Political Archaeologies that Matter: Randy McGuire and his Contributions to Archaeologies of the Recent Past.

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Praxis Makes Perfect: Celebrating the Academic Life and Times of Randy McGuire" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Randy McGuire is an archaeologist who lives and works his politics. Nowhere is this embodiment of the political in the discipline of archaeology more evident than in McGuire’s many contributions to our understandings of how archaeology can be conducted to illuminate social injustice in the recent past. This paper will explore two examples of Randy McGuire’s archaeologies of the recent past – the Colorado Coal Field War Project and archaeologies of the US-México border – to discuss two specific aspects of hid contribution to archaeology more broadly. First, the political nature of his engagement with the material remains of the recent past, which reveals an aptitude in locating material traces of those otherwise marginalized or conveniently forgotten. Second, the breadth of McGuire’s vision in articulating how his projects can be used as inspiration to consider wider application of archaeology to understanding key contemporary issues, such as working-class rights and the experience of those crossing increasingly securitized borders.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Praxis Makes Perfect: Celebrating the Academic Life and Times of Randy McGuire

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50319