Education and Majors
Professor Graesch: B.A., M.A., and Ph.D in Anthropology from UCLA
Chenin: B.A. in Sociology from UCLA
Hometown
Professor Graesch: Mariposa, California
Chenin: Catheys Valley, CA
Office Location
Professor Graesch: Winthrop 202
Chenin: The Health Center: Warnshuis Building
How long have you been working at Conn?
Professor Graesch: This is my fourth year at Conn. Shazam!
Chenin: I have been working here since the Spring of 2011.
What keeps you occupied when you’re not busy at Conn?
Professor Graesch: Not busy at Conn?! (I don’t understand the question!)
Chenin: With two little ones there’s never a dull moment around our house. I love working on our garden, watching sappy romance movies, reading mystery novels, and just hanging out with my favorite little people.
Can you tell us about how you two met?
Chenin: Anthony and I have known each other since 7th grade (we grew up in adjacent towns with different elementary schools but shared junior and high schools). We were just acquaintances until high school when we began hanging out with the same group of friends. By our sophomore year of high school I considered him my best friend and we spent much of our free time together, though we dated other people. Something clicked for me our senior year of high school, I let him know, and we’ve been together ever since.
What would you say is your top piece of relationship advice for college students?
Chenin: I think starting out as friends is the key — it truly makes for the best foundation. The other is having a sense of humor — Anthony is the king of that. Even at my grumpiest he’s able to say something or do something to make me laugh. After that we’re able to talk out the issue and move on.
Professor Graesch: Don’t take yourself too seriously, be willing to admit fault, give as much respect as you expect to be given, and know that the best of relationships are built on a solid friendship.
What made you decide to leave California?
Chenin: We moved to Los Angeles for college and had been there for 18 years. We’d always known that we did not want to end up there because, although it has a lot to offer by way of culture, music, and food, it just wasn’t the place we saw ourselves raising kids. When Anthony got the call from Conn with a job offer we were both thrilled — neither of us had spent much time on the East Coast and we were excited to be moving to a more suburban environment and ready to explore new territory.
Chenin, Tell us about your career in counseling services:
It’s been a long and weirdly-winding career path for me. I graduated from UCLA not really knowing what I wanted to be when I grew up (I still don’t really know!). Immediately following college I went to work as a consultant and technician at the UCLA Institute for Laser Medicine (read: laser hair removal). From there I moved into the world of publishing at a small legal publishing house, and then back to UCLA to manage the Lecture Notes division. From there I had a brief stint as a rep for a college book company and then to the Archer School for Girls where, over the course of 10 years, I was the Accounts Payable Manager, then the Assistant Business Manager, and finally the Human Resources Manager.
Now, I am the administrative assistant for Student Health Services and Student Counseling Services at Connecticut College. I was initially drawn to the position because it’s close to home and offers a great work schedule — very important as a working mother of two. Since then I have come to truly admire the amazing counselors and nursing staff here — they really care about the students and work hard to ensure their physical and mental well-being.
Chenin, What has been the most rewarding part about working at Conn?
The most rewarding part of working at Conn has been the opportunity to interact with the students. I’ve gotten to know some pretty incredible young people and look forward to seeing them make a difference
Professor Graesch, how would you describe your experience teaching Anthropology at Conn?
Most excellent. First of all, I have exceptional colleagues. This makes all the difference. Second, I am given the opportunity to teach courses that closely align with my eclectic research interests. Lastly, given Conn’s close proximity to some amazing research locales — downtown New London and our 700-acre Arboretum — I can create field-based, research-immersive learning opportunities in almost all of my courses. And I very much love teaching in the field. Best. Job. Ever.
Professor Graesch, What advice would you give to students interested in Anthropology?
For those interested in anthropology, but unfamiliar with subject, I recommend taking an introductory course in cultural anthropology. This is the course that pretty much hooked me when I was an undergraduate. In fact, I was on the path to a major in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences when I realized that anthropology offered a conceptual tool kit for understanding an otherwise behaviorally complex, multi-cultural world. If you are interested in exploring what it means to be human as well as the incredible diversity in human cultural expression, then anthropology might be for you.
What are you currently working on?
I have a few of projects in the hopper, all of which involve Conn students in the field and laboratory: (1) ongoing archaeological research in British Columbia that focuses on the organization of Sto:lo-Coast Salish households over the last 600 years; (2) a collaboration with Professor Chung in Computer Science for the purpose of helping communities to create heritage-based multimedia tours for delivery on mobile devices around the world; and (3) an ethnoarchaeological study of everyday garbage in New London. Not busy at Conn? Hah!
You recently wrote an ethnography about bars and cigarettes. Could you talk a little bit about your findings?
Actually, I’m still working on this project, an archaeological ethnography of bar culture in New London. As you know, downtown New London features a myriad of bars, pubs, and taverns. This research explores how differences in the social character or identity of drinking establishments might be evinced in the assemblages of used cigarettes discarded in and around bar sites. This is may seem like a strange (and disgusting) endeavor, but archaeologists regularly ask the same question of the archaeological record: to what extent can we see social group identity in the material record of times past? A key methodological difference is that I am able to observe and talk to people interacting with their built environments and personal possessions as I explore the ways that objects index behavior. And cigarettes are the most ubiquitous and abundant form of trash on the urban American landscape. To date, we have collected over 30,000 cigarette specimens from 24 sites, including control samples from Walmart and College House. Analyses are ongoing, and I aim to talk about some of our key findings at the upcoming Student Awards ceremony at the end of spring semester.
In your study about people’s relationships with their belongings, you mention having too many objects stresses us out. As a college student with a room at home and a room at school it is hard not to accumulate things. Do you have any advice for keeping the excess to a minimum?
It all begins with decisions underlying consumption habits. I might advise you to buy only what you need, and to refrain from using objects (e.g., the latest iPhone) to signal something about the identity which you seek to project. But that might be too radical a change, so I’ll just advise you to reflect on the reasons why you buy stuff. Also, try to refrain from purchasing a large house; it’s merely an expensive container in which you accumulate a lot of crap.
What made you transition from archaeology to your current work?
Well, I’m still doing archaeology. Archaeology is as concerned with the ways that material culture simultaneously shapes and reflects human behavior in the present as much as in the past. That is, you need not dig anything up to apply archaeological theory and method to the study of human behavior. When we refocus our anthropological lens on modern-day American material culture, everyday behaviors that are taken as normative begin to look rather bizarre, especially when these behaviors are examined in a cross-cultural framework. Studies of our quotidian possessions and everyday garbage can provide fresh insights into American consumerism and privilege while engaging timely discussions centering on environmental justice and ecological sustainability.
We are so grateful to have wonderful professors and staff members such as Chenin and Professor Anthony Graesch and all the wonderful things they do at Connecticut College!