Training Community-Engaged Undergraduates in the Archaeology Lab and Field at a Small Liberal Arts College

Summary

This is an abstract from the "From the Lab to the Field: Pioneering Approaches to Undergraduate Mentoring in Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As a teacher-scholar, one of my main goals is to train the next generation of community-engaged scholars. Mentoring undergraduate students at a small liberal arts college (SLAC), however, has unique challenges in comparison to research universities when it comes to funding research labs and field work. Archaeology labs at SLACs are typically smaller, field opportunities are not offered regularly, and students do not have access to built-in networks of MA or PhD archaeology students. In this paper, I discuss how I leverage personal networks and resources at my SLAC to provide archaeological research opportunities to undergraduate students, how I approach teaching community-engaged lab and field work, and some of the challenges that I and other women of color face in recruiting and training undergraduates in archaeology. The goal of my mentoring approach is to create a more inclusive archaeology and ultimately to diversify the pool of practicing archaeologists and the archaeology professoriate.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• From the Lab to the Field: Pioneering Approaches to Undergraduate Mentoring in Archaeology

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50830