. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is so interesting. Like just like all the, like all the ways that like words and language really affects the world around us. And I was just like, it was just so cool. I definitely enjoyed that class. And it definitely was one of the things that led me to pick up linguistics as a minor, even though it’s not quite the same thing, but it definitely…
Tim
Like 2 sides of the same coin.
Emily
Yeah. But it definitely fueled my interest in linguistics.
Tim
Yeah. no, well, if I can… go off of that, I was gonna feel like a big normie for saying that one of my favorites was one of the foundations classes, 105, but no, dude, that’s such a good class. Like seriously, every Time in an anthro class, I’m like thinking about that class. I’m like, wow, I’ve learned so many things that are so applicable to like all my anthro classes, all my other classes. And also, yeah, like I’m also I have a Lang major, and I feel like so many people in the Lang major, no shade to them, but I feel like they’re so obsessed with the things people say, but they don’t care about the people. And then linguistic anthropology is a complete other side of that. It’s like people first, and I love that. And I feel like my linguistics education would be completely incomplete without anthropology, you know, so that 105 class is really amazing. I actually remember the first day of that class, I went up to Dr. Arm and I was like, I’m Tim. Nice to meet you. know, you got the exact job I want. Like I was like trying to like meet her and stuff and like we met and now we have a good relationship, her and I. And it’s like, man, that was such like a foundational experience for me. Hence foundational class. But that was such a huge class for me.
Claire
Foundational classes are, they can be overlooked for sure. And we have some of the best ones because not only are they gen eds, but they’re just a lot of fun. They teach you a lot of things. Like the one that Leandra and I took together, we had a little lab section where we got to look at teeth. And I like learn about different teeth patterns and primates and how you can sort of note different types of skulls and such. And this is something that Leandra can talk a lot more about because she pursued primatology and the biological side of it. And I went more for gravestones.
Leandra
I mean, you covered it. was, I really, really liked that lab. I think that all the Anthro, like 100 level courses, courses are just, they’re so fun and like hands-on. And even like the lab sections, you have such great TAs that you can really like form a relationship with and ask them about like, how did they get there? And speaking of how they got there, side note or sidebar or whatever, what are you guys doing after graduation?
Claire
And I know that we are starting to run out of Time. So this is a pretty good note to bring up. So thank you, Leandra. Does anybody particularly want to go first?
Tim
Yeah, I can go first. I was accepted to BU for grad school. It’s A terminal MA, but after that I might take some Time off then pursue my PhD. And unfortunately, it’s not going to be in anthropology. But I will forever love anthropology for what it gave to me. It’s on my CV. I was involved in anthropology. And I’ve even reached out to the BU anthropology department, trying to figure out who’s all there, what they’re doing and stuff. So it’s still important to me, even though I’m going into linguistics. But like I said, my linguistics education being complete without anthropology. So In a way, I’m kind of bringing anthropology. Yes, I’m going to decolonize linguistics. That’s what I’m going to do, you know. But yeah, that’s what I’m doing. So I’ll be out in Boston next year and working on my grad school. Yeah, this podcast has been awesome for me. You know, I’m also going to say maybe we should include what this podcast has meant to us. But you know, it’s been great. You know, I’ve met you guys. It’s been great. Like, I’ve had class, I had a class with Fong, but I was like, I don’t even know Fong. I never even had a conversation with her. And then the podcast, I was like, oh, my goat. Like, we were cool.
Claire
Now I know.
Tim
You know, like I met you three. I would have never met you three if not for this podcast. It’s like, we’re like close friends now, you know, which I consider us close friends, you know. Guys, I’m gonna cry. Like, you know, I see you guys and we have like conversations about something or whatever, you know.
Claire
I remember vividly, I saw you in town one time. Time and we had a yelled conversation over the busy street in town.
Tim
The busy street in Massachusetts.
Claire
The busy state in Western Massachusetts. And we were just like, Tim, what’s up?
Tim
No, it’s also, yeah, no, it’s been great. So I’ve been, you know, I’ve been so happy to be part of the podcast and, you know, it’s been a crucial part of my Time at UMass. I’ve loved it. I love you guys. You guys are great.
00:30:49 Tim
We love you too. So what’s everyone else doing next year, right? What’s everyone else doing next year?
Emily
Unfortunately, don’t count much plans.
Leandra
Not unfortunately.
Emily
Yeah.
Leandra
Life is a journey.
Emily
That’s true. Maybe, I’ll have a job. Yeah, I don’t. I’m really like done with school temporarily at least. So probably not going to do any sort of grad school for at least a year.
Tim
Yeah, that’s smart.
Emily
I think I’m going to try to find a job, hopefully at a museum. Like I’ve always loved museums and like, you know, maybe something anthropology and then maybe if possible combine it with CS somehow. But yeah, be cool, but we’ll see. Any museums, hit me up, please.
Claire
I’m also looking at going to museum work, and I’m doing the same thing as Emily. I’m hitting a period of a bit of burnout, and I don’t want to lose my passion for the things that I love. So I’m also taking a gap year. I have a couple plans for how I’m going to spend it.
First of all, I’m going to just sort of be applying to jobs en masse. Something that you don’t really get told, at least until the end of your college career, is how many jobs you have to apply to before you even get one interview. And that’s not an anthropology thing. That’s an every major thing. So.
Tim
It’s a cultural anthropology thing.
Claire
Yeah. So again, that’s not a bad thing. That’s okay. And it’s okay if you don’t get into your first unicorn job. It’s okay if you don’t get into your first dream job. You’ll end up where you’re meant to. But what I’m going to do is I’m going to be applying. I’ve been chatting a lot with my poetry professor who has hyped up my writing quite a lot. And so I’m going to be spending my next year putting a lot of time into compiling my poetry work, my academic work, and my short story work. Maybe I’ll start writing a novel.
Leandra
I would really love to. I’d read your book.
Tim
Can you name one of your characters, Tim?
Claire
Yes, I will.
Leandra
Can I get a signed copy?
Claire
Yeah. And I would love to keep pursuing just everything, all of my… academic stuff, and then maybe I’ll go back to grad school eventually. Ideally, I’ll get a job that would pay for my grad school, but we’ll see where I end up. But I just finished writing my thesis this past Saturday.
Leandra
It’s Monday right now.
Claire
Yeah, it’s Monday right now, by the way.
Tim
So I’m hoping to…
Claire
We know that anthropologists can’t count. Just kidding. One, two, three. So I’m hoping to spend some more time writing, researching. I’m hoping to maybe pursue my independent study of classical Greek language. But I just want to spend a lot of time writing. And on that note, the podcast, has meant so much to me. In a perfect world, I’ll invest in some basic podcasting equipment and start my own one day. And that’s the hope. But I’ve gotten so close with everybody on the podcast. Like Tim said, seeing people in the hallways, in classes, just out and about is so special. It’s been such an honor and a privilege to become friends with everybody. I really love you guys. And it’s Love you. I love you. And it’s heartbreaking to be leaving, but I’m so proud of everybody. And I’m really happy that I got the chance to meet you all and get as close as we did and to do so much good work together.
Tim
Oh, this is a somber man.
Leandra
Hey guys.
Tim
Welcome back,
Leandra
Leandra here.
Claire
And back to you, Leandra.
Leandra
My plans for post-graduation is this summer I’ll be working at a summer camp again.
Tim
Awesome.
Leandra
An art counselor, so I’m very excited. Cool. Yep. And then after that, I’m going to spend about a year helping my dad at his workshop. And then get this, hopefully this works out. But there’s a grad student that I’ve been helping with research for the past year. And I have been invited to be his research assistant in Thailand in a year and a half. Cool dude. Congrats. Congrats.
Tim
Oh my gosh.
Claire
That’s so exciting.
Leandra
Thank you.
Tim
That’s awesome.
Leandra
So hopefully I do that.
Tim
I can go with the monkeys. That’s awesome. Congrats.
Leandra
Thank you.
Claire
Something interesting about Anthro is that there’s so many paths that you can go down for work. Like you’re talking about all this research abroad and this biological work and is wanting to go into museums and something that I’ve been looking at is natural resource conservation. So, making sure that we don’t lose out on any of our resources or any of our archaeological heritage with the expansion of, you know, human residency. But something else that I’d really like to do is go back to grad school eventually, even though I’m not going straight into grad school. That’s okay. I would love to go back one day because I would love to be a professor. I would love to share this passion and this love with students like us in 10, 15 years, especially because of all the wonderful opportunities I’ve had to work on research projects with professors. And like you said, you’re working on a research project with this graduate student.
Tim
So awesome.
Claire
Which is so cool. And I would just, I would love to come back and be a professor one day. And Tim, you were saying, you were talking to your professor in the 105 course and you were like, you have the job I want.
Tim
Yeah, I want to teach.
Claire
Yeah, I would love to be a professor one day and just be able to spend my time sharing my passions and researching my passions. And I would just, it would be awesome.
Leandra
It would be really, really cool. Yeah. So yeah, I don’t know. After that, maybe grad school, maybe not. Maybe just work. We’ll see.
Tim
You can ask and I’ll give you a letter of recommendation. I’ll pretend to be like, I’ll pretend to be like a former boss or something.
Leandra
We cracked the code.
Claire
If you’re a future boss, don’t listen to this episode.
Tim
No way, do not listen, please.
Leandra
But the podcast has been the love of my life. I have had so much fun. And I think when I started out, I was really shy, antisocial, and low-key. I wasn’t a huge big UMass person, I guess. And I think, but the podcast really like made me find, I think that was because I didn’t have a space. So once I found a space, I was like, wait, I love this school. I love these people. Like, I can carve something. Absolutely.
Claire
I love UMass. Yeah. I, oh, fan fiction part three. I love UMass. And part of that is because of this community that it has given to me all the opportunities that have been shared with us to create a space like this and to really build it into something that we have for ourselves and that we can leave behind. Like Emily was saying, this podcast, I kind of think of it as my baby. I show it off, I show off the Spotify page, like I’m showing off child photos. Like, so it’s It’s terrifying to leave it behind. It’s terrifying to leave it all behind and to go out into the quote unquote real world. It’s so exciting. I’m really excited.
Leandra
We got this guys. That was our episode.
Tim
We just want to thank our tech team and our friends at Anthro Hub where you can. Check out awesome creators from other people who love anthropology.
Claire
Another another shout out to our tech crew, particularly our seniors, particularly Fong, who hasn’t spoken this episode because she’s making sure that we sound good through all the laughter and the tears.
Tim
Hope it worked. I was burping earlier on the microphone. I wonder if that’ll make it in.
Emily
You know something I just realized?
Tim
What?
Emily
We never actually say our website like URL ever, like in our endings.
Leandra
So we just say check out AnthroHub.
Emily
Yeah, we just say check out AnthroHub.
Claire
And if you Google AnthroHub, we’re the first thing that shows up.
Emily
Are we?
Tim
All right, so everyone Google AnthroHub.
Leandra
Right now.
Emily
Or is anthropologyhub.com? Yes. All right, so everyone do that, either way. That’s where you’ll find our transcripts, show notes, and sources.
Leandra
We don’t have sources today. We have no source.
Emily
We can just put like the website for UMass Anthropology.
Claire
If you want links to our personal blogs, I know that at least two of us post research and writing pieces online on our own website, so we’ll link those in the show notes.
Tim
We will.
Claire
Me and Tim as of right now, but I’m sure I’m sure that eventually we’ll have more to link.
Leandra
Bye guys.
Claire
Bye. We’ll miss you. We’ll miss you a lot. Much love.
Leandra
Thank you for listening.
Emily
Bye.