Guest Contributor Biographies—Sarah Conn

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 (14 September 2012)—The New Yorker: Bobbie Ann Mason, "Shiloh"

Two years ago on Round and Square (14 September 2011)—Seinfeld Ethnography: Elaine Flies Coach

[a] Japan RF

If I was speaking to you face-to-face, there would be a brief horrifying pause where I would relive my entire life and try to decide what was pertinent to tell you about myself before smiling and taking your hand. However this is the internet and, fortunately for me, I have time to consider what exactly you’d all like to know about me. 

So, hi! I’m Sarah Conn and I’m a recent graduate from Beloit College with a major in Japanese Language and Culture and a double minor in Museum Studies and Anthropology.

[b] Sarah SC

I have a severe addiction to books, cats, and libraries, with a minor obsession over kimono and the works of Hayao Miyazaki. I also have an extreme fondness for Cetaceans and the family Pinnipedia, a.k.a. whales, dolphins, porpoises (Cetaceans) and seals, sea lions, and walruses (Pinnipedia). This is due to my internship this summer, working on San Juan Island at The Whale Museum. This is the part where I draw you nearer to show you all the photos on my phone of them.  Working on an island, I have a lot of them.

About fifteen minutes later, after a whirlwind of education about Southern Resident Killer Whales and why you should never eat any type of Chinook or King Salmon (in short: they’re endangered, this population of whales are endangered, and these whales only eat Chinook Salmon, SAVE THE WHALES) and a brief discussion of the politics of male sea lions, I finally start to talk about me.

It all started on September 5, 1991 at 5:30pm, with my wonderful mother who was rapidly losing her patience because she had originally been scheduled for a 10am C-section. Of course that was before the three sets of twins decided that they just had to be born...

[c] Moonlight and Midnight SC

…I joke, I joke.

I hail from rural Wisconsin…more specifically I hail from a farm. I love teaching and hope to work in education in a museum after this internship ends. Well, either that or returning to Japan to teach English. Yeah...my future's kinda uncertain. But whatever I end up doing, I want to teach. It's what I've always wanted to do. 

In my spare time, I also sketch, take photographs, and go on the occasional baking spree. I also collect kimono and sew stuffed animals by hand. A sweater aficionado, you will often find me curled up on a couch drinking a cup of tea and paying rapt attention to my laptop. I am incomplete without some sort of fluffy animal (be it cat, corgi, or stuffed sea lion) in random orbit around me.

So what am I doing at the Doylestown Historical Society? Well, as part of the digitizing team I am here to digitize the archive. I also want to do some research and a special project, but I'm not sure of what yet... 

So yeah, I'm your go-to gal if you want cookies, stuffed animals, or kimono. Thank you for reading my introduction and please check out my future posts! 

[d] Sarah and her host sister SC