Ralph Fiennes In Maid In Manhattan

Ralph Fiennes in Maid in Manhattan

Women in Anthropology: MARGARET ALICE MURRAY

In the 100 years Margaret Murray was on this Earth she became a driving force for women in anthropology and in academia, earning the titles of archaeologst, Egyptologist, author, lecturer, Folkorist, and feminist.

Murray was born to wealthy English parents in Calcutta, India in 1863. She spent her early years living in Britain and Germany before settling back in India as a nurse until 1887 when she moved to England and became a social worker.

She began attending the University College London (UCL) at the age of 31 in 1894 (proving that there is no set age to being your academic career) and by 1898 she was working as a junior lecturer of linguistics in the Egyptology department.

In 1902 she joined British Egyptologist Sir William Flinders Petrie for 2 field seasons in Egypt. During the first field season she helped to excavate a temple to Osiris, the Osireion, built during the New kingdom (roughly 16th to 11th century BCE) under the Pharaoh Seti I (pictured below).

After returning to London, she became a big supporter of the first wave feminist movement and joined the Women’s Social and Political Union. Murray initiated many campaigns to change the culture for women in academia and make it more accessible. At her insistence for inclusivity, the UCL common room was opened to women and later a redesigned room was constructed and named the Margaret Murray Room.

During World War I, she began studying and publishing articles and books on the history of witchcraft in Europe and Folklorism. Eventually, in 1927 she was awarded an honorary doctorate for her work in Egyptology. Throughout her career she wrote several books and many articles on Egyptology, Folklorism and also authored her own autobiography titled “My First Hundred Years” published in the year of her death 1963.

It is challenging for modern day academics to truly comprehend the different era and culture for a woman in anthropology during the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. Although, I am sure many of us agree that the academic climate of today oftentimes has much more progress to make. In any case, Margaret Murray was one of the first women to ‘make it’ within this scientific field dominated by a white men, and her contributions to academia were significant, well known, and respected.

However, this does not mean she was perfect. Much of her academic work and theory, especially in the field of Folklorism, is often criticized. Anthropology has changed quite a bit since Murray first entered the field over 158 years ago, and our views and methods of understanding are extremely different today.

What will not change is Murray’s solidified importance as an academic mind and as a woman in archaeology. She paved the way for other female scholars, and she fought for their advancement and their voices along the way.

Refs:

Drower, Margaret S. (2004). “Margaret Alice Murray”. In Getzel M. Cohen; Martha Joukowsky (eds.). Breaking Ground: Pioneering Women Archaeologists. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. pp. 109–141

Margaret Murray. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://www.fembio.org/english/biography.php/woman/biography/margaret-murray/

Margaret Murray. 25 Feb. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Murray.

“Margaret Murray”. Stories From The Museum Floor, 2021, https://storiesfromthemuseumfloor.wordpress.com/2018/03/02/margaret-murray/.

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About the podcast: The I Dig It Podcast was created by Alyssa and Michaela in March of 2020. Our goal for this podcast was to provide archaeology enthusiasts with insight into the student perspective of navigating the world of academia and the job market for archaeology and anthropology. Guests on the podcast include people from all different parts of their career, including highschool, undergrad, grad school, post doc, and early career!

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thekoukou55

3 years ago

Two UC San Diego Scientists Elected to National Academy of Medicine

Left: JoAnn Trejo, PhD, is professor in the Department of Pharmacology at UC San Diego School of Medicine and assistant vice chancellor for UC San Diego Health Sciences Faculty Affairs. Right: Elizabeth Winzeler, PhD, is professor in the Division of Host Microbe Systems and Therapeutics in the Department of Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine and adjunct professor in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UC San Diego.

Leaders in cell biology and anti-malarial drug development respectively, JoAnn Trejo and Elizabeth Winzeler were recognized by their peers with one of the highest honors in health and medicine.

Trejo is known for discovering how cellular responses are regulated by molecules known as G protein-coupled receptors, particularly in the context of vascular inflammation and cancer. Her findings have advanced the fundamental knowledge of cell biology and helped identify new targets for drug development. Trejo’s research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including a recent NIH R35 Outstanding Investigator Award.

Winzeler is known for her early contribution to the field of functional genomics, where she worked primarily in the model yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Concerned about global health disparities and the alarming rise in the number of worldwide malaria cases in the early 2000s, she shifted her research focus to malaria, beginning with functional genomics and then moving to drug discovery.