Power and Practice, Trauma and Resilience: Exploring the Experiences of Canadian 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.

How do different archaeological practitioners experience and navigate the power inequities built into our disciplinary institutions? Our 2019 online survey of Canadian archaeologists gathered information from over 550 students and practitioners. It explored experiences of sexual and nonsexual forms of harassment, violence, discrimination, and exploitation in educational and professional settings across all disciplinary sectors, and collected information on respondents’ gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, and seniority. In this paper, we present the results of our analysis of written responses to several open-ended survey questions, and of follow-up interviews with respondents from a range of backgrounds, to explore how intersections of identity shape people’s experiences and career trajectories in Canadian archaeology. We also examine and problematize the concept of resilience; how people process and frame their own negative experiences in the discipline and the responses of others to such experiences. We suggest that steps toward a more inclusive and equitable archaeology in Canada and beyond should embrace an ethics of care framework and develop principles of community. Both enable less hierarchical approaches to decision making, spotlight power inequities, and underscore our responsibilities to one another within our communities of practice.

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): 32790