Kate M.

Hi All,

I'm a ABD graduate student in the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World. I'm coming at this course from a couple of different angles. I have always been interested in science studies and since doing some reading on material culture for my doctoral exams I have been inrigued by design studies and various ways of understanding and interacting with material cultures. I'm currently writing my dissertation on Graeco-Egyptian medico-magical amulets of the 2nd and 3rd c. AD and am looking for new ways to get at them beyond simply studying what is carved on their surfaces. I'm hoping that this class will suggest some new ideas on how I might go about that and how I might use these pieces of stone to piece together an understanding of the world's structure different than my own, itself a product of my 21st c. Western upbringing. Basically I'm trying to think outside the box and I think this class might help me do that.

My project (I should mention that I am just sitting in, so may not have as formally developed a project as others) will be on my amulets. Right now I'm thinking about issues relating to their materiality and how they might be used to illuminate the social positions of the women who used them and were so often the subjects of the prayers carved on them.