About

Here are a couple ways to learn about who I am and what I do. First, some narrative. Then, a couple short bios that can be adapted for use elsewhere.

Academic Foci

Although I have a variety of interests, I focus on three main research topics:

  1. Pop culture and archaeology/anthropology
  2. Children’s landscapes in the past
  3. Data literacy-focused pedagogy within archaeology/anthropology

But that shouldn’t stay there

I don’t limit where I share my research to academic platforms. That’s because if research remains within academia exclusively it’s not helpful. Also academia, in the politest of terms, is problematic. Therefore, I write about pop culture, generally and with an archaeological or anthropological focus, at WWAC as well as having published on the topic over at Epoiesen. I hope to write more after WWAC comes back from hiatus. In the meantime, you can catch me discussing comics and archaeology at the 10th World Archaeological Congress on 26 June 2025 (Darwin, Australia time).

Besides publicly accessible articles, in 2016-2018, I moderated panels bringing an anthropological and academic perspective to pop culture conventions. I then brought this idea as a kind of outreach back to academic conferences. I hope to do more of these in the future as my time frees up now that the dissertation is done. In the meantime though, I’ve appeared on the Asians Represent Podcast, Curiosity in Focus, and the Archaeological Fantasies podcast talking about my work and what archaeology can bring to worldbuilding in fiction. 

I’m also a Shodan (or first degree black belt) in aikido and a board member of Storytellers of New Mexico. I hope to put more of the creative work I do online in the future but for now, I’ll link to things that already exist.

Academic Bio (third person)

Paulina F. Przystupa is a Filipine-Polish-Canadian-American a settler in North America and holds an MA (2014) and PhD (2025) from the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, USA. Paulina began studying archaeology at the University of Washington (Seattle, WA, USA) where Paulina earned a BA (2012) majoring in History and Anthropology. Paulina is a historical landscape archaeologist who focuses on the interaction between learning culture and the way that humans structure their physical world. Specifically, Paulina’s dissertation examines the built environment of children’s institutions in the United States between 1865 and 1935. Currently, Paulina is the Postdoctoral Researcher in Archaeological Data Literacy at the Alexandria Archives Institute and has been part of the Data Literacy Program since late 2020. 

Beyond academic work, Paulina has worked in cultural resource management in both Australia and the United States as a field technician, assistant cartographer, and lab technician. Paulina also writes about and reviews comics, movies, and shows at WWAC and moderated panels at popular culture conventions bringing an anthropological and academic perspective to popular media.

Public Bio (first person)

I’m Paulina F. Przystupa, a Filipine-Polish-American-Canadian settler in North America and Phd-holding archaeologist who explores how people learn about the past, how people learned historically, and how the built environment factors into learning. I’m also a post doc at the Alexandria Archive Institute, where I create open educational resources for archaeology. I also do aikido, tell and perform stories in my local community, write about pop culture, moderate panels at pop culture conventions, and occasionally appear on podcasts.