We are organizing a session for the 2018 SHA conference in New Orleans on the topic of sensory engagement in archaeological practice and interpretation. If you are interested in contributing, please send abstracts to [log in to unmask] by June 26.



Sensory Engagement in Historical Archaeology 
Session Chairs: Mary C. Beaudry and Karen Metheny, Boston University

 
In this session, we explore sensory approaches in historicalarchaeology. What methods and approaches afford historical archaeologistsinsight into sensory experience in the past? What are the outcomes of archaeologicalengagement with the senses? Submissions can be wide-ranging in content, from studiesthat examine differentforms of work (fishing, factory work, domestic labor, or prostitution, forexample), to travel and movement, confinement and immobility, archaeoacoustics,or gastronomical archaeology, to studies of the impact of light or scent on theenvironment, to research methods that promote sensory engagement and study. We welcome contributions that examine the interconnection ofthe senses and changing identity among immigrant or ethnic groups, or within industrialor urban communities. Papers that explore the relationship between humanactivities, the senses, and the formation of identities based on gender, class,work, race, or imagined communities are also welcome, as are contributions thatare explicitly theoretical in content.
 
The last portion of the session (15-20 minutes) will feature aninteractive panel and discussion of the ways in which sensorial approaches enrichour archaeological interpretations of historical lives and interactions.







Karen Metheny, Ph.D
Interim Faculty Coordinator and Lecturer, MLA in Gastronomy Program, Metropolitan College
Visiting Researcher, Department of Archaeology
Boston University
808 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
tel. 617-358-6291
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