Guest Contributor Biographies—Amara Pugens

Click here for the introduction to Round and Square's "Guest Contributor" series (coming soon)
Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square Series "From the Geil Archive"
To learn more about Geil, click here for the Accidental Ethnographer Resource Center
A year ago on Round and Square (13 September 2012)—The New Yorker: Garrison Keillor: "Don..."

Two years ago on Round and Square (13 September 2011)—Styling Culture: Text and Spacing

[a] Top of Eaton Chapel AP

My name is Amara Pugens, and for as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be a spy.  Sending coded messages, hunting down a suspect, and gaining top secret information all seemed extremely exciting.  Finally at fourteen, I thought the profession maybe a bit fantastical, so I chose a more practical career: a secret private detective.  I just loved the idea of sleuthing, uncovering and discovering the lost, hidden or forgotten.  At 16, my class had to take an aptitude test for the "best career path" and write about two different professions.  I hoped and hoped and hoped I'd get detective on the test,  and I ended up with... archivist.  

[b] RUN AP

I cannot express the amount of disappointment I felt; not only was I apparently not cut out to be a detective, but I also got a super boring profession.  What did an archivist even do?  Taking my frustrations, I conducted my research and wrote my paper comparing my dream job with my practical one.  And you know what?  I discovered being an archivist was quite similar to being a spy.  Both professions search for clues and piece together information to find the truth.

I decided to study at Beloit College, in Beloit, Wisconsin, because of the school's museum studies minor--a study closely related to archival studies.  In May 2013, I received a BA in history and anthropology with a minor in museum studies.  While my academic history is a little bit of mouthful, the intersection of all three studies is where my interests lie.  Although a little piece of me still wants to be a spy, I hope to work as an archivist at a museum.

I am currently working in Pennsylvania at the Doylestown Historical Society processing and digitizing their William Edgar Geil Collection, though I have worked in other archives as well.  Born and raised as a Wisconsinite, I interned at the Milwaukee County Historical Society Research Library, inputting data, and at the Milwaukee Public Museum, creating an inventory and finding aid for the Native American Resource File.  I also worked at the Beloit College Archives for three years, where my archival skills and experiences developed working with Beloit's legendary archivist, Fred Burwell.

Here in Doylestown, I am applying my interest in spying and gathering information to William Edgar Geil. I have a lot of questions. Who was he?  What was his character?  With this archive, I am trying to piece together the puzzle of Geil using his personal papers as clues into his life.

[c] Mysterious AP