Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Research and reporting on equity and harassment in the academy and across both public and private sectors has revealed the extent of chronic inequalities and significant problematic behaviors in a variety of workplace settings. Those most negatively affected by these often illegal behaviors are women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and underrepresented minorities (URM). For archaeologists, workplaces include many locales (offices, labs, classrooms, field sites, conferences) and thus many potential sites for inequity, harassment, and assault to occur. This is not a women’s problem, but a disciplinary issue affecting the very performance of archaeology. In addressing this looming and serious problem, this session brings together both students and professionals to consider (1) equity (e.g., gender pay gap, publication/citation practices), and (2) sexual harassment and assault (e.g., as experienced by different subgroups, effects on professional outcomes, effective training and reporting, resources for survivors, etc.). Wherever possible, papers include recommendations for future directions at several scales (e.g., individuals, workplaces, field settings, conferences). This session is timely, and we hope that highlighting these issues at the forefront of the SAA’s annual meeting broadens the dialogue to the larger archaeological community so that we may collectively consider preventative solutions in addition to post-hoc sanctions.

Other Keywords
Ethics • Power Relations and Inequality • Communities of Practice • Ethnography/Ethnoarchaeology • Survey • equity • Education/Pedagogy • Cultural Resources and Heritage Management

Geographic Keywords
North America • United States of America (Country) • United Mexican States (Country) • Department of Martinique (Country) • Republic of El Salvador (Country) • Department of Guadeloupe (Country) • Cayman Islands (Country) • Antigua and Barbuda (Country) • Turks and Caicos Islands (Country) • Bermuda (Country)

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  • Documents (9)
Documents
  • Achieving Safe Workplaces in Cultural Resources Management (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Herr. Susan Stinson.

    This is an abstract from the "Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper we will take a three-part approach to examining and achieving safe workspaces in cultural resource management (CRM), considering demography, reports of harassment and assault in the workplace, and solutions. First, we will provide a snapshot of the participation of...

  • Beyond Leaky Pipelines and Glass Ceilings: Equity Issues on the Academic Track (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kathleen Sterling.

    This is an abstract from the "Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Achieving equity in academia is framed as a process of shattering glass ceilings, letting everyone climb as high as their abilities allow. The leaky pipeline metaphor relies on a future with enough diversity-in-waiting that some of it will flow to higher ranks. These metaphors...

  • Improving Equity, Access, and Professionalism at Archaeological Field Schools through the Prevention and Reduction of Sexual Harassment and Assault (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Carol Colaninno. Emily Beahm. Carl Drexler. Shawn Lambert. Clark Sturdevant.

    This is an abstract from the "Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Research documents the prevalence of sexual harassment in higher education and archaeological learning and working environments. The harassed generally are those with little power: students, trainees, and early career professionals, particularly women, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC...

  • Performative Informality Hurts Everyone: Getting to the Root of Intersectional Inequalities in Archaeology (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mary Leighton.

    This is an abstract from the "Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation will discuss subtle forms of intersectional inequality that arise when academic communities are conceptualized as friendship-based and egalitarian, rejecting explicit hierarchy. I have described this as "performative informality" and argued that it stems from a...

  • Power and Practice, Trauma and Resilience: Exploring the Experiences of Canadian Archaeologists (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lisa Hodgetts. Kisha Supernant. Natasha Lyons. John Welch. Marie-Pier Cantin.

    This is an abstract from the "Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. How do different archaeological practitioners experience and navigate the power inequities built into our disciplinary institutions? Our 2019 online survey of Canadian archaeologists gathered information from over 550 students and practitioners. It explored experiences of sexual...

  • Pulled In or Pushed Out? Diversity, Discrimination, and the Recruitment of the Next Generation of Archaeologists (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Laura Heath-Stout.

    This is an abstract from the "Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this Presidential Session, we are exploring how and why archaeology remains dominated by white, straight, and (in positions of power) men. One piece of this puzzle is recruitment of archaeologists, which tends to take place in field schools and academic departments. How do...

  • Regional Contexts of Sexual Harassment in the United States: A Comparison of the SEAC and SCA Surveys (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Maureen Meyers. Amber VanDerwarker.

    This is an abstract from the "Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sexual harassment has long been rampant in the discipline of archaeology, and until recently, our collective understanding of its pervasiveness and effects has been largely anecdotal. Recent surveys on the topic aimed at the memberships of the Southeastern Archaeological...

  • Setting the Context of Equity and Harassment Issues: They Are NOT Only Women’s Issues (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Joe Watkins.

    This is an abstract from the "Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Social sciences within the United States, like US society in general, are facing serious ramifications regarding issues related to equality and harassment. Gender equity, pay equity, and funding equity are all part of the problems being faced by professionals employed in...

  • What Is at Stake in Archaeological Knowledge Production (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dana Bardolph.

    This is an abstract from the "Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent years have witnessed a sea change in anthropological discourse concerning how gender bias and a lack of diversity has affected the work that archaeologists produce, interest that dovetails with current concerns about equity and safety issues. More broadly, Black,...