Basically…

My name is Jen, and I have owned this Web site for seven years (eek!). I started experimenting with Web design a year or two before this (first and only) domain purchase. I graduated from Barnard College at Columbia University in New York in May of 2009, where I majored in archaeology. This October I will begin my MPhil at Oxford in Egyptology. You can best contact me via email at jayye@dirrty.org.

Archaeological Background

I dug at Har Megiddo during the summers of 2006 and 2008 (Supervisor), and participated in The Athienou Archaeological Project at Athienou-Malloura, Cyprus during the summers of 2007 and 2008 (AutoCAD). In the winter of 2008 and February of 2010 I worked with The Amheida Project in Egypt’s Dakhleh Oasis with Columbia University (in 2008 it was my study abroad), where I did small-finds processing (both years) and CAD (2008). During the spring of 2010 I worked on the first season of the Jezreel Valley Regional Project, Megiddo; this summer I am returning to Megiddo itself as a registrar.

During my senior year I interned at the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (Archaeology Department), and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Egyptian Department). I stayed at the Museum with funding during the summer of 2009 in the same department; then I moved to Cairo for six months to work with the registrar at the Egyptian Museum. In February I returned to Amheida to do small-finds processing; then I went back to New York for work on a database project at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU. I also give tours of the Met’s current roof garden exhibit, Big Bambú, when in town.

Senior Thesis

I wrote my senior thesis on Picture Theory/the Anthropological Theory of Art and the Fayoum Portraits of Roman Egypt. “Bodies Making Images Making Bodies: Picture Theory and Engagement with the Dead in the Fayoum Portraits,” 65 pages.

Other, Needless Things

I love pomelos, soy lattes, goat cheese and hummus. I’m happily smitten with Adam, כאמוד שלי. I used to work at a pottery studio in Brooklyn, the Store at Barnard (I still do Web design for them), and the Office of Admissions at Barnard as a Senior Fellow. I am currently a Barnard Alumna Admissions Representative. In addition to that little ditty, I did Web design for the Columbia Center for Archaeology. I speak Japanese and Spanish, and a little (*cough*–very little) Hebrew and Arabic. I have an eclectic taste in music (Gavin DeGraw, Queen, The Killers, Josie Katz, Lily Allen, MC Solaar, Lady GaGa, The Beatles, The Mamas and the Papas, Gorillaz, Ben Folds Five, Notorious B.I.G., Simon and Garfunkel, Punjabi MC, Nancy Ajram, Gipsy Kings, Britney Spears, Busta Rhymes and Sugar Hill Gang, to name a few), not to mention my rather unhealthy obsession with Jay-Z. My favorite books are The Colossus of New York: A City in 13 Parts, A Clockwork Orange, The Other Boleyn Girl & The Boleyn Inheritance, Imagined Communities, The McDonaldization of Society and Fast Food Nation. My favorite movie is Clue. I read New Scientist religiously, and I love, love, love Battlestar Galactica. HumanForSale says I’m worth $2,501,830 (that’s a bit outdated–I should perhaps recalculate). I have accounts on 43 Places, 43 Things, All Consuming, MyBlogLog and Good Reads (though you’ll find them to be somewhat… neglected).