Perspectives from the Study of Early Colonial Encounter in North America: Is it time for a “revolution” in the study of colonialism?

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Perspectives from the Study of Early Colonial Encounter in North America: Is it time for a “revolution” in the study of colonialism?," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This session seeks to bring together a broad set of perspectives on the study of early colonial encounter in North America. Several decades of ongoing research and collaboration have produced an immense set of data and interpretations on the nature of the first decades of colonialism, however much of the discussion of this process has been cloistered to particular regions, foci, and theoretical frameworks. In this session, we hope to bring together researchers from various regions, time periods, and interpretive perspectives in order to create a dialogue about the broad consequences of the earliest contacts between individuals and groups in the North American continent.