A Global Dialogue on Collaborative Archaeology

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Active collaboration with a wide variety of stakeholders forces practitioners to rethink how and why we do archaeology, indeed even to question what archaeology is and can be. This seminar explores the tenor, breadth, and practicalities emerging from a decade of collaborative practice. Drawing from a wide range of practitioners with different temporal and regional foci, this session takes an international view of collaboration in archaeology. The moderated session presents global collaborative archaeology, both as a challenge to current practice and an impetus for the future. Presenters were asked to grapple with big questions such as:

How does archaeology change with a focal shift from product to process?

What ontological and epistemological challenges and promises arise in this work?

How does collaboration destabilize and invigorate method and theory?

What are the best ways to train a new generation of practitioners in collaboration?

What changes to institutional structures will be required for collaborative archaeology to reach its full potential?