Thanks for visiting my rough draft. I’ve been wanting to create some sort of academic profile to share a little bit about myself, my research, projects I’m working on, or more generally, things I find interesting and want to share with others. In an effort to make this space more authentic — and myself a little less of a perfectionist — I’d like to treat it a simple draft. A collection of smudged and inky pages. A notebook you might find on the edge of your desk, opened at its last entry.
About me
My name is Shem-Rāz. I’m a Doctoral Candidate in Archaeology at the University of Oxford. I have an MPhil in Classical Archaeology (Oxon) and a BA in Ancient History & Classical Archaeology (Leicester). I’m also a programmer, and on some days, spend more time thinking in Julia than in English. Whilst I usually tell people I specialise in computational archaeology, it’s better approximated by a frustratingly terse thesis title, and most accurately described in a way that is still unknown to me.
No matter how much you love your work, it’s normal to sometimes view it as a source of stress. I find amusement in the idea that archaeology — of all things — is such for me. I have oftentimes lain awake at night thinking, with great concern, about an assemblage of small terracotta zebu1 figures in the temperature-controlled archives of a museum. Though some may view this (quite appropriately) as strange, I like to think of it as a reflection of the care I put into my work. A great deal of care was put into each little zebu by a discerning craftsperson. Beyond the instinctive respect one gives to another’s belongings, the smallest act of reciprocity would be to engage in my research with as much care and attention to detail.
Footnotes
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Bos indicus, a species of humped cattle originating in South Asia. ↩