Kyle Olson @olsonkyleg Twitter profile

Pinned Tweet

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

how I've been handling the: first year of the pandemic, second year of the pandemic, third year of the pandemic

0

1

16

Last Seen Profiles

@SaluteOrigin

@sai_miya

@karmlot

@cigareetts

@PAZLLORIA

@_kendimce_7

@FMGSuite

@t_hibb2x

@luminoghost

@LinksUmeda

@CATOLICOSxtuWEB

@shinhlin

@Miyu__torihiki_

@SavvyAuntie

@hijabjilbab1

@kaigaartroom

@KeroKeroBonito

@mujinkun_A

@YShiblog

@Checkm86

@__Shelvonna

@Foil_Island

@gettinghighwith

@Strolinvagabond

@portals_fi

@BodiesAndBrains

@ezra_ce07

@Despita_

@KarenPr23715044

@OctoberKitten10

@LadyoftheLakefr

@LINXS_Sweden

@akunazif

@BrendanValdes

@Omawumi

@jlkurtz

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

@BrandyLJensen the real struggle--as an archaeologist--is to figure out a good and fresh way to respond to the 'i wanted to be an archaeologist when i was a kid' that you're faced with anywhere from 5-10 times a week lol

16

25

3K

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

Where I’m at right now

23

57

2K

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

@BrandyLJensen Damn somebody call someone who wanted to be a paramedic growing up

1

2

812

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

Well, as of today, the Turkish Lira is almost exactly half the value that it was when i moved here in mid-September last year. My starting salary was ca. $695/month, and even with two cost-of-living raises, it is now ca. $465/month. And this is at the fanciest private university

10

65

556

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

10 months

@madisontayt_ F is human scaled, C is water scaled, K is molecule scaled, this is my headcanon

8

13

454

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 months

@kevinbaker lol fuckin perfect

1

3

374

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

8 months

@ayca_cu I had this problem on the metrobüs in Istanbul this summer, my Iranian friend and I were talking in English and a woman quite rudely told us to pipe down (with a burası Türkiye thrown in for good measure), which we did, then we switched to Farsi and she got even more mad lol

6

8

303

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

Not retweeting images/video from the rubble, but context for US friends, the earthquakes in Turkey have already caused more deaths in Turkey and Syria in the past 24 hours alone than Katrina did in total. The magnitude of the catastrophe is only partially comprehensible

5

70

307

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

most of the time when i tell people i am/was an archaeologist they ask me "so have you ever found anything cool?" and like, well, tbh, no. lol

20

11

278

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

A devil's toss up between "Guns Germs and Steel" and "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind"

Ned Richardson-Little

@HistoryNed

1 year

Would love to see an academic version of this: what pop history book has done the most damage in your particular subfield?

182

273

2K

11

24

269

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

So my academic journey will be continuing after all! Now that I've signed on officially, I can say that I will be starting a new position in August as Lecturer in Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis.

22

1

191

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

in the country, so you can imagine what everyone else is going through right now, mercy! Official inflation is 70% (likely double that though), rent in Istanbul is up over 100%. To make it concrete, what I paid in September for a week's groceries doesn't even cover breakfast now.

1

19

177

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

Obviously I occupy a fairly privileged position here both in terms of my employment and my passport, but what I'm trying to say is: even people like me are feeling the squeeze. Things are not looking good on any timescale at the moment, except for the wealthy and digital nomads

2

14

173

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

Well, since it’s as official as its going to be: next year I will be a postdoc at Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations in Istanbul. It was a strange experience being mostly unemployed for a year after my PhD, but looking forward to this new opportunity!

16

0

153

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 months

@PinstripeBungle Ah yes, the “Can tell a joke that lands, but can’t talk on the phone” stage

0

1

124

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

@sasha_zabelski lol let me tell you how shocked most people are to learn what college professors actually make. who gave everybody the idea that we all make 6 figures already

8

4

116

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 months

@matthiasellis The whole story is so funny too when you consider how narrow the Bosphorus is that there was just a rogue whale up in there, like no one could have missed that

2

1

100

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

10 months

Song dynasty drip was so off the charts I’m making my students read a whole book about it in the fall lol

南腔北调人

@MadSealCutter

10 months

Song dynasty drip. I keep telling y'all the Song are underrated, but no one listens.

62

3K

22K

3

18

97

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

This is hard to say, but I am grieving the loss of a lot of stuff all at once atm: an identity, stable employment, healthcare, & a relationship. i had a lot to do keep me going strong thru the first couple months of this shit, but the lockdown is hitting a lot harder rn 😢

16

1

89

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 months

The Penn Museum was my professional home for 10 years & since then I often teach directly from my experiences there. But now, the main case study will concern questions of curatorial ethics, community relations & how to (not to) navigate fraught histories

Black community members, scientists object to plan to bury skulls from Philadelphia museum

Scholars critique “egregious” lack of archival research on remains of Black Philadelphians in the Morton collection

www.science.org

2

45

81

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

@bobbydebs did people not know that her parents are Pentecostal preachers???

0

73

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

Hello, today is my birthday! I just moved into an apartment with a terrace, I had rice stuffed mussels and now I am drinking rose

13

0

72

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

I've posted about this before, but I've found the lack of an archaeological response to The Dawn of Everything in the Discourse troubling. Now that it's been approved, I can say: I will be teaching a course in the spring semester devoted to, among other things, remedying this.

6

1

70

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

I've been having a particularly rough time lately, but on the bright side, my figurines article is for real now!

6

3

70

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

Most Turkish bread isn’t particularly exciting, but one thing they’ve got really figured out is bazlama. Imagine: an English muffin, but denser and eggier, and about twice as big. A revelation

4

3

65

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

i feel bad for whichever admin person or grad student is running harvard anthro social media and/or department email at the moment. last year i was doing similar work for my degree granting program and my first day on the job was the monday after the nazi salute professor debacle

3

0

62

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

getting jazzed up for teaching the archaeology of climate change in the fall

4

1

63

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 month

I teach the history of the Delmar Divide every semester in my GIS class (h/t to Colin Gordon's Mapping Decline) in relation to the history of urban renewal and zoning in the city. It always makes students' heads explode to realize how much this is the result of deliberate policy

rust belt city enjoyer

@rustbeltenjoyer

1 month

There's only one map of St Louis

10

31

693

4

15

62

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

@as_a_worker you may be interested to know that wuppertal is the hometown of none other than friedrich engels

1

0

60

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

@dieworkwear New nightmare blunt rotation just dropped

1

0

61

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

@Graham__Hancock @KUHoopes @joerogan Wow, he didn't want to debate you on the Joe Rogan show? Shock of the century

6

0

58

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

5 years

Hi everybody, my name is Kyle Olson. I’m late-stage ABD, currently developing a post-PhD project to study the social, political, and legal history of archaeology in Iran during the 20th century, i.e., @GabeMoshenska ’s 7th sense of “public archaeology.” 1/20 #PATC4

2

14

58

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

Philly canceled Trump. Now it is time for @JoeBiden to #CancelStudentDebt . All of it.

2

9

55

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

My research this year has mostly focused on the relationship b/t American archaeologists & foreign aid/development agencies, which has raised a lot of other questions, esp ab espionage. Anyway, this should be required reading for all anthro grad students

1

7

54

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

I have a lot more to say about the Penn Museum, but as I’m still precarious, I’m gonna keep a lid on it for now (fucked up, I know). I’ll say this tho: the institution-internal lore is horrifying

4

2

53

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

@CloEmmo totally normal. i went back to mine 2 years after depositing the final version and was stunned to find that not only was it not complete shit, but that what i wrote closest to the finish line was in many ways the best part lol

6

0

53

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

we love to see page proofs

4

1

51

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

PSA: archaeologists make good/bad roommates because we are specialists in reconstructing behavioral patterns from the things people leave behind. If we can do it with things 1000s of years old, believe me we can do it with shit from last week. Try us & see how that goes for u lol

1

6

52

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

8 months

found it, finally! the "what archaeology has truly created" quote that got stuck in my head for a month

1

10

52

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

Well, it’s been real, Istanbul. Gelecek yıl görüşürüz 🫶🧿

3

0

50

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

5 years

@thetolerantweft Did you see that one goin around that advertised how to get to that venue at 51st and market that was like get off at 46th street and walk? Lol what a riot

3

1

45

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

5 months

@evilvillain1231 also was a british colony from napoleonic era until the 60s lol

0

1

48

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

Snagged a pretty large rug from the department storage room that was labeled “trash.” It needs some time to unroll itself but I’m pretty pleased

3

0

49

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

I turn 31 today! It has been a hell of a year, regardless of COVID, liberating in so many ways, devastating in so many others. Thanks to all of you who’ve been part of my life and who’ve helped me grow as a person—all I hope for this coming year is to be able to pay it forward

17

0

47

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

. @SenBobCasey as your constituent I am asking you to support #CancelStudentDebt because student debt is our generation’s version of redlining! Talk to @POTUS & show your support for full cancellation!

3

11

44

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 months

@youwouldntpost Tom Waits

0

45

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

@mags_mclaugh @bonappetit Also in the 42nd street Y interview he literally mixed up Priya and Sohla’s names at one point. It was real bad

0

44

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

8 months

Officially in print (online only) as of today in History and Anthropology: my article with Christina Luke "Field archaeology and foreign assistance during the decade of development in Iran and Turkey." I've got ~50 "off-prints" to share, dms are open

Field archaeology and foreign assistance during the decade of development in Iran and Turkey

During the 1960s, the scope of field archaeology in the Middle East transformed dramatically, driven by foreign aid funded dam-led regional development projects. The paradigm of river-basin salvage...

www.tandfonline.com

5

11

44

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

8 months

My favorite misspelling of Çatal Höyük that we received today: Catalhoochee. Way down yonder there’s a Neolithic village lol

1

43

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

8 months

It never ceases to amaze me how it takes 2 hours to write for 1 hour

5

4

43

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

This semester is going to be fun, teaching three courses all in my wheelhouse: Intro to GIS for Anthropologists (focusing on digitizing and annotating historic map collections at the library), an entire class on The Dawn of Everything, and a grad seminar on Archaeology & Politics

4

0

43

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

JFC what a paragraph

4

3

42

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

Another night, another party full of engineers asking me if I’ve read Sapiens. Anthros, we gotta get a book out there from one of our own that fills that market niche

3

5

42

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

One of my favorite things: when my roommate has a friend come by and the friend won’t shut up about how beautiful the apartment is

6

0

39

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

academic job search mantras to stave off anxiety attacks: (1) it is ok to not apply to jobs in places I don't want to live, (2) it is ok to not apply to jobs I don't want to do, (3) it is ok if my job search fails & (4) i already had a 100% failed search year & it turned out fine

2

0

41

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

9 months

@DiabolicalSpuds this is literally the first time i have ever heard anything even remotely interesting by this band. wow

35

0

40

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

“Generally, organising should try to achieve three goals: disrupting capital accumulation, highlighting a central social antagonism, and giving people a sense of their own power and agency.”

1

8

39

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

normalize academics changing their research trajectory after the PhD!! also relatedly, if anyone wants to give me some advice about how to sell my pivot in my cover letters, I'm all ears, please and thank you

4

1

40

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

I finished my revisions on Wednesday. I didn’t really celebrate defending too much, and I don’t really have much cause to now either. Glad to be done but my word am I angry about a lot of things re: grad school so im going to leave it at that for now

7

0

39

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

@FlintDibble this is not a bad opinion, but one that gets me a lot of smoke: no more digging until the curation crisis is adequately addressed

4

1

37

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

Hello friends, I am back on twitter but now on a new continent!

1

0

38

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

Bought myself a painting and a weird vase at the thrift store today, really love how this part of the living room is coming together

4

0

37

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

I've got a new essay out in REFUSE: A Journal of Iconoclasms called "Refusing the Dig Gig." It's more critical and personal than anything I've put to print before & I'm excited to share with you all. Big h/t to @marginatalia , @DGozli & @incite_seminars !

3

9

37

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

5 years

also, conference 👏registration 👏 should 👏 be 👏 free 👏 for 👏 graduate 👏 students

0

3

36

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

A full draft of my dissertation is due a week from today!! Send good vibes plz

3

0

34

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

@dee_bee_h Right there in the title, no?

0

35

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 months

lol was tempted to wade into 'teaching intro courses' discourse but all im gonna say is: thank your lucky stars you dont teach intro to archaeology, where your job is to do mythbusters for conspiracy theories with nothing but cocktail party length anecdotes for an entire term

4

3

35

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

A cool thing about teaching archaeology is that you regularly get to deliver "mind blown" moments to students. Will do a thread soon about my World Archaeology class because their papers have made it clear how more engaging "archaeology in the world" is rather than "ancient civs"

1

2

35

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

@PinstripeBungle Yeah man that whole not getting a cold for 2 years thing in 2020-21 was fucking amazing

1

34

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

Lol nothing quite as humbling as not making the short list for a position that your committee told you they thought you actually had a shot at. Lesson learned: forget about every application as soon as you send it

5

0

35

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

This could upset some people in my field but I don’t care, but one part of archaeology that never sat right with me is mortuary work. Digging up graves is profoundly weird and sus to me. Sorry, but unless it’s salvage or requested by descendants, let the dead rest imo

5

0

35

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

10 months

@mariahkreutter I mean I’ve never paid this much for a glass of wine but yeah, my headcanon is coffee should cost 1-2 dollars, beer/wine 2-4, local liquor 5, imported liquor/cocktail 6-8, cigarettes <5, and anything more than that is for specialty products only. But rah rah Amrika and so on

1

0

35

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

anybody else getting some cognitive dissonance about the earliest burial news story? I thought photos of human remains were a no go for publications anymore, or does that somehow magically not apply if the human lived 75kya?

11

6

35

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

🙌 academic job apps that just require references and not letters of recommendation 🙌

2

0

34

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

Complaints about a heavy teaching load aside, I love my job right now. I had just about given up hope on finding stable employment in academia three cycles in a row before arriving in the position I now have, so it feels good to have a bit of breathing room to think wider again

5

0

34

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

My article in @AmAnthroJournal is out now and appears to be free access: Disciplinary Futures and Reorienting Research: A Reply to Jobson and Rosenzweig on Doing Anthropology in the Age of COVID

6

2

32

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

dreaming of an honest cover letter... dear hiring manger, I have no experience in your field, but 1 important skill. I can teach myself things very quickly & ill do it for you for cheap. also please dont hold it against me that i decided to go to grad school when i was 22 lol

0

2

34

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

@Evren2018 It was the only university that made me a job offer last year, plus I wanted to live in Istanbul for a year so I said why not

0

33

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

Hi rad archy friends, thinking about a summer reading group. I can think of at least a few of you who might be interested. hmu

15

3

34

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

I had a really nice conversation with one of my committee members today, and she had some healing words that I'd like to share with you. Paraphrasing, but: everyone has gaps in their record. Most people get academic jobs based on fit and department-internal politics, so...

1

0

33

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

As a course, we will read the text alongside its source materials and the responses to it, focusing especially on the (to my mind) relatively neglected later chapters. Together, over the course of the semester, we will write our own op-ed/review and work to get it published.

4

1

34

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

My apartment application in St Louis was successful! Very excited for at least 2 reasons: 1) it will be the first time I've had my own place as an adult and 2) I can have home workspace that is not my bedroom for the first time in three years lol

1

0

33

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 months

I did it

3

0

33

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

whew ok, have applied to 27 jobs/postdocs/fellowships so far this season, which is about 1-2/week for the past four months, though usually its more like 3-5 all at once and then a lull. w/e, im tired, and this isnt even that much. god bless all of you who manage x2-3 this many

3

0

33

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

Just got off the best zoom I’ve been involved in since the lockdown and that includes my dissertation defense. You are not a loan, you are not alone! @StrikeDebt ✊

2

1

33

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

Wow I just started what is easily the most intimidating fellowship application I have ever encountered. Send strength!

1

0

33

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

morning thoughts today: what would it have meant for me to study my own cultural heritage rather than that of other countries? imagining a transnational archaeology of labor migrants, the western PA coalfields, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, an archaeology of assimilation...

1

0

32

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

first of all, excavation is a super transgressive and weird thing to do at all, second, its mostly trash and abandoned buildings, thirdly, finding "cool" things is actually a major pain in the ass

0

1

32

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

why have i become obsessed with archaeology and dams? well, here's a random shot of southern Illinois. none of those lakes are natural bodies of water. you cant believe how many reservoirs there are all over the place!

5

2

31

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

Lol @ funding applications that are “unable to provide feedback”, like why? The time of your precious reviewers is more valuable than those of the applicants? How much time do you think they spent on each app compared to how much time the app took to put together?

4

0

32

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 months

Incredible map. Also I want to know about the mummy in Puerto Rico

7

13

31

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

@annelisebaer How tf is this thing supposed to work

1

0

30

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

8 months

@queen_of_iceni not a progressive take actually!!

0

30

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

What do we think the odds are this book I just got delivered in fact belonged to this guy

4

0

31

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

4 years

I understand that this might not be a good look, but: as I consume ever more “job market advice,” I am coming to see most departments as extremely negligent in their graduate training. People who know me know Ive been outspoken in my own department for years 1/

3

30

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

2 years

Was informed that the dance festival this weekend has a “black tie” on Saturday so I went to the costume shop to find a novelty dinner jacket, and instead I found this 3 piece tux and friends it fits!!

0

29

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

Today is one year since I defended my dissertation, what a wild ride lol

0

28

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

@thesecondsingle oh its gotta be tom waits in down by law

1

0

28

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

3 years

I’ll be working on an article with Christina Luke with the working title “Archaeology and Dam-Led Development in Mid-Twentieth Century Turkey and Iran: A Cold War History of Foreign Aid, Field Science, and Modernization” & figuring out my next steps!

3

0

30

Kyle Olson

@olsonkyleg

1 year

In teaching the Dawn of Everything, I've been pushing students to understand that part of the enduring modern fascination with the deep past is that it—along with outer-space and the quantum dimensions—represents one of the last terrae incognitae remaining for humans to explore

6

2

30