Finland, Finland, Finland!

I GOT THE JOB, PEOPLE!!!!!

You are now reading the blog of the new Postdoctoral Research at the University of Helsinki’s Centre of Excellence: Ancient Near Eastern Empires!

My research is going to involve using computer code to work out the cultural associations of words relating to ‘masculinities’. So I am essentially finding out what the Akkadian equivalent of ‘man up’ was.

It’s pretty daunting – so far I have a limited experience with coding, but I was able to pick up a lot from a quick visit there in June, so I’m hoping that small amount will carry me a long way.

I’ll also be helping out with the team’s wider goals, so I’ll be doing some extra reading on ethnicity, Neo-Babylonia, and Late Babylonian records and texts.

An important thing about postdocs is that they are normally short-term in my field, so my new position is for two years. That doesn’t mean I don’t have to deal with all the legalities and loopholes of moving countries, though! Luckily the University (like most) have a relocation service that help with stuff like this, so I have someone to guide me through the Finnish paperwork (thankfully).

So after receiving that news I very happily turned off all my notifications for funding deadlines, and I sent off my paper to my tutor. They’ve had a skim of it, and recommended some people to give it a once-over for me. This will be the most peer-reviewed paper under the Sun….

And for the rest of the week I (finally) got on with prepping for my viva (or thesis defence – it’s the examination for PhD students). I’ve taken the approach of just reading widely, read the stuff my examiners have written, and annotate my thesis.

So overall, a pretty good week! Definitely deserved spending too much money on a Nintendo Switch and a new tablet….