How I learn more than just lessons with LJMU

I have been at LJMU throughout my whole academic career, from undergraduate to masters student and now a PhD student. I have enjoyed every minute of it – so much so, that I don't want to leave!

I have received all the support I could need throughout my time here and I like how there is a great sense of community. I am very proud to be a student at LJMU and would recommend it to anyone – just like I did to the students from South Connecticut State University (SCSU) who joined me at The Poulton Research Project recently.

I spent two weeks at the multi-period site (Iron Age, Roman and Medieval archaeology) and have seen our visitors come so far in such a small space of time. The students are enthusiastic and learning new things very quickly – in just a week they have learnt about the history of the site and the surrounding areas of Chester and found their own burials to excavate.

They have methodically and stratigraphically excavated their areas to find various pieces of archaeology, such as medieval pottery, redeposited human bone, coffin nails, a complete short cross medieval coin (a great find for an archaeologist!), and of course, human skeletal remains. The burials that have been uncovered so far consist of two double juvenile burials, a truncated juvenile burial, a truncated adult burial and a complete sub-adult burial. They also undertook step-by-steps in how to record the contexts, photograph and survey their burials, as well as lifting the bones to be taken back to LJMU for cleaning, biological profiling and further research.

I really enjoyed my time with the SCSU students and appreciate the opportunity I have been given to teach them how to excavate human remains and identify the bones present. I developed a really good relationship with them, in such a short amount of time, and I will be looking to keep in touch and finding out how well they are doing in their own career paths.

I think they have thoroughly enjoyed their time with LJMU at Poulton and now know a lot about the history here after receiving tours of the likes of Beeston Castle, Conwy Castle, Chester City Wall, etc. They also had an interesting time at LJMU, going to lectures and visiting labs.

So much so, that some of the students are considering a move across the Atlantic to study at LJMU as postgraduates… 

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