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Over this past summer, Yusi Liu, a current graduate student in Bryn Mawr’s Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Department, participated in three programs geared towards global learning, archaeology, and museum studies, taking her from Italy to Greece to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

From the end of May to early June, Yusi attended the “International Law, Cultural Heritage & the Arts” course hosted in Siena, Italy, and taught by Tulane Law School, with collaboration from the University of Siena Facoltà di Giurisprudenza and DePaul University School of Law. This program combined traditional classes with field trips across Tuscany centered on critical issues in cultural heritage studies, such as provenance research, collection ethics, and legal protections for endangered cultural heritage. 

“I became more comfortable with legal language and documents, and I could read and understand indictments, judicial notes, and various legal conversations,” Yusi said.

Due to her interest in museum studies and how it intersects with issues of provenance, collections, and reception, Yusi credits this experience with providing her additional training in crucial aspects of cultural heritage management, providing an essential foundation for her curatorial internship with the Getty Villa in California, which commenced this past Fall.

After completing the course in Siena, Yusi moved on to intern at the Corinth Excavations in Greece for the rest of June and into early July. Under the supervision of Dr. Ioulia Tzonou, the associate director of the Corinth Excavations, Yusi had a hands-on role in museum management and further experience with physical and digital collections. For instance, she was responsible for correcting and adding additional information to the digital and physical catalogs of coins collected during the previous excavation season. She also inventoried figurines and other small finds into the Corinth Museum’s collections and made labels for objects part of a temporary display case on ancient cookware. 

Throughout this internship, she also extensively enhanced her digital humanities skills using Microsoft Access software and the Corinth excavation database.

The final part of her summer was spent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for the Mellon Foundation/Humanities Without Walls Pre-Doctoral Career Diversity Summer Workshop, which focused on professional development for doctoral students in the humanities. In this workshop, Yusi explored topics such as diversity and equity, arts and public engagement, and humanities mindset and career decisions within a context geared towards mutual learning amongst all participants. As part of this experience, Yusi also attended sessions centered on research writing and crafting effective resumes and CVs.

Following her curatorial internship with the Getty Villa, Yusi will return to campus next year, where she will undoubtedly have much knowledge and experience to share.

Daniel D'Elia is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology.