Amanda Lawson

Hi, my name is Amanda Lawson, and I am a first-year student in the graduate program focusing on Historic Preservation.

I was born in Mountain View, MO at the ripe old age of 0 and then went to 4 different high schools in 4 years before I graduated from Chamois, MO, 1995.

My undergraduate degree was attained in 2006 from Missouri State University in Springfield, MO, in 2006 with a B.S. in Anthropology. (Biology minor). While at Missouri State I participated in archaeological field school and ethnographic Field School before working in the Cultural Resource Management field for several years afterwards.

I have been all over the US with my CRM profession, then to Europe for 5 years to immerse myself in some other cultures. Naturally, after being away for so long and with the Covid drama I was looking for the comforts of home and to restarting my career but in a different fashion. Loved fieldwork but looking for a new direction. Found the HP program at Southeast which was intriguing due to its location being closer to home but also the topics of historic preservation which comfortably fit with Anthropology and prospects of public education.

I greatly enjoyed my first semester back into academia/professional world. HP and Anthropology are very comfortable subjects. I enjoy the topics and since I have been engaged a bit in the professional world with anthro and history, I feel like I can hold my own when discussing historic preservation issues or anthropological studies and methods. Mostly, it is a joy to be around my peers again who have the same interests that I do, who can speak my language, (in more ways than one) where deeper conversations can be had about these subjects and where I can continue to learn about the areas of which I am fuzzy. (Which are, happily, many) Also I was super impressed by the staff. I found everyone to be extremely helpful, caring and knowledgeable.  

So, what do I want to be when I grow up? First, I have found that growing up is overrated. And second, I am searching high and low for a definite answer to this because I am fascinated with many things having to do with this department.  Working for a National Park in the western half of the US is one thing but the more I am in Cape, the more I am looking at this immediate area for future profession options. 

The first time I visited Cape Girardeau I had just been accepted to the program and was visiting the university and took a quick jaunt around town. The next time I visited Cape I was moving here. I had, of course, done some research before hand about the towns history and demos and what there was to do and where the nature things and museums were because I would do that anywhere I went. I like the size of the town, that it is a Mississippi River town with a good amount of history and that Mark Twain noticed it. Once I was really here I loved that it was very family friendly, had a downtown with some character and that the people that I interacted with were extremely friendly and helpful.

I am looking forward to continuing the fine tuning of my HP knowledge and getting to know our Anthropological side too. Research is probably my weak point so I am excited to delve deeper into this with Dr. Lily Santoro. And with Dr. Steven Hoffman I am excited to learn more about the National Register qualifications and to put that into action. Also, I would like to visit the anthropologists to see what projects they are working on.