Curating Archaeological Collections in the Private Small Liberal Arts Context

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Navigating Ethical and Legal Quandaries in Modern Archaeological Curation" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper considers archaeological curation in a private, small liberal arts college (SLAC) context. Many SLACs have archaeological collections acquired through donation from alumni or local residents, occasionally through purchase or orphaning, and increasingly through student and faculty research on and off campus. These collections are sometimes curated by professional staff in a dedicated museum, but more often are curated within an academic department by a single faculty member. In these situations, faculty-curators must meet legal requirements and ethical imperatives while also advancing institutional missions of active and applied learning. Archaeological collection curation can offer rich opportunities for teaching and student learning. It also requires significant resource investments from institutions and individual faculty. Meeting standards of care and commitments to inclusion, access, and community engagement present both challenges and opportunities in the SLAC context. I consider both with examples drawn from my own experience as a faculty-curator.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Navigating Ethical and Legal Quandaries in Modern Archaeological Curation   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 31966