Student Profile - Sara Rutman

Indiana Jones may have been better at fighting bad guys than he was at being at archaeologist, but it was his archaeological skill, such as it was, that fascinated Sara Rutman as a young girl and inspired her to think that one day she might pursue a career in archaeology and history.

Rutman graduated from Hillyer in January of 2007 and is now a student at the University of Hartford’s College of Arts and Sciences with a dual major in Judaic Studies and Ancient and Near East History. She has participated in study trips to Israel, Spain, Peru, and Mexico and has sifted through a fair amount of soil searching for pottery shards and coins.

Rutman, who plans to continue studying archeology in graduate school, often uses photography to capture the cultural and historical findings she observes on her trips. “I think of my pictures as less of an artistic statement and more of an effort to document or map the artifacts, excavations, and way of life I see around me,” she says.

She may think of her pictures as being more documentation than art, but the University’s Hartford Art School chose Rutman’s photographs for their artistic merit, along with the work of three other students, to be part of a photography exhibition called Sanctuaries: From Asia to the Americas. The exhibition was featured at the Art School’s Silpe Gallery this fall. In the exhibit, Rutman’s vivid pictures of Mayan priests, native relics, and the lush green land of Machu Picchu provide evidence that she will most likely bring an artistic as well as historic and scientific perspective to the research she pursues as an archaeologist.