Encounter in the Topelia’s corridor Janna Laajaranta
Bianca Preda-Bălănică is a post-doctoral researcher at the Universtiy of Helsinki, working in the Yamnaya Impact on Prehistoric Europe Project. Her research focuses on the funerary archaeology, burials customs and material culture of the Yamanaya populations, as well as their interactions with and impact on local societies. In the ECA community, she coordinates the mentoring programme. The Early Career Archaeologists Community is dedicated to professionals from the academic, heritage and commercial sectors, who are generally under-represented and under-supported in archaeology. The community aims to listen to, and communicate the issues that particularly affect early career archaeologists.
1. Bianca, you’re a founding member of ECA. How, what for, and who with did you start this community? The Community started as a Taskforce of the EAA (European Association of Archaeology) in 2019. Archaeologist Maxime Brami from Mainz had the initiative, and involved, besides me, other colleagues from different parts of the world. The purpose was to raise awareness about challenges encountered by ECAs, such as job insecurity, imposed mobility, the lack of research freedom, independence and results ownership. We also wanted to address the consequences of things such as the economic and mental well-being of ECAs and to create a support mechanism to make them feel heard and empowered. In the summer of 2020 we applied to officially become a community of
Kuva: Bianca Preda
the EAA and we have been growing steadily ever since. 2. What is an Early Career Archaeologist? This is indeed a good question. In our Community, being an Early Career Archaeologist is not about age, but about status. We usually consider ECAs to be professionals who have not yet held a position of responsibility or authority within their institution, marked by tenure, therefore include here postgraduates and postdoctoral researchers. Finding a permanent position within the academia can be a very challenging process and in some cases can take several years, and our community aims to support researchers on their journey.
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