NEW RESOURCES FOR EARLY CAREER SCHOLARS
ASOR is pleased to offer a growing library of online video resources aimed at our early career members. These videos will cover a range of topics such as the job market, teaching, publishing, and tutorials on using digital resources. Videos are created by early career scholars who are experts in their field and have direct experience with the topics they’re discussing.
Many students will earn their PhDs from an R1 university, but jobs at those institutions are rare and highly competitive. Did you know that many Ancient Near Eastern scholars have been successful at securing tenure-track jobs at non-R1 universities and colleges? Dr. Julia Troche created the video “Navigating the “In Between”: Identifying a Career Trajectory in Academia for the Early Career Scholar” to demystify the different types of institutions that offer teaching and research positions, and crucially, how to read their job ads and frame yourself to be a competitive candidate for those positions. In “Applying for a Community College Position”, Prof. Stacy Davidson gives meaningful advice and honest information about the pros and cons of working at Community Colleges, and the types of opportunities available at such institutions.
Finally, in the first round of videos in the digital library, we also have a practical tutorial on using ArcGIS StoryMaps by Dr. Matthew Howland. This tutorial is useful for those thinking about publishing their fieldwork data digitally or it can be used as a fantastic teaching resource to train both students and instructors on the step-by-step process of creating a StoryMaps presentation.
We hope you enjoy these resources! Our library of resources is ever growing, so keep an eye out for future videos in this series, and we warmly welcome your suggestions for useful topics as we grow this library of resources.
Check out the videos below or find them in our Early Career Scholars playlist on our YouTube channel.
Identifying a Career Trajectory in Academia for the Early Career Scholar with Julia Troche
Professor Julia Troche
Dr. Julia Troche is and Egyptologist and Associate Professor of History at Missouri State University, in Springfield, MO. She is committed to advocating for students, early career scholars, and contingent faculty, and fostering inclusive spaces for learning about the ancient world. In 2022 she was awarded her university’s highest teaching award followed by the Missouri Governor’s Award for Education Excellence. Julia’s areas of instruction and research include social history, religion, archaeology, and reception studies of antiquity. She co-founded both the American Research Center in Egypt, Missouri Chapter (where she serves as a second term vice president) and the annual Missouri Egyptological Symposium. She also sits on the Board of Governors for the American Research Center in Egypt. Her first book, “Death, Power and Apotheosis in Ancient Egypt: The Old and Middle Kingdoms,” was published with Cornell University Press in 2021. Julia received her PhD from Brown University’s Department of in Egyptology & Assyriology in 2015, and her BA in History from UCLA in 2008.
Applying for a Community College Position with Stacy Davidson
Professor Stacy Davidson
Professor Stacy Davidson has designed and taught over 30 credit and non-credit courses on ancient Egypt, North Africa, the ancient Mediterranean, ancient Southwest Asia, and ancient languages. She is the founder and Team Lead of the Egyptology State of the Field project (egyptologystats.org) and is a Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellow for her project We Are For Egypt. Professor Davidson has been awarded a Lieberman Teaching Excellence Award and College Scholar award from her college as well as a national NISOD Excellence Award. You can find out more about her at scribespalette.com.
How to use ArcGIS StoryMaps with Matthew Howland
Professor Matthew Howland
Matthew D. Howland is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Director of the Geospatial Archaeology Laboratory at Wichita State University. Prof. Howland holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California San Diego. His research focuses on the application of 3D and spatial techniques, including remote sensing, to understand the development of social complexity through fieldwork in the Eastern Mediterranean, Georgia, and Kansas. Prof. Howland’s research also involves the use of digital datasets for interactive, community-engaged storytelling on web-based platforms such as ArcGIS StoryMaps and Sketchfab.
