In the spirit of the New Year (and because I'm procrastinating from real work and real deadlines) I thought I'd redo this entire profile.
I've been living in western PA for over a year now and can see both the good (proximity to family) and the bad (fewer socially liberal secular humanist types than I expected, less diversity of people and experience) of living here. I'm constantly debating whether to move closer to Pittsburgh, which does have many of things that rural PA lacks, but that would take me further from family in Ohio and of course further from work at the university, where I teach archaeology and anthropology. It's been an interesting transition, after having lived nearly 10 years in Seattle, and then a year in Montreal. My home away from home is Istanbul, the home of my mother's family. I try to spend about 3-4 months there a year. It's an amazing place.
My work in academics is a big part of who I am. I enjoy teaching and my research and the opportunities it gives me to travel. Most of my research is now in the Middle East, but I have worked in Europe, in both Italy and Germany (best project ever) and am trying to start a few new projects in Central Asia. Why be an archaeologist if you can't see the world and experience its richness, right?
I don't know exactly how I'd describe myself, but I can say that the things I find to be most attractive in a potential partner are a progressive view of the world and its people, a genuine confidence and pride in self, competence and skill in something loved, and kindness and intelligence without hubris. When you add physical chemistry to that, things become perfect. I've been fortunate to date some wonderful women, but my constant movement from place to place, particularly after grad school, kept things from really developing.
Having said all that, there are only really two deal-breakers for me, and they involve the most core parts of an individual's worldview: religion and politics. I reference here again the idea of secular humanism. I am not a religious person and often identify as atheist. I try not to judge the beliefs of others, but if religious ideology is a central part of your identity or significantly guides your decision-making process, then we're probably not a good match. I am in no way against religion or faith or belief; I understand that it can be an important part of a healthy life, I just question the use of *ideology* as a guiding principle. I've learned this the hard way.I've learned this the hard way. As for politics, I am liberal, particularly as that applies to social beliefs. I'm okay with some aspects of economic conservatism, but not at all with social conservatism. Let's just say that if you voted for Romeny or sympathize with the Tea Party that it's probably not going to work out.
Thanks for reading.
