Into the mind of an undergrad: personal experience, training and archaeology

Summary

Only in exceptional moments can we explore the thoughts of others. Community archaeology projects, together with the ethical practice of the discipline, foster communication between the academia and the communities. Being part of one of these projects as a research assistant has given me the opportunity of interacting with people of diverse backgrounds, and of learning about their concerns and interests towards archaeology and their historical and cultural heritage. This experience has taught me that the frontier between academia and community is a permeable gray zone. This experience has been transcendental in my formation as an undergraduate student. It is often difficult to discover our professional interests when we learn about the discipline from the abstract teaching of a classroom. Being part of a project has allowed me to apply what I have learned through my studies, and to develop awareness regarding the ethics in archaeological practice and the preservation and conservation of our cultural heritage. From my perspective as an undergraduate student, in this presentation I will be discussing how working as a research assistant in a community archaeology project contributes towards the solid formation of a student, both professionally and as preparation for graduate school.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Many faces, many perspectives: archaeology and communities in practice.

Keywords

Spatial Coverage