SEAA News Blog

Although not specifically focused on East Asia, this position is sponsored by an East Asia specialist and therefore may be of interest: 

Reconstruction of Holocene Temperature and Precipitation

The Geosciences Research Division (GRD) at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography has an opening starting in 2020 for one Postdoctoral Scholar. The candidate will work on a project to develop a new reconstruction of Holocene temperature and precipitation in the d’Alpoim Guedes Laboratory. The objective is to create and update a database of paleoclimate proxies and downscaling these records to provide a high-resolution map of the impact of changing precipitation and temperature on the ability of different cultivars to complete their lifecycle. Overall, the objective is that these models will be integrated with population genomic data as well as data on archaeological site timing and distribution.

Archaeologists of Mongolia or other areas of northern East Asia take note!

Part of the School of Geosciences, the Department of Archaeology at Aberdeen is seeking support to deliver a wide-ranging Archaeology programme through the appointment of a Lecturer in Archaeology appointment. The position will replace Dr. Rick Knecht who has been awarded a prestigious Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship and will be on sabbatical for the duration of the appointment from Autumn 2020 for a period three years.

Applications are welcome from individuals with experience in teaching Archaeology, and who are ideally a specialist in the archaeology of northern regions, in fitting with our departmental ‘Archaeology of the North’ profile. Applications from candidates with an Arctic focus are particularly encouraged, aligning with Dr Knecht’s specialisms. Applications that demonstrate a practical fieldwork and/or lab-based element to their profile would also be desirable. The main responsibilities for the new Lecturer will include developing and delivering high quality undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. Candidates should be experienced at communicating to a variety of different audiences, be able to work as part of a team, and be willing to work collaboratively with colleagues in Archaeology and other disciplines in the School and University.

A personal tribute to Sarah Nelson

Gina L. Barnes

Sarah Milledge Nelson (1931–2020) reached the ripe old age of 88 and a half before she succumbed to the long-standing leukemia and late developing kidney problems that led to her death on April 27th. These did not keep her from attending a conference in Germany in January where we last met – I have never known anyone more adventurous and ready to travel. She admitted that her family motto was “Why not? … especially if the question has ‘go’ in it”!

Sarah put enormous amounts of energy into her chosen fields of, first, Korean archaeology, then northeastern Chinese archaeology, and finally into gender studies. In the first two, she has been a path-breaker, treading where few Western women were allowed to go. In the latter, she was a pioneer in challenging patriarchical organization of archaeology, publishing, and fieldwork through her entire career, culminating in her book on Shamans, Queens, and Figurines cited below. For those who want to hear about her life in her words, she gives extensive autobiographical contexts for each stage of her research in this book; they are an eye-opener to the hurdles she had to overcome in becoming one of the foremost East Asian archaeology scholars today. Moreover, they illustrate how serendipitous the development of research can be, where barriers and opportunities crop up in unexpected quarters – a good lesson for beginning students. I wish more of us would be as brave as Sarah to write about our career experiences, warts and all; they form important contexts for and constraints on the development of our thinking.

As the SEAA is now moving towards a 3-year conference cycle, we have also been in the process of updating our membership system to align with this change. This has now been implemented on the website for all new or renewing memberships. What this means in practical terms is that when you go to renew your membership, the options are now Regular and Concessionary 3-year fixed term. If you renew or join anytime this year, your membership will now last until December 31st, 2022. If you renew or join anytime in 2021, then your membership will last until December 31st, 2023, and so on.