Barbara J Hickman, Staff Archeologist
Archeological Studies Program
Environmental Affairs Division
Texas Department of Transportation
125 East 11th Street
Austin TX 78701
Telephone: 512.416.2637
Fax: 512.416.2680
 

 
>>> On 14 November, 2011 at 10:50 AM, in message <[log in to unmask]>, Jodi <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I am the Social Media Liaison for the Gender and Minority Affairs Committee
(GMAC) of the Society for Historical Archaeology. SHA plans on creating a
blog that will go live in January 2012. Each committee is being asked to
provide content for that blog. In order to make our content as meaningful
and relevant as possible to SHA members and the archaeological community,
we are looking for feedback from you. We want to learn about the history of
the Gender and Minority Affairs Committee and SHA members involvement in
the committee.  We have provided a few questions for that might provide us
with relevant blog topics for future posts. Please answer the questions
below as you feel comfortable doing so and as they pertain to your
experience in the profession of archaeology in general or SHA GMAC more
specifically. You can send all responses to me at [log in to unmask] If you do
not feel comfortable answering a question or you do not feel that it is
relevant to your experiences, please feel free to skip it. If you would
like us to refrain from disclosing your identity on the blog, we will be
more than willing to do so, just state that in your response email. The
survey questions are as follows:

What is your current position?  Staff Archeologist

What is your gender/ethnic/ability information (if you would like to
disclose)?    Female/White/Able (as opposed to handicapped?)

What has been your role played in the Gender and Minority Affairs Committee
in the past or currently?   None

What has SHA accomplished in terms of diversity/gender and minority affairs
issues?  I have no knowledge that SHA has accomplished anything in terms of gender issues, but the society seems to have made a concerted effort to become more inclusive ethnically in the past two decades.

What has the field of archaeology accomplished in terms of diversity/gender
and minority affairs issues?  Archeology went through a period of interest during the 1990s trying to interpret female presence in the archeological record, but it passed rather quickly. More lasting work has been achieved in analyzing ethnicity and the other in archeological studies.
 
What do you think still needs to be done?  I started my professional life in the 1970s along with the beginnings of contract archeology. In 1969 when I entered college, I was told that women weren't allowed to go out on field crews because small town people wouldn't accept single men and women living together in crew houses. [By 1976, however, people just thought we were hippies.] Before the 1960s-1970s women were rare in fieldwork, or at least unacknowledged. I felt then that women were just starting to become a significant presence in the field literally and figuratively. In the last 40 years women have seemingly formed the majority of degree-bearing archeologists, but women are still not the majority of those running field programs. We probably all know why the structure of authority has remained stable, but shouldn't we have effected more change in the direction of archeology? 

What are your research interests (past and/or current)? Historical archeology, ethnography, and history of the American west: emigrants, American Indians, exploration, transportation
 

Please circulate this email to anyone of interest.

I want to thank you in advance for taking the time to participate in this
project. It will be very valuable in helping us ensure that our blog topics
are relevant to members of the archaeological community. Again, if you
would like for your identity not to be disclosed please be sure to mention
that in your response email. If there is anything else that you would like
to add that may not have been included in your responses to the questions
above, but that you feel would be of benefit to our blog, please feel free
to include that in your email response as well.

Thanks again,
-- 
Barbara A. Hines, M.A., RPA
Outreach Coordinator ~ North Central Region
Florida Public Archaeology Network
www.flpublicarchaeology.org
twitter.com/FPANNrthCentral
https://www.facebook.com/#!/FPANnorthcentral
[log in to unmask]
850.877.2206

-- 
Jodi Barnes, Ph.D.

Staff Archaeologist/GIS Coordinator

State Historic Preservation Office
8301 Parklane Road
Columbia, SC 29223-4905

803-896-6181

[log in to unmask]

==========================
Texas Transportation Forum
For more information on registration and program details visit
www.texastransportationforum.com