Hello!
My name is Anna Shapovalova. I am a Master’s student pursuing a degree in Medieval Studies, and I hope to share my most interesting findings with you on this site.
I grew up in Moscow, Russia, and moved to California in 2012. I received my Bachelor’s degrees in Biology and Medieval Studies from St. Olaf College, Minnesota, and I am now pursuing my Master’s degree in Medieval Studies at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. My studies have permitted me to partake in archaeological excavations in Turkey and Greece, research Byzantine structures in the Holy Land, and explore modern attitudes towards historic sites and their preservation in various European countries.
A major aim of my work in general, and this site in particular, is to make history more understandable and enjoyable to “regular” people, not just the academics. We need to know history to understand the world around us. History is not cyclical, and no situation ever fully repeats itself, but the same processes rule our world all throughout, causing similar situations and similar human responses to reproduce themselves. This linearity of time allows us to break out of our past mistakes, if not as the human race, then at least within ourselves and our own mindset. In explaining the past I wish to avoid “dumbing it down”. Oversimplification easily leads to misrepresentation of history, not to mention that it blanches the narrative of its intriguing details. Even though I believe in objective truths, I do not believe that the world is starkly black and white. It is important for me in my research to see various viewpoints, to acknowledge the wrongs done by all sides, and to see the great beauty found persisting all throughout even the darkest of times. One of my greatest objectives is to help people see such complexities and learn how to deal with them.
Even though I mostly talk about history on this site, I have a deep love for nature and am an avid hiker. I enjoy spending time in the Sierra Nevada mountains and would love to have more backpacking buddies. As part of my Biology degree, I have partaken in bird banding, and have done more microscopic work on single-cellular Tetrahymena. My background in Biology also lends into my more humanitarian work, as I have worked with identifying and cataloging both animal and human remains found at archaeological sites.
If my publications prompt you to any comments or questions, if you would like to suggest new topics or formats for me to cover, or if you would like to propose a collaboration, please contact me at info.wandersthroughtime@gmail.com.