Hello all,

Please forgive the annoying but necessary cross-postings of this message! I am putting together a session for the upcoming Society for Applied Anthropology meetings, to be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from April 5-10, 2005 (see www.sfaa.net). The session will focus on the topic of activist archaeology. The main orientation of the session is, at present, towards archaeologists, but, in the multi-disciplinary spirit of SfAA, it will be also be open to anthropologists, sociologists, folklorists, public historians, and geographers - and tourism, heritage, environmental, and museum people as well. Here is the proposed abstract, followed by some notes that I can't include in the abstract because of length requirements:
 

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Progressive perspectives for an activist archaeology

                

This roundtable will explore whether "activist archaeology" (and other social scholarship) can provide pathways to social justice. Progressively-minded scholars readily claim opposition to racism, classism, sexism, and other forms of bias and intolerance. Yet many of us do not actively connect our research to contemporary social and political struggle - nor do we take direct, vigorous action with regard to specific social goals. Do the realities of marketplace, funders, clients, media, tourists and politics prevent us from action? Should we look to other discourses for better tools, strategies and language? This session will take a reflexive, critical look at the realities of being an activist social scholar.

 

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Here are some notes which may clarify the short abstract above.

 

1. The session format will allow for considerable discussion amongst the group, and with the audience as well. It will be listed as a "roundtable" in the schedule, but each participant will have time to present a short paper and the participate in larger group discussion. The usual pre-registration, abstracts, etc. will be required.

 

2. The session isn't aimed at "should" type presentations - the "taken for granted" here (and this will be discussed in the session introduction, to make the position clear to audience participants) is that session participants already buy into the general idea that we should be, as Cornel West put it, "critical organic catalysts". That is, even though we as individuals may use our own research to satisfy us intellectually, we also believe that we should relate those ideas to "collective praxis", by engaging actively in the larger social and political present. So "calls to action" aren't necessary from session participants - the session will take that position for granted. Instead, we hope to have a conversation about how to deal with this type of engagement on the ground, in different political and social contexts.

 

3. This session is not the place for case studies which (just) celebrate the warm fuzziness of doing publicly oriented archaeology. We should share both successes and failures.but nice pics of kids doing archaeology aren't the main point here, and I hope that all of the presentations will take more critical, reflexive voice than is frequently the case in "public archaeology" sessions. Doing "activist archaeology" - or anthropology, or history, or whatever - is hard. It's messy, sometimes painful, and frequently practitioners have to work within and for organizations that do not share all of our ideals. How do we do this? What do we do when our good intentions are derailed by political and marketplace pressures? What do we do when we want to ally ourselves with people or groups who disagree with those for whom we work? How do we get funding for our projects when the funders themselves shy away from "progressive" issues? Can we have it both ways? Put in crass economic terms, how can we be activist progressive archaeologists and still do the work, especially in a larger political environment which, at present, frowns on overt liberalism? The session is aimed at discussing strategies and ideas - and problems with no easy answers are welcome.

 

4. By "other discourses" in the abstract above I refer to several: my personal favorite, pragmatist philosophy, as well as literature and research in community organizing, public interpretation, applied anthropology, and heritage studies. And whatever else you have found useful! The point is that archaeology (and anthropology) discourses sometimes do not provide the answers we need, and that looking outside is frequently necessary. So, what can we learn when we step outside the journals and conferences we usually read and attend?

 

5. I hope to get involvement from people outside the USA. I know that SfAA isn't one of the biggest conferences, but the program committee this year has some great, "publicly minded" archaeologists, so there will be more emphasis on archaeology (and public archaeology) than in past SfAA conferences. Also, for those who haven't been there, Santa Fe is nice in April. It's a beautiful town with clean, cool mountain air and interesting things to do outside of the conference.and the conference itself will be in one of the nicest and best-located hotels in town. So if you fancy a trip to the U.S., this would be a great destination. Be sure and add a few days to be a tourist yourself! It's about one hour by car from Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is easily accessed by air from all over. Plus, it's right after SAA, so if you are in the States anyway....

 

The abstract above may be amended based on the final mix of participants (for example, if a number of scholars who aren't archaeologists want to participate, we may change the title etc.). If you think you might want to participate, drop me a note (off list) about what you want to talk about. formal abstracts, registration instructions, etc. can follow once we've "talked". 

 

Finally, the deadline to submit session packets is October 15, so if you are interested please reply as soon as possible.

 

Cheers,

 

Carol McDavid

 

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Carol McDavid, Ph.D. (Cantab)
1638 Branard, Houston, Texas, 77006, USA
(713) 523-2649
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www.webarchaeology.com