This summer we are showcasing a brand new segment to our usual Graduate Student in the Spotlight with features from Graduate Division's summer research scholars. In a previous article titled Graduate Division Welcomes Summer Scholars I introduced you to our Sally Casanova and Academic Research Consortium (ARC) summer researchers. We will now introduce you to each of our summer researchers, individually, and give you some insight into who they are. In our first installment we will have the opportunity to get to know Kaitlin Brown, a budding archaeologist and avid karaoke singer.
Name: Kaitlin M. Brown
Discipline / Emphasis: Anthropology with emphasis in Archaeology
Research Interests / Goals: My research interests are in archaeology. I have always been interested in learning about other cultures, and had my first opportunity to study an extinct culture during my undergraduate at UC San Diego. I took part in a field school that dealt with social identity and Diaspora in a Tiwanaku mortuary site in Peru. After working in the Peruvian desert for a summer, I came back to California knowing that archaeology was the field I wanted to pursue a career in. I found work at California State Parks as an Archaeological Project Leader, and have since taken part in many other excavations on San Nicolas Island, the Great Basin, and the Mid-west. My goals are to continue researching emergent social complexity and other forms of social identity among prehistoric peoples in North America through the study of technology and systems of exchange.
What’s it like being an ARC/SC summer research scholar?
It is a great experience! I am currently in Canton, Illinois on a field project with Dr. Gregory Wilson and two graduate students excavating a prehistoric Mississippian village. I am learning more about early complex peoples in the Illinois River Valley and how they dealt with warfare around 900 years ago.
What’s been a source for motivation and drive for you?
Personal growth is my own source of motivation. It’s important for me to learn new things and gain new life experiences.
Name the accomplishment you are most proud of, and why.
I am most proud of my master’s thesis. I graduated from CSU Los Angeles in June 2013 with an M.A. in Archaeology, and was conducting research on San Nicolas Island, California. My thesis examines craft production as it relates to the use of tar for a variety of technologies such as fishhook construction and basket manufacturing. I found that these items were essential to the survival of the people living on the isolated island hundreds of years ago.
What makes you, you?
I’m easygoing and outgoing. I don’t take things too seriously and laugh at myself when I make a mistake.
Where did you grow up?
Simi Valley, California
What’s a guilty pleasure of yours?
Singing karaoke.
What’s playing in your iPod right now?
Any advice or final thoughts to current or future ARC/SC summer research scholars?
Take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves to you! The hardest part is showing up.