EDWARD CLEOFE
EDUCATION
PhD, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Expected 2025
Interdepartmental Program in Archaeology
Dissertation: The Archaeology of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary (Bombon, Camarines Sur, Philippines): Continuities & Changes in the (After)Lives of the Dead in the Early Modern Central Philippines (Proposal)
Advisor: Stephen Acabado, PhD
RESEARCH & TEACHING
2022 - Present
Bicol Archaeological Project
Research Associate (2022 - Present)
Human Osteology Lab Instructor (2022)
2022
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
Teaching Assistant: ARCHEOL30: Science in Archaeology (2022)
2021
UCLA Department of Anthropology
Teaching Assistant: ANTHRO2: Archaeology: Introduction (2021)
Reader: ANTHRO118Q: Conquest & Colonialism (2021)
2015 - 2021
Ifugao Archaeological Project (NSF REU Award 1460665)
Research Associate (2019 - 2021)
Writer (2016 - 2019)
Research Assistant (2015)
2014 - 2015
Brown University Department of Anthropology
Senior Teaching Assistant, ANTH 1720: The Human Skeleton (2015)
Teaching Assistant, ANTH 1720: The Human Skeleton (2014)
2013 - 2015
Trade Relations in Northwest Alaska (NSF Award 0908462)
Circumpolar Lab Assistant (2014 - 2015)
Research Assistant (2013)
MEDIA & PUBLICATIONS
In press
Death & Remembrance: Living/Dead Interactions in Old Kiyyangan Household Necroscapes
Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society
2021
The Role of OST (Out of School Time) Intermediaries in Contributing to Equitable Learning and Development Ecosystems
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
January 2022
How to Describe your Research & Graduate Work to Employers for Humanities and Social Sciences Graduate
Students & Postdocs
UCLA Career Center
October 2021
How to Maximize Your Time at UCLA: Accomplish your career goals and personal goals while in graduate
school or in a postdoc
UCLA Career Center
April 2021
UCLA Career Center & Cotsen Institute Graduate Student Association of Archaeology
February 2021
Tell us a Bit About Yourself: Explaining your PhD Experience to the Rest of the World
UCLA Career Center
August 2015
Ifugao Archaeological Project End-of-Field Presentations
National Museum of the Philippines
December 2014
The Talking Dead: Integrating Bioarchaeology into the Think Like an Archaeologist Porgram
Community Archaeology Day
AWARDS, GRANTS,& FELLOWSHIPS
June 2021
Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Program ($6,000)
UCLA Graduate Division
September 2020
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship ($33,000)
June 2020
Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Program ($6,000)
UCLA Graduate Division
April 2020
Taiwan Studies Lectureship ($2,500)
UCLA Asia Pacific Center
May 2015
Highest Achievement in Archaeology
Brown University Department of Anthropology
May 2015
Advanced Archaeology Student Paper Prize
May 2014
Summer Support Grant
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
January 2014
Anthropology Research Apprenticeship ($750)
Brown University Department of Anthropology
PROFESSIONAL ROLES & EXPERIENCE
August 2022 - Present
Assistant Director, Masters Students
UCLA Career Center
October 2020 - July 2022
Social Sciences & Humanities Graduate Career Consultant
UCLA Career Center
September 2020 - March 2021
Lunch Speakers Series Program Coordinator
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
September 2016 - October 2019
Communications & Database Coordinator
Youth Development Executives of King County
August 2015 - June 2016
Senior College Access Program Associate
College Access Now (now College Possible Washington)
September 2011 - May 2015
Student of Color Recruitment Intern & Admitted Students Day Coordinator
Brown University Office of College Admissions
ABOUT
I'm a PhD candidate at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, and my research explores indigenous responses to Spanish colonialism in the early modern Philippines. My dissertation project examines changes in funerary practices, grave goods, and skeletal biology in a cemetery used for over 500 years in the Bicol region of the Philippines.
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More broadly, my archaeological work involves qualitative research (interviews, focus groups, and informant feedback) and collaboration with modern, descendant communities to identify the most impactful ways to tell stories about the past.
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I'm also the Assistant Director, Masters Students at UCLA's Career Center, where I lead the analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of programming and resources designed to address the unique needs and strengths of UCLA's 7000+ master's students. As a career coach, I love using my social scientific training to help clients assess, focus, and align their professional goals and values.
When I'm not digging things up, squinting at old documents, meeting with clients, or tinkering with spreadsheets, you can find me knitting, tending to freshwater fish, attempting side splits, trying to keep my ever-growing collection of tropical plants alive, or watching comfort food TV with Paco, my bulldog mix.