interesting thesis: Khachemoune

their edges. She says the research feels “really real” when she holds the fragments.

“Through this tactile process, I’m seeing these animals and these people’s stories in the past,” she says, walking around a slightly cluttered array of lab equipment and storage bins. “It’s sort of like eavesdropping, investigating, observing.”

Khachemoune’s motivation to work on a thesis for years, even when progress is slow, comes from loving the science, loving the lab work, and working with her hands. She encourages future thesis writers to establish their own workflow — even if it means defying a deadline set by an adviser or doing some parts of the project out of order.

She also leans on the broader archeology community — she says hierarchies between graduate and undergraduate students dissipate in the genuinely collegial department. Best of all, she says, her mentors ensure that work from students like her who “aren’t even going to be archaeologists” is taken as seriously as that of students who want to go into the field. Even though she hopes to go to medical school, Khachemoune says she wants to use scientific archeology to try to “connect the smaller details of chemistry to the overall human journey.”

IO Y. GILMAN