Assessing Outcomes in Public Archaeology: Imperatives, Perils, and Frameworks

Public archaeology is an important means of advocacy and ethical practice for many archaeologists. In planning and seeking funding for such work, scholars consider the specific sociopolitical circumstances of their research area, including how they can assess the outcomes of their projects. Because public outreach and community-engaged practice is so context-specific, evaluation of public archaeology has not been a major topic of discussion. How and when is it appropriate to "evaluate"? And how is evaluation entangled with theoretical and ethical concerns about the role of archaeologists in society?

This session is dedicated to drawing together ideas and proposals surrounding evaluation in public archaeology. Topics in this session include: examples of outcome assessment within and between public projects, the ethical dimensions of assessment, theory and practice-driven discussions of how assessment functions within public archaeology projects and public outreach efforts, and proposed tools for assessing the broader impact of engaging non-archaeologists in archaeological work.