Advanced students in archaeology have an opportunity to work intensively with departmental faculty to contribute to a variety of ongoing faculty research projects. These collaborations offer the chance for students to refine their research skills, gain exposure to conservation and research methods outside the basic curriculum, and work towards tangible research outcomes. Such outcomes may include research posters, creation of online databases, contributions to published works, contributions to or solo exhibit designs, or senior essay/thesis projects. Faculty projects vary from year to year but currently include studies in Mediterranean palaeoclimate, lab-based scientific study and digital modeling of archaeological artifacts, organic residue or ceramic studies (Birney, the OpenARCHEM project), or museum research projects in the Wesleyan Collections (which comprise approximately 35,000 objects), cataloging, analyzing, photo-documenting and researching artifacts (Cohen, Wesleyan Collections). |