Let the beat control you

On 25th September 2011 I will be running a half marathon to raise money for ABESU, a charity the helps female led families build family homes in rural Zambia. The event I am taking part in is Nike's London music half marathon - Run to the Beat - http://www.runtothebeat.co.uk/. If you are interested in sponsoring me, please visit: http://www.justgiving.com/Samuel-Merrill. Thanks for your support!

[Tilly and the Wall]

I'm going deeper underground there's too much panic in this town

This September I will be starting my PhD at UCL on the topic of underground cultural landscapes. I am lucky enough to have received a UCL Grad School Scholarship and can't wait to get started. I will be comparing the London and Berlin underground railway systems and arguing that they constitute cultural landscapes using heritage, cultural and urban geography theoretical frameworks. I hope that my research will take me to Moscow, New York and Paris.

[Jamiroquai]

Keep running up that hill....

I have been accepted by the World Cancer Research Fund UK to run the London Marathon in one of their golden bond places. I have to raise £2000 to fullfill my sponsorship pledge. If you would like to support me and WCRF UK please visit: http://www.wcrf-uk.org/fundraising/events/runners/sam_merrill.php


Kate Bush

The ink I use might stink, but you gotta think

Recently I have been developing my research interest in the heritage of graffiti and vandalism. A paper I have written, entitled Vandalism @ Heritage Places: Cultural Significance or Conservation Sacrilege will be published as part of the Contemporary and Historical Archaeological Theory Group's 2008 'Heritage' CHAT conference proceedings. I have also recently submited an abstract to the forthcoming World Heritage and Cultural Diversity - Challenges for University Education Conference at BTU Cottbus. The proposed paper is entitled, Taking it Back to the Streets: Recognising Cultural Diversity in the Heritage of Graffiti so fingers crossed it makes the cut. This is a strain of research I hope to build on by taking advantage of the time I have spent in the graffiti capitals of London, Berlin and Melbourne. Next stop New York and Paris.

[Artifact]

Way Over Yonder, Thats Where I'm Bound, Thats Where I'm Bound

I am lucky enough to have been given the chance to join an Australian National University ARC funded research excavation to take place in mid August. I will be digging for two weeks at Waminari Bay within the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Land Trust. I will be swagging out under the stars around 65KM from the nearest services and 15 KM from the nearest Aboriginal Community. We will be staying on the traditional lands of the Namunidjbuk clan group at their invitation. The project which is entitled; Baijini, Macassans, Balanda and Binij: Defining the Indigenous past of Arnhem Land through Cultural Contact represents an amazing opportunity for me to consolidate my archeaological experience and to extend the number of cross cultural contexts within which I have worked. I am really excited about getting out there, meeting the community and the other diggers, and contributing to a successful research project. So I am way over yonder bound.

(Carol King)

I come from a land down under

I have reached Melbourne and its good. I have been here less than two weeks and I have found accomodation, started some really interesting research and found myself a new hockey team. I have taken a flying visit to Perth to see Kings of Leon, Fremantle Prison and an amazing sculpture exhibition (Thanks Lisa). I have already got my head around AFL and am barracking for Collingwood despite their reputation. I will be living in North Fitzroy, the Kreuzberg of Melbourne from next week. The research I am working on is for Dr Keir Reeves and Dr Colin Long of Monash and Deakin University respectively. I will be researching Cold War Cultural Landscapes in Southeast Asia. Besides this I am working on my thesis regarding Heritage management in Zambia. So all is well in the land down under "where the women glow and the men plunder"


(Men at Work)

Ich Mochte Ein Eisbaer Sein

It has been snowing for about a week now and Cottbus has hit temperatures as low as -20. On Saturday I will head to Bulgaria to snowboard for a week and then I will return to the frozen former East. Three weeks of serious snow and polar conditions have got me wishing I was a Eisbaer but has also got me really appreciating the fact that continental Europe still experiences proper winters. Winters which freeze your hair, winters that make you hibernate, winters that help you to truly value warmth whether as food, good company or simply hugging the radiator. Despite this I am looking forward to escaping the winter cold and workload when I depart for Laos in a little over two weeks. For now I will stop moaning and will enjoy the snow, weil Eisbaren mussen nie weinen !

(Grauzone)