Dig the Past: Evaluating a Campus-Based Public Archaeology Program

Summary

Over the 2013-2014 academic year, Michigan State University’s Campus Archaeology Program facilitated a series of public archaeology workshops called “Dig the Past: A Hands-on Introduction to Archaeology.” Targeting both children and adults in the Greater Lansing community, these workshops aimed to disburse fundamental information about the real practice of archaeology in lay-friendly language as well as to provide archaeology students with opportunities to practice public engagement. The “Dig the Past” project incorporated the additional objective, unique to its role within a university-based archaeological research program, of communicating archaeology’s contribution to understanding the history of Michigan State University and East Lansing, and the cultural heritage of an academic community. This paper discusses the original objectives of the program, the workshops’ perceived effectiveness in meeting these objectives from both a facilitator standpoint and a visitor standpoint, and raises a few insights gained from the experience for the sustainability of future iterations of such a project and for public archaeology as a whole.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Assessing Outcomes in Public Archaeology: Imperatives, Perils, and Frameworks

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