Papa’s Work Is Not Fathering

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.

Stereotypes and concomitant expectations for priority setting in archaeological careerism exist in tension with deep anthropological drives to understand and embody family ideals. Archaeologists, long confronted with the idea that “engendering archaeology” (cf. Conkey and Gero 1991) meant we must grapple with the ways we pigeonhole actors in the past as well as agents of present theory and practice, have made tremendous strides with the former but little progress with the latter. Rather, unspoken gender ideologies persist and are policed in our discipline, constraining potential expansions of how we define and value nurturing roles filled by its practitioners, and continue to afflict role-modeling for the next generation of archaeologists. Personal reflections of a father seeking to chart a career in archaeology and not lose sight of what’s most important include critical interventions by colleagues, friends, family, and community partners via coalition building and support networks at home, work, and in the field. Possibilities and potential for “Papa’s work” are grounded not only in where one is from but also anchored in family and community futurities.

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)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41615.0