Pulled In or Pushed Out? Diversity, Discrimination, and the Recruitment of the Next Generation of Archaeologists

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In this Presidential Session, we are exploring how and why archaeology remains dominated by white, straight, and (in positions of power) men. One piece of this puzzle is recruitment of archaeologists, which tends to take place in field schools and academic departments. How do these programs reproduce homogeneity in our discipline? In order to address this question, I use data from my qualitative study of diversity and oppression in archaeology, in which I conducted in-depth interviews with a diverse sample of 72 archaeologists working in Mediterranean, Mesoamerican, and/or historical archaeology and in US higher education contexts. I demonstrate that my interviewees were pulled into or pushed out of academic and research opportunities on the basis of not only their interests and merit but also their social identities. I show that marginalized archaeologists (e.g., women, people of color, queer people) must navigate career paths not only following our interests but also seeking accessible and welcoming opportunities and safety from discrimination and harassment. This process creates an extra cognitive burden for us to bear, making it difficult for us to succeed in the discipline. These conditions limit the diversity of our field.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32158