Investing in the Public: Benefits of Incorporating Public Archaeology in Field School Training

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "I Know What You Did Last Summer: Student Contributions at Field Schools", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The field of archaeology’s future depends on the successful engagement of the public with archaeological interests, whether through supplementary research information, support for the preservation of sites and artifacts, or financial investment in projects. Many members of the public, however, do not interact with archaeology. Moreover, archaeologists often lack familiarity with the dissemination of information to the public in an accessible manner. Through students’ observations and the analysis of two case studies, this paper aims to demonstrate how the incorporation of public archaeology in field school training produces archaeologists with better preparation for public engagement and encourages students and the public to collaborate in archaeological research by sharing their knowledge. The two case studies examined include the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project of Western Michigan University and the Apex, Arizona Archaeological Project of Northern Arizona University, both historical archaeology field schools that employ public archaeology in their instruction.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• I Know What You Did Last Summer: Student Contributions at Field Schools   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow