From the Lab to the Field: Pioneering Approaches to Undergraduate Mentoring in Archaeology

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "From the Lab to the Field: Pioneering Approaches to Undergraduate Mentoring in Archaeology" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

There is a growing recognition in the field of Archaeology of the need to center diverse voices in research. However, the recruitment and retention of diverse scholars at every level, from undergraduate enrollment to the tenure track, remains a challenge. Access to mentoring is crucial to the success of marginalized and underrepresented students in academia. Within archaeology, mentoring is an important pathway for undergraduates into research and ultimately into graduate school and beyond. The mentoring of undergraduates occurs on many scales, from individual labs or research projects to department-wide programs or field schools. However, these efforts are often invisible to the people outside these projects. The opacity of the process of student mentorship at many levels is a barrier to entry for others and limits our collective growth in mentoring best practices in archaeology. The purpose of this session is to highlight the impact of mentoring on undergraduates in archaeology by showcasing a variety of mentoring efforts, particularly those by early career archaeologists and by historically marginalized scholars who currently are disproportionately responsible for mentoring underprivileged students. This discussion will generate conversation both about the importance of mentoring and how to successfully mentor the next generation of archaeologists.

Other Keywords
Education/Pedagogy • Worldwide

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)

  • Documents (8)
Documents
  • Archaeological Mentorship Beyond the University (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Angela Huster.

    This is an abstract from the "From the Lab to the Field: Pioneering Approaches to Undergraduate Mentoring in Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Opportunities for mentorship extend beyond academia to the public and private sectors. Most entry-level positions in US archaeology are in CRM, but academic faculty often lack the familiarity with CRM archaeology needed to mentor students interested in this career direction. Chronicle Heritage’s...

  • The Archaeology Research Laboratory: A Site for Increased Access to Student Training (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alissa Ruth.

    This is an abstract from the "From the Lab to the Field: Pioneering Approaches to Undergraduate Mentoring in Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Participation in undergraduate research enhances students’ likelihood of matriculating into graduate programs, fosters a scientific identity, promotes a sense of belonging, and develops valuable transferrable skills. Archaeology has a strong history of hands-on training through field schools,...

  • Cultivating Inclusivity: Mentorship, Diversity and Career Development in Archaeology (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Victoria Newhall.

    This is an abstract from the "From the Lab to the Field: Pioneering Approaches to Undergraduate Mentoring in Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation explores the intersection of mentorship, diversity and career development in archaeology, drawing on my experiences as a non-traditional PhD student, graduate director and undergraduate mentor in UCLA’s Archaeology Mentorship Program (AMP), as well as my role as the upcoming...

  • Mending the Leaky Academic Pipeline through the Mentoring of Historically Marginalized Undergraduates in Anthropology (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alexandra Norwood.

    This is an abstract from the "From the Lab to the Field: Pioneering Approaches to Undergraduate Mentoring in Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. At every stage along the academic pipeline, mentoring is crucial for the success of minoritized scholars. While the number of mentoring initiatives focused on graduate students and early career faculty is growing, less focus has been placed on earlier intervention - at the undergraduate level -...

  • Midwestern Lighthouses and Mesoamerican Ossuaries: Towards A Mutually Beneficial Model of Undergraduate Mentorship in Archaeology (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sofía Pacheco-Fores.

    This is an abstract from the "From the Lab to the Field: Pioneering Approaches to Undergraduate Mentoring in Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mentorship and practical research experience are essential for the recruitment, training, and retention of archaeology undergraduate students. The combination of getting hands-on experience in the field and having someone from whom they can seek advice and receive feedback enables undergraduate...

  • Reflections on-field mentoring and diverse archaeology student engagement at Boomplaas Cave (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Justin Pargeter.

    This is an abstract from the "From the Lab to the Field: Pioneering Approaches to Undergraduate Mentoring in Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper reflects on a multi-year technical training and capacity-building program at Boomplaas Cave in South Africa's southern Cape region. Boomplaas is one of Africa’s flagship Middle and Later Stone Age archaeological sites and provides a unique environment to train students in...

  • Training Community-Engaged Undergraduates in the Archaeology Lab and Field at a Small Liberal Arts College (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Laura Ng.

    This is an abstract from the "From the Lab to the Field: Pioneering Approaches to Undergraduate Mentoring in Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As a teacher-scholar, one of my main goals is to train the next generation of community-engaged scholars. Mentoring undergraduate students at a small liberal arts college (SLAC), however, has unique challenges in comparison to research universities when it comes to funding research labs and field...

  • Voices of Oklahoma: Mentoring High School Juniors and Seniors to, through & beyond College (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Bonnie Pitblado.

    This is an abstract from the "From the Lab to the Field: Pioneering Approaches to Undergraduate Mentoring in Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sponsored by the Oklahoma Public Archaeology Network, the Voices of Oklahoma summer internship program teaches rising high school juniors and seniors about archaeology, a thematic subject (recently, Oklahoma Native American boarding schools), and how the two can intersect. We recruit students...