Archaeology Program Alumni participating in the SHA Conference
Boston University Archaeology Program Alumni participating in the SHA Conference. #SHA2024
SHA 2024 Conference on
Historical and Underwater Archaeology
Portals to the Past – Gateways to the Future
Oakland, California | January 3-6, 2024
https://www.conftool.com/sha2024/sessions.php
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FOR-142: Opening the Gateway: Where Archaeology Meets Social Justice
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| Session Abstract | ||
| The COVID-19 Pandemic and the murder of George Floyd in 2020 set the stage for a revolution in archaeology that has not yet fully come to fruition. While there is a critical mass of archaeologists on the ground preparing the discipline for future generations, there are many others who are resistant to the change that needs to happen. As the United States prepares for the 2024 Presidential Election, a perfect storm is brewing once more. Will archaeologists be ready? What will it take to bring archaeology fully into the 21st century with respect to social justice, inclusion, and equity. This forum serves as an invitation for archaeologists to join the movement of those working to dismantle bias, discrimination, and oppression in all its forms | ||
| Panelist(s): Alexandra C Jones (Archaeology in the Community), Meghan Dudley (University of Oklahoma), Jennifer Lupu (Northwestern University), Laura Heath-Stout (Stanford Archaeology Center, Stanford University), Suzanne Spencer-Wood (Oakland University), Flordeliz Bugarin (Howard University) | ||
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FOR-363: It’s All Native Land: Incorporating Native Communities in “Non-Native” Community-Based Archaeology
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| Panelist(s): Bonnie Clark (University of Denver), Nathan Acebo (University of Connecticut), Katrina Eichner (University of Idaho), Heather Law Pezzarossi (Syracuse University), Jeanne Lopiporo (Rhodes College)
Historical archaeologies use the concept of the historical “palimpsest,” the layering of multiple histories on sites over time. However, we often don’t acknowledge that every site is on Native Land. What strategies have historical archaeologists developed for engaging Native communities at sites that primarily narrate non-native histories? Does a community-based approach encourage or discourage acknowledgment of multiple histories in shared places or landscapes? How can archaeologists participate in relationship-building across multiple sites and descendant communities? This panel addresses these questions through the experience of archaeologists engaging multiple communities, whether nascent coalitions or long-term engagements. It uses an interactive format in which panelists and the audience discuss together and with the session as a whole. We hope panelists and attendees will learn from each other’s successes and failures at drawing together previously unconnected communities and histories through shared landscapes and sites. |
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RL-6: Archaeology for Public Consumption: Writing for Audiences Beyond the Discipline
Host: Krysta Ryzewski, Wayne State University |
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| Session Abstract | ||
| Writing about archaeology for non-specialist audiences is not a skill that comes easily for many professionals, especially those among us who were trained to write in academese – the detached language of scientific, objective, and third-person reporting. Yet effective public writing can have an outsized impact on the public and the profession in its capacity to build constituencies to support archaeological causes and to facilitate dialogues about the historical legacies our work engages (e.g., inequality, racism, environmental stress, etc.). Join Krysta Ryzewski (recipient of the 2023 James Deetz Book Award) for a casual discussion about the opportunities and challenges that writing for non-specialist audiences pose. We will discuss writing strategies for various public outlets – from op-ed pieces and blogs to monographs and magazines. We will also share advice for communicating about archaeology accessibly and inclusively with different target audiences. Attendees are not required to have prior experience writing for the public. |
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GEN-T-007: Sex & Death
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| 10:45am – 11:00am
Another Racket on Pine Street: Negotiating Hostility in the Central City, Colorado Sex District Jade W. Luiz Metropolitan State University of Denver, United States of America Sex work in the American west held a precarious position during expansion and as urban centers sought to establish themselves as legitimate cultural and economic centers in the nation at large. The relationship of the sex district in Central City, Colorado and its residents to their neighbors was no exception. Preliminary research into the sex district in Central City and the material culture recovered during the 2023 field school excavation suggests a disconnect; while the brothel sites might have been viewed as opulent respites for the surrounding miners and businessmen, the often-violent resistance of Central City residents to the presence of the sex district is also evidenced in the historical and archaeological record. |
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SYM-151B: Co-Producing Space: Relational Approaches to Agrarian Landscapes, Labor, Commodities, and Communities
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| Session Abstract | ||
| This session brings together scholars working at the intersection of landscape, food, and labor studies within historical archaeology. We will explore the following questions: what kinds of labor and knowledge go into producing agricultural landscapes that become recognizable as such?; in what historical circumstances do plants become commodities?; how do different forms of labor (enslaved, free, indentured, migratory) and knowledges (African, Indigenous, European, American) work together to produce agricultural landscapes with their associated infrastructures, be they plantations, farms, gardens, or other sites of organized crop production? We conceptualize producers, products, and places of production as mutually constitutive: taking inspiration from Anna Tsing (2011, 2015) and Sarah Besky (2013), among others, we propose a multispecies approach to the study of taskscapes, recognizing that the life of a given plant shapes both landscapes and the everyday lives of laborers, allowing us to think relationally and agentically about landscapes, plants, and people. |