I am very grateful for the department’s travel funding, which enabled me to travel to Spain. I was based in Madrid, where I took intensive Spanish classes and began my doctoral research. I am pleased to say that I was able to progress quickly through the beginning stages of the Spanish language. My ability to read Spanish academic articles, monographs, and other publications increased by leaps and bounds, which will prove fundamental to my future research. I appreciated learning Spanish with a small group of fellow students with diverse backgrounds and experiences, including a marketing manager from Japan, a Congolese nun, and a British doctor, among others.
I was also able to visit some important museums, libraries, and archaeological sites. My dissertation will be focused on Andalucía, and I enjoyed visiting Roman and pre-roman sites in that region. Italica, Trajan and Hadrian’s hometown, was a testament to the levels of prosperity reached in the Spain under those emperors. However, I was particularly partial to the local archaeological museums in places like Córdoba and Cádiz. For example, in the latter city, I was able to see Phoenician and Roman layers of the city, including massive vats used to make Garum and the amphorae that carried industrially-farmed olive oil from Spain to Rome. Seeing these artefacts and sites in person provided crucial context for my forthcoming doctoral research on export-oriented agriculture in Roman Spain.
In all, I was able to improve my written and spoken language skills and gain archaeological context for my dissertation. I am very thankful for the departmental fund for helping to make it happen.
Classical Studies
