Digital Engagement Strategies Using Location-Based Gaming in Community-Based Participatory Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Gamification offers participatory experiences for diverse communities to engage with archaeological research. In informal and formal learning situations, undergraduate students used the location-based mobile game platform ARIS Field Day to create narratives that play through the process of excavation, addressing questions of the ethics of collecting, and gathering community input on excavation strategies. For example, the Wellesley College Hall Archaeology Project incorporated digital engagement strategies to facilitate undergraduate participation in our community-based historical excavation. While building our research plan for exploring the site of a women’s dormitory fire from 1914, community members were invited to share their perspectives through games built by students. This iterative process is meant to build inclusive conversations about how today’s diverse community reflects on differences and continuities with a privileged past. As formal course assignments, undergraduates designed location-based games that explore ancient Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology and other cultural heritage issues, several with multi-lingual versions with the goal of connecting international audiences. These games and engagement strategies will be used to plan future community-based participatory research in the field in Sudan.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25993