New archaeology alumnus pursues research in zooarchaeology, sets sight on master’s degree

New alumnus Julian Groll did not always know he wanted to be an archaeologist. Before coming to SFU, the archaeology graduate attended film school and worked in the industry for two years until he decided to return to school to find a new career path.

He enrolled at Douglas College, where he took courses in anthropology as well as archaeology. The latter subject quickly piqued his interest and Groll immediately took the initiative to approach his instructor about projects he could get involved with outside of class.

As a result, in 2021 he started working on the Lil’Wat Ancestral Village Project as part of a team strengthening land claims by determining the early dates of pit house sites — a project he continues to work on today.

“It’s really important work, and this will be my third year going out [to excavate] this summer,” Groll says.

After transferring to SFU’s archaeology program, Groll continued to seek out opportunities for himself rather than wait for them to come to him. Keenly interested in environmental archaeology, particularly zooarchaeology, he approached his professor, Christina Giovas, to volunteer in the zooarchaeology lab in the spring of 2023.

Since then, Groll has also done field work abroad with Giovas on the Curaçao Cultural Landscape Project and, in addition to his honours thesis project with professor Mike Richards, completed a project under her supervision assessing the viability of marine turtle bone as a material for accurate radiocarbon dating.

He presented the project at the annual Undergraduate Student Research Symposium last spring.

“I actually wasn’t going to do the symposium, but I was pushed by friends to do it — and I’m glad that they did,” says Groll, who delivered his presentation with friends and Giovas there to support him. “Having my friends and my supervisor there was huge.”

As his first experience presenting at a conference, it was great practice to help him prepare for his master’s, which Groll will also be completing at SFU beginning in 2025.

It was also a good warm-up for the immediate future; Groll takes the stage at his convocation ceremony this week to speak to his fellow new alumni, delivering a speech that will touch on something important he has learned since his first year:

“I’m the kind of person with the mentality that if you do something hard, you can do something harder…and I think that’s great to have — to a point,” he says, sharing how he used to struggle with letting his academic ambitions eclipse other priorities in his personal life. “Part of my speech is about finding balance, finding activities to refill your cup.”

Doing just that, Groll is taking a year off school to work and recharge. He is also returning to Curaçao for field work again next October, aiming to get as much experience as he can before he begins his graduate program.