Humans of York: Diana
“I am a mature student studying Digital Archaeology. I decided to come to Europe to study because Digital Archaeology is a new field that we don’t have in Latin America."
Introducing this week’s Human of York, Diana, a mature student from Peru:
"I applied for the Chevening Scholarship and I was competing against a lot of students. I have worked for different projects in Peru so that was my strength to get this scholarship. It is based on leadership and networking.
“The culture is unique here and the people are really nice and supportive. I have made a lot of friends from different places, one of whom is my landlady who has given me lots of introductions to British culture, through literature and traditions. She is really special to me. This is a really enriching experience that I have and I want to bring all this knowledge back to my country.
“The Department of Archaeology gave me all the information that I needed since the first email that I sent them. They have supported me in different ways: for example they listen to my ideas, they help me to connect with other students and researchers.
"The most important thing is that they encourage me to develop my ideas and provide access to information, for example with the digital archaeology and heritage lab which is really important for us.
“These past months I have been trying to learn new things and participate in different kinds of projects. I have done a placement on arch acoustic entry, the reconstruction of sound with caves. That was really fun and it is something I like to do because I like to try different digital tools.
"I am currently writing my dissertation on Difficult Heritage, which is a special topic for me because it is about my country and the internal war that we had in the 1980s. I am trying to create a story map and 3D reconstructions about sites related to the war.
“I’m also volunteering now creating a Story Map for MAEASaM (Mapping Africa's Endangered Archaeological Sites and Monuments), which is really important for me because I want to be a specialist in using GIS tools. Finally, I love table tennis and I participate as well in the University’s table tennis club.”
Diana, Department of Archaeology, Humans of York, 2022