Too long between posts...

So I’m not sure what happened, but it is almost five years since my last post here. I have a love-hate relationship with social media, but that was excessive. I certainly have been busy, teaching and writing along with a constant stream of fieldwork and community research committments. I have so much that I should have been sharing here, and I’ve failed miserably at something that I have always (since at least 2004) strongly argued should be a central part of archaeological practice: I have failed to write openly, to share my work, and to reflect on my practice, my discipline and this mad old world we have created for ourselves.

If I’m honest, I have struggled for a few years to engage with social media, outside of interactions with limited circles of friends and family. I’ve jumped into and out of the Twitter bubble several times, and even struggle with that. I’ve written and subsequently deleted a lot of tweets; hitting the old ‘post’ button became a step too far. Blogging has been a real challenge. There is somethign thrilling and frankly liberating about writing so openly, on a platform that I completely control. But this also terrifies me, it always has; a fear that I’ll write something stupid, or wrong, or produce poor quality work. Somehow I managed to keep that gremlin off my shoulder for many years, until 2015 or so. That was the start of a bad spell, in hindsight.

So what have I been up to? Here are some brief updates:

  • I quit my job at Flinders University (late 2019) possibly one of the best things I’ve done in my professional life. The ‘Flinders culture’, which was formerly something I was both fond and proud of, was taken out the back and metaphorically shot via a nasty restructure. My outlook on life has consequently lifted, but things continue to worsen there and I fear for the wellbeing and job security of many friends and students. It seems to be getting worse, too.
  • My wife and I moved to the country, where we soon hope to be eating a lot of peaches (to paraphrase the song) after I took a role as A/Prof. Digital Humanities at the University of New England, Armidale. In positive news, the country lifestyle and culture at UNE is wonderful. A genuinely nice place to work. We live on 30 acres only 30 mins drive from work. What a lovely lifestyle in COVID times.
  • We won an ARC Linkage grant for a project investigating Indigenous foodways through the colonial period in northern Cape York Peninsula. That is keeping me very busy.
  • I helped write a text book. It was a priviledge to be asked to contribute to this, and a fun process also. I learned a lot, especially from my wonderful colleagues Professor Heather Burke and Professsor Claire Smith.
  • I’ve written a few more papers. Yada yada yada.

More soon (I hope!)

M.