A short summary of your project

I aim to raise £1000 for the organisation of the Aegean Bronze Age seminar. The seminar will host scholars in the field to give talks on different aspects of the Aegean Prehistory and archaeology. These talks are beneficial for the community at the University, as they cover a period that there are limited modules and sources on. Also, through these talks, the students get the chance to network with distinguished scholars in the field and make arrangements for field schools and excavations abroad. But these can only take place if we receive enough donations from people like you!

Who AM I?

I’m Despoina, a PhD student in Digital Archaeology at the University of York. I’ve been teaching as a GTA for years, and this year I’m organising a series of talks on the Aegean Bronze Age aimed mostly at students with the aim of getting them exposed to the amazing archaeology of that period and region.

I decided to go on and organise these talks simply because there aren’t any modules on Aegean prehistory and since it’s my area of expertise, I’d like to inspire my students and help them create a rich network with distinguished scholars in the field and find fieldwork opportunities in Greece.

THE CONCEPT

The seminar is planned to take place once per month with an invited speaker giving a 1-hour talk, and then half an hour of Q+As. The golden thread is the Aegean Bronze Age, but the invited speakers will cover a wide range of areas, such as bioarchaeology, digital archaeology, public archaeology, excavations, archives, archaeogaming and many more, so anyone can find the talks interesting even if they are not into the Aegean prehistory. So far, we have hosted two seminars which were extremely well received by the students, but it became apparent that in order to have scholars give their talk in person, funding is necessary to at least cover their travel expenses within the UK.

Therefore, the funds will be used to cover travel expenses and hotels for the invited speakers. All the speakers had agreed to give a talk at the seminar without a fee, but the travel costs are a barrier and despite being happy to give their talk online, I firmly believe that their presence at the seminar creates way more opportunities for networking for our students.

Where will the money go?

Your donations will contribute towards:

• Speakers’ transportation, accommodation, and lunch. Normally, these would be around £150 for train tickets, £120 for a hotel, and £80 for lunch and drinks per speaker without taking into consideration flight tickets, which would further allow bringing scholars and specialists from outside the UK broadening the opportunities for our students.
• Cost of the reception (i.e. tea and biscuits). This cost is approximately £50 per seminar.

Rewards

There are some amazing rewards if you decide to donate!

Find us here

For more information and to watch the previous talks, visit the seminar’s website (to be added soon).

Help us succeed!

Thank you very much for reading this far and thank you in advance for all your generous donations! I hope you’ll give me the opportunity to bring many distinguished scholars to talk to our students about their research and widen their archaeological horizons!

However, donations aren't the only way you can help the seminar. You can help by spreading the word! Please feel free to share this website with anyone you think might be interested in helping.

Thank you!