Jessica Einhorn

Anthropology

I grew up in the bay area in Concord, California. Early on,people could see I had a strong interest in the past. I was able to name numerous dinosaurs by age seven. I also pretended that I was an archaeologist, carefully uncovering rocks in my sand box that were buried. In high school, I began taking Anthropology courses at the local community college. With a trip to Spain at 16, my interest in cultural differences began. I realized that Concord was a diverse ethnic pocket. I worked through high school as a file clerk, and instead of putting my savings towards college, I decided instead to backpack through Europe alone for one year. During this exploration through Europe, I saw paintings I had seen in books, left flowers at Jim Morrison’s grave, worked as a roof layer in southern France, cried at Auschwitz, skied in Norway, and ended the trip studying art history and Italian culture for another four months in Florence. Being away from the United States reinforced my interest in culture and photography, teaching me much about myself and more about my country.

Upon returning home, I worked as a studio photographer and found myself at the local community college. Restless, I spent the next summer working in a salmon cannery in Togiak, Alaska. Then I began college at California State University, Sacramento where I graduated with a triple major in Anthropology, Photography, and Journalism three years later.

Through college I worked in various jobs that included a docent at a California history museum and as a HIV/AIDS health educator. After field school and falling in love with the desert, I pursued numerous archaeology related jobs in labs and in the field that sent me around California and the Great Basin. For grad school I searched for a program that would combine my interests of Archaeology and Visual Anthropology. I received my Masters of Art degree in Visual Anthropology from the University of Kent in England.

From England I moved to Lake Tahoe to complete an AmeriCorps service with the Tahoe Rim Trail and work as an Archaeologist for the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. This survey work was incredibly rich and amazing. I tripped over sites day after day, again inspiring my spirit. Between jobs, I made time to travel to Thailand to see the monkeys and temples, to Jamaica to eat ox tail and go snorkeling, and to Peru to hike the four day trek on the Inca Trail through the mountains to Macchu Piccu. I presented papers at conferences in Oregon, Nevada, and California that included what visual anthropologists can contribute to museum studies and probability management in archaeology. I was fortunate enough to begin teaching Anthropology at the local community college in South Lake Tahoe.  During this time I discovered my passion for teaching.

I moved to downtown Sacramento to reconnect with old friends and the independent arts scene. I worked part time as an Assistant State Archaeologist for California State Parks and taught Anthropology at Sierra College, Folsom Lake College, Sacramento City College, and California State University, Sacramento.  I also took classes in Anthropology at UCD and worked on a Community College Teaching Certificate at CSUS.  My hobbies include making blackberry pies from scratch, hiking in remote locations, traveling to distant lands, dancing to live “Indie” music, and reading, writing, and studying Anthropology. In 2007 I was hired at Canada College as a full time instructor of Anthropology. I feel fortunate to make this my home, and look forward to a life focused on teaching in which I’ll never stop learning myself.