Happy Birthday to Us- Kirsten

By Kirsten Lopez

Wow! Hard to believe it’s already been a year, and at the same time, it feels like it has been far longer. As a regular host on the Women in Archaeology Podcast, it has been a wonderful outlet to explore political concerns and workplace conundrums. Some of the topics I have worked on were the Malheur Occupation, which took place here in my home state of Oregon, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the election of Trump. Trudging through the muck that is the information on social media to dig out the artifacts with secure contexts (i.e. sources) has been a rewarding challenge, and has been a great way to process my own frustrations on the topics. It is also a good way to try and sort through personal opinion and try to sort out what happened, especially in the case of Dakota Access Pipeline, where the issues that caused the debacle continue to go unresolved. The fun episodes are a good sprinkle in between the serious investigative exercises, like “what’s in your bag?”. The fact that we are still running strong a year later demonstrates that I am not alone in enjoying not only recording the episodes, but listening to them. As we move forward, I hope to continue more book reviews, and recruiting new voices and perspectives from across the globe, and here at home.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the past year!  Feel free to leave a comment below, find us on twitter (@womenarchys), or email us at WomeninArchaeology@gmail.com.