- I'm an American living in Edinburgh while I complete my MSc at the University of Edinburgh. I'm in an interdisciplinary program called 'Art in the Global Middle Ages' through the Edinburgh College of Art, but I took classes in History and Classics as well as Scandinavian Studies. I'm writing my dissertation now, due the end of August this year, on the cross-cultural interactions of Norway and England through the artistic motifs of the stave churches in Norway. My focus is the art and cultural interactions of the Viking age and early medieval period in Scandinavia and the British Isles. Before coming to Scotland, I was a catalogue specialist of art and antiques for an auction company
- Found this opportunity through a BBC article. I couldn't get it out of my head because so many elements aligned so perfectly. I live in Edinburgh and this dig is not so far away from me that I couldn't attend, and I'm not sure how long I'll be living here after I hand in my dissertation. It's concerning my specific time period of study - the medieval church in the British Isles with possible Viking activity. The monastery was started by a woman which means it's a chance to solidify another woman's role in medieval history, of which there are so few. Finally, I'm a very tactile person: I love working with my hands and puzzle-solving with objects, so the chance to actually work with artefacts from this period is more than thrilling for me. In short, it was just too perfect an opportunity to pass up!