"Unless We Remember We Cannot Understand": Archaeological Inquiries into the Act of Remembering

This session aims to provide a variety of perspectives on the relationship between archaeological inquiry and memory. Along with asking how the act of archaeological research contributes to memorialization and commemoration, we aim to disentangle definitions of memory for different stakeholder communities by shedding light on various scales of memory (individual, societal, etc.). Further, this session will consider how memory work can shape or challenge current interpretations of the past, and how memory from documents, ethnography, and other sources interlace with archaeological research. What types of memory are typically addressed in archaeology and are certain types privileged over others? This session seeks to examine which people or events get remembered through archaeology, what privileges we take in our memory work, and how, why and for whom we practice archaeological research.