Well, the less said about 2020 the better, right? But we do want to say something because TrowelBlazers have a habit of persevering and dang, did our beautiful community come through. This was a year that saw us finally get to so many posts that we’ve been dying to do, with the help of a small army of brilliant, wonderful, TrowelBlazing guest posters. In a year that really brought home the importance of connection, we are so incredibly thankful to have connected to so many TrowelBlazing women.
We can hardly do them justice here, but a massive shoutout to our ‘Series Editors’, who took us to many new places this year: to the steppes with the Steppe Sisters series, brought to you by Ashleigh Haruda, @AHaruda; to Africa in our Women of African Archaeology series thanks to Stephanie Wynn-Jones and her team of tireless volunteers from the University of York; and to all corners of the globe with our first ever Digital FieldWork from the students of UCL’s Institute of Archaeology. There were also some wonderful individual posts celebrating mentors and friends, all of whom are critical nodes in the great big network of connection that we all share.
There were other highlights along the way, despite everything — personal and professional. A huge congrats is due to our Rebecca Wragg Sykes for her Times Top 10 book Kindred, which has been storming the charts on both sides of the Atlantic! As a team, we’re excited that the new edition of the classic archaeological text by Renfrew & Bahn has been thoroughly TrowelBlazed, and we were thrilled to take a seat as part of a larger Equalities and Diversity group in the UK getting ready to put some of our principles in action when it comes to supporting women in the digging arts — more to come on that in the future!
2020 may not have been a very good year, but we are beyond thankful to have gotten through it with our amazing TrowelBlazer network. Here’s hoping that 2021 allows us to reach out and connect again.
All best from Team TrowelBlazers
Brenna, Becky, Suzie, & Tori
