Jacobson wins prestigious Watson fellowship
Melisssa Kunz
Issue date: 3/19/04 Section: News
By canvassing projects in five different countries, Jacobson will be able to participate in a dialogue that she hopes will ultimately help her to enrich the field of heritage management.
In England, Jacobson will volunteer for several private foundations to study how they manage sites and artifacts, including preservation and presentation. She will also examine how Britain's imperial past affects its understanding of heritage.
In Spain, Jacobson will research how each of the country's regions and ethnic groups use their separate pasts to further their own political agendas. She will also survey museums and historic sites to determine to what degree the past is used to confirm differing identities in modern Spain.
"The second half of my project contrasts with the first," Jacobson said. "Mexico, Peru and Ukraine are not first-world countries and do not have the financial or human resources of England and Spain."
Jacobson said that Mexico has given control of many of its archaeological museums to the local population whereas Peru has no governmental policy of integration. She will consider how their differing policies have affected the interpretation, preservation and presentation of heritage sites.
In the Ukraine, Jacobson will visit the""Slavic Pompeii," Tauric Chersonesos, the best-preserved Byzantine city known today. "It has vestiges of Greco-Roman settlements, a historic Russian Orthodox Church and is unique in that its chora, the farming area around an ancient city, is still intact," Jacobson said. She spent two summers excavating in Pompeii, which will allow her to compare and contrast management policies in Chersonesos and Pompeii.
Dr. Rebecca Resinski, assistant professor of classics at Hendrix, is Jacobson's advisor and mentor and helped her fine tune her Watson proposal.
"The Watson is a perfect fit for Sarah: her interest in archaeology is both practical and theoretical, and the Watson gives her a chance to bring theory and practice together," Resinski said. "She got interested in archaeology through her study of Greek and Roman sites, and now she's interested in archaeological management issues in general."
In England, Jacobson will volunteer for several private foundations to study how they manage sites and artifacts, including preservation and presentation. She will also examine how Britain's imperial past affects its understanding of heritage.
In Spain, Jacobson will research how each of the country's regions and ethnic groups use their separate pasts to further their own political agendas. She will also survey museums and historic sites to determine to what degree the past is used to confirm differing identities in modern Spain.
"The second half of my project contrasts with the first," Jacobson said. "Mexico, Peru and Ukraine are not first-world countries and do not have the financial or human resources of England and Spain."
Jacobson said that Mexico has given control of many of its archaeological museums to the local population whereas Peru has no governmental policy of integration. She will consider how their differing policies have affected the interpretation, preservation and presentation of heritage sites.
In the Ukraine, Jacobson will visit the""Slavic Pompeii," Tauric Chersonesos, the best-preserved Byzantine city known today. "It has vestiges of Greco-Roman settlements, a historic Russian Orthodox Church and is unique in that its chora, the farming area around an ancient city, is still intact," Jacobson said. She spent two summers excavating in Pompeii, which will allow her to compare and contrast management policies in Chersonesos and Pompeii.
Dr. Rebecca Resinski, assistant professor of classics at Hendrix, is Jacobson's advisor and mentor and helped her fine tune her Watson proposal.
"The Watson is a perfect fit for Sarah: her interest in archaeology is both practical and theoretical, and the Watson gives her a chance to bring theory and practice together," Resinski said. "She got interested in archaeology through her study of Greek and Roman sites, and now she's interested in archaeological management issues in general."
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