Alternative Careers in Archaeology: Do They Exist? An Examination of Federal Curation and Museum Careers with an Archaeological Background

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Breaking Free from the (Institutional) Matrix: Archaeological Career Pathways In and Between Academia, CRM, Non-Profit, and Museum Spheres", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Archaeology has always lent itself to be a diverse field of study, and many archaeologists have earned their degrees and flourished in alternative careers. As an archaeologist in a federal curation/museum position, I have been placed in a unique situation, able to use my archaeological studies to apply to curation and vice versa. In this study, I hope to answer a few questions on how archaeologists came to enter the curation/museum field, how our backgrounds both advantage and disadvantage us (if at all), and ultimately, argue that this career path should be highlighted as an alternative to traditional archaeological careers. To answer these questions, other archaeologists in federal curation/museum positions will be interviewed to draw on various experiences and viewpoints.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Breaking Free from the (Institutional) Matrix: Archaeological Career Pathways In and Between Academia, CRM, Non-Profit, and Museum Spheres   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow