I Didn’t Get Here Because of My Trauma: I’m Here Because I’m Good at Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Hood Archaeologies: Impacts of the School-to-Prison Pipeline on Archaeological Practice and Pedagogy" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The monoraciality of archaeology perpetuates systems where many European American archaeologists assume archaeologists who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) have arrived because of affirmative action. Our presence is considered the result of traumatic lives that led to handouts; many think we were given scholarships, fellowships, and grants because of our BIPOC status and traumatic lives. While a range of BIPOC support resources are necessary and valuable, those of us who make it in archaeology did not become professionals because of the traumatic lives we’ve lived. This presentation discusses the pressure BIPOC archaeologists feel to write about, research, and tell others about the traumas they’ve faced in their efforts to become a professional archaeologist. It extrapolates from Tina Yong’s 2023 presentation on the “Trauma Essay” in college acceptance letters to examine how this is perpetuated in academia and professional archaeology. The talk ends with some suggestions for moving beyond this phenomenon.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Hood Archaeologies: Impacts of the School-to-Prison Pipeline on Archaeological Practice and Pedagogy   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41691.0