Archaeology Out-of-the-Box: Investigating the Edge of the Discipline

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Archaeology Out-of-the-Box: Investigating the Edge of the Discipline," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This session focuses on the edges of the archaeology discipline and the efforts to make the discipline germane and relevant in untraditional ways. Our goal is to highlight innovative ideas and experiences – both the subject matter of research and the methodology used to gather data. Some archaeological projects are politically more charged or emotionally more challenging than most as they explore contemporary societies or current social issues. What they achieve is enhanced relevance and increased inspiration for both scholars and the general public. We aim to showcase such projects in an effort to broaden the applicability of archaeology and at the same time inform the widest possible audience of the fascinating and pertinent nature of archaeological research. All participants and selected additional authors will be requested to submit a chapter to the proceedings of this session. These will be published in a full-color edited volume through the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press and made as accessible as possible to scholarly and lay communities.