‘Tis the Season for Archaeology Conferences
Recently, I attended the Archaeological Institute of America annual conference in Chicago. Sure, it was during the “polar vortex” when temperatures dropped to -17 F and the snow and ice accumulation made even walking from one building to another an acrobatic training exercise just to maintain a verticality, but that did not deter hundreds of archaeologists from convening to share their most recent research. This made me stop and think about the wide variety of venues we professional archaeologists flock to in order to participate in the presentation of the most recent archaeological research, and how much the public does, or really does not, have access to this plethora of brand new archaeological research. Don’t get me wrong, the public-at-large is always welcome at these conferences so long as membership dues are paid, just like the rest of us, but I don’t imagine many non-archaeologists have the time to drop what they are doing for a week-long conference that is not directly job related.
As conference season approaches this year, I thought it might be of interest to you, our readers, for those of us at Campus Archaeology to attempt to provide you with more details out of these professional conferences; a sampler platter of archaeological research from multiple venues. Many of us will be attending the Society for American Archaeology conference, some will be attending the American Association of Physical Anthropologists conference, and my solitary self will be attending the American Research Center in Egypt conference. Each of these venues tends to draw a slightly different brand of archaeologist, but in common with each other, they all draw presentations of the most current research.
Once the final programs for these conferences are made available, a list of MSU archaeologists presenting at these various conferences will be made available. Come and check out our work! Be sure to stay tuned later this spring for updates and information from us about the interesting research presented at these amazing conferences!
For any interested, ArchNet, maintained by the Archaeological Research Institute at Arizona State University has an exhaustive list of conferences related to archaeology. Handy resource!
Author: Andy LoPinto