Hallo (Hello)! I'm Jesse Lawless, and I'm from Hermantown, Minnesota. Growing up, I always loved the shores of Lake Superior, and I used to work at a restaurant in Duluth that was right on the canal! For college, I moved to New Haven, Connecticut to study history and education at Yale University. Yale was very different from my hometown, but I stayed connected by focusing on labor history. I wrote a thesis during my senior year that studied the racial integration of a maritime union in California in the 1930s, and I also started an oral history project for the teachers' union in New Haven. I learned so much from meeting so many different people, and I knew that I wanted to make my studies as broad as possible.
After I graduated, I started reading about historical archaeology. I loved it because, by using archaeology, we can understand the lives of people who aren't represented very well in the written record. Over the summer, I had the opportunity to work on excavations at James Madison's plantation in Virginia. With our excavations, we were able to learn more about the structure of the plantation and the everyday lives of the people that the Madison family enslaved. It was hard and rewarding work, and I knew that I wanted to continue studying archaeology. This year, I was very lucky to receive a Fulbright grant to study in Germany! Now, I live in Tübingen (Too-bing-en), Germany, as I start my Masters' degree in Archaeology.
Want to learn how you could be a Fulbright Scholar like me? The Fulbright Program is the United States government's flagship international exchange program. Fulbrighters foster mutual understanding between the United States and partner nations, share knowledge across communities, and improve lives around the world. Learn more by clicking here!
