Raising Appalachia: Promoting and Fostering Academic Spaces for Undergraduate Students to Engage with Archaeology at West Virginia University

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology to Transform and Disrupt: Teaching, Learning, and the Pedagogies of the Future" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Students studying anthropology and art history at West Virginia University (WVU) have not always had access to experiential learning and laboratory training experiences. However, recent initiatives by early career faculty have boosted student engagement and prompted career success. In this presentation, we show that forming partnerships between university academic departments and state archaeology facilities provide crucial hands-on training and opportunities for students. The WVU Archaeology Lab was founded during the height of the pandemic in 2020 with one freshman student and a box of unwashed artifacts from the West Virginia Archaeological Research and Collections Management Facility. Since then, students working in the lab have processed thousands of artifacts, presented at conferences, completed field schools, and are publishing faculty-assisted research. These accomplishments have primarily been by Appalachian natives, and we have consciously prioritized first-generation, low-income students by hiring through the federal work-study program. The pedagogical changes were done with little funding but have had substantial effects on our undergraduates. These experiences increased students being awarded prestigious funding, such as the Gilman Scholarship, gaining admittance to graduate programs, graduate funding, or securing positions after graduation. This paper demonstrates how partnerships between academic institutions and collections facilities foster student engagement in Appalachia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology to Transform and Disrupt: Teaching, Learning, and the Pedagogies of the Future   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40202.0