More Hands Make Light Work - A Collaborative Leadership Approach for Successful Public Archaeology Field Schools

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In today’s climate of budget cuts and decreasing enrollments, the importance of publicly engaged projects cannot be understated as they demonstrate our value to the public in a tangible way. Archaeological field schools represent obvious opportunities for public engagement and increased visibility for both archaeology programs and their host institutions. However, in many instances a single archaeologist is responsible for managing all aspects of a field school (research design, student supervision, records management, etc). Juggling these various duties often leaves little time or opportunity to properly engage with the public. This paper summarizes the activities of the West Virginia State University's 2023 field school in Malden, West Virginia, and outlines a system of collaborative leadership used to conduct a successful public archaeology field school. Through defined leadership roles for each team member, we were able to engage the public in a more impactful way. This system of shared leadership serves as a blueprint that should be used in developing a model for more effective public and community outreach for archaeological projects.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39855.0