During the Mapping Ancient Africa writing workshop in Kenya (3-6 June 2024) Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr conducted a series of short interviews with the scientists attending. Below you can find part 2 (of 2) of the interviews with the participants in the workshop. Watch the videos to find out their scientific stories and top tips for academic writing. Watch all the Mapping Ancient Africa videos on the Mapping Ancient Africa YouTube Playlist.
The participants (part 2 of 2)
Ruth Kiely (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Husna Mashaka (Arizona State University, USA & National Museums of Kenya, Kenya)
Main purpose: Based at St Andrews, the PDRA will play an important role in a NERC-funded project working on the distribution and dynamics of peat-forming ecosystems in Amazonia. The post-holder will be required to undertake palaeoenvironmental research (including fieldwork, lab analyses, data analysis and write-up) in order to reconstruct the developmental history of the palm swamps, pole forests, and ‘open peatlands’ over the course of the Holocene. Some technical support for routine laboratory tasks will be available.
Deadline: 31 October 2018
For further information click here.
We are seeking to recruit a Neotropical palaeoecologist to join the recently funded “The past peoples of Amazonia: Assessing ecological legacies” project(PIDr. Crystal McMichael, funding NWO, based within the Department of Ecosystem & Landscape Dynamics). The project aims to reconstruct cultural histories from lake sediments in northwestern Amazonia, and link past human activities with modern ecological observations. The project involves analyzing microfossils (including pollen, phytoliths, and charcoal), and the development of a transfer function that estimates past human impacts in tropical forest systems.
We are particularly looking for a candidate with expertise and experience, in:
Fieldwork in remote areas.
Neotropical pollen.
Quantitative analysis, including familiarity with R and Geographical Information Systems.
Focus on Global Ecology, including: global biodiversity patterns and ecosystem functioning, human impacts on biodiversity, biogeography of species interactions, and/or global changes in ecosystems, biodiversity and ecosystem services.