Where I’ve Slept

A postdoc is a temporary academic position in which a PhD in the sciences does further research and hones new skills, working under a mentor but exerting more independence; it is a time of flux and indeterminate standing, when one is no longer a student, but is not yet a professor. During my postdoc, I primarily lived on one coast, while working for a university on the other coast, and doing fieldwork on another continent. This added yet another layer of intermediacy to my life during this time and required a commitment both to frequently traveling and to scrambling for places to live temporarily when I spent time working at my university and abroad. 

I have documented here all the places that I slept during my postdoctoral tenure, ranging from ratty grad student couches to guest rooms in emeritus professors' houses, from inflatable mattresses to mid-range hotel rooms. I have shown in each photo the exact state in which a living option was preserved for and presented to me, capturing the silent discourse between the generous host (who was most often already gone) and the itinerant guest, and the moment of transition when a site turned from someone's couch or room into my temporary home.  

While hosts at different stages in their lives prepared for their guest in predictably different ways, all were exceedingly generous in allowing me to stay for free or barter (most often in the form of pet care). This series thus captures the range of lifestyles along the course of academia (nearly all the accommodations were provided by other academics), and represents the state of indeterminate flux that characterizes the postdoctoral experience.