Introduction: Jason

Greetings! I am Jason, and I am currently in the process of changing directions, academically speaking. For the past two years I was a medical student here at MSU while also pursuing a master’s degree in medical humanities with a focus in anthropology. At the end of the Fall 2010 semester, I decided that medicine was not what I wanted and that anthropology would be a much better fit for my personality and academic strengths. Because I already had a strong background in cultural anthropology (from my undergraduate minor as well as graduate school at MSU) I have been taking courses in physical anthropology and archaeology in order to round out future graduate school applications. Taking such courses has made me realize that physical anthropology, a field I hadn’t really considered during my undergraduate years, is where I see myself professionally.

I, like Cristina, am also interested in the field of forensic anthropology. This interest has been developing since undergrad and has grown since taking courses covering forensic anthropology in human rights investigations (a topic which I also covered in my master’s research paper), hominid fossils, and biocultural anthropology. I’m looking forward to further exploring my interests in the fields of physical and forensic anthropology during the Fall and Spring semesters by taking ANP340 (Physical Anthropology) and ANP440 (Forensic Anthropology) and by helping the physical anthropology graduate students with forensic casework.

Aside from school, I live with my wife (an intern in internal medicine at Ingham Regional Medical Center) and four cats, (Olivia, Sophia, Parker, and Paul) in the West Side neighborhood of Lansing. I like to play piano when I get the chance, and recently I have begun to brew my own beer.

I enrolled in this course partly because I need more coursework in archaeology, and partly because the idea of a course in the archaeology of ancient Egypt just sounded really fun and interesting.

One thought on “Introduction: Jason

  1. Welcome to the class Jason. Its always great to hear when someone figures out what they really want to do – and focuses in on that.

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