Look for AAI staff members in the November 2024 issue of The SAA Archaeological Record!
If you’re looking for some new publications from Alexandria Archive Institute (AAI) staff, check out the November 2024 issue of The SAA Archaeological Record. This magazine is a five-times-a-year publication by the Society for American Archaeology and the November issue includes articles by AAI staff and many others working to improve accessibility in field school training.
The AAI’s Sarah Kansa, alongside co-editor Sara Ayers-Rigsby, shepherded the special section. They built on the work they put into organizing a forum on the same topic at the 2024 Society for Historical Archaeology conference and turned everyone’s short presentations into publications! You can learn about that panel here and our reflection on the conference here.
Making field schools more accessible is an important topic in archaeology and some of the projects highlighted in this special issue were even referenced in an issue of American Archaeology magazine. If you have a subscription to American Archaeology magazine look for some of the contributors to this tSAR special section in the Summer 2024 article “Scholars aim to make field schools for nascent archaeologists accessible” by Elizabeth Lunday.
While the whole special section is worth reading, if you’d like to focus on the AAI’s contributions, executive director Sarah co-wrote both “Introduction to the Special Section,” which outlines the purpose and goal of the special issue, and “A Paid Archaeological Training Program for Commuter Students: The UC Berkeley Archaeological Research Facility Field School,” which explains the reasons for starting the ARF program, challenges to its continuation, and hopes for the future of the ARF Field School. The field school just completed its second season and the AAI’s own Paulina Przystupa gave a guest lecture helping this season’s students cultivate their data literacy skills alongside their archaeological field ones. Learn more about that here.
Another important article to watch out for in the tSAR special section is Paulina’s, “An Archaeological Data Literacy Practicum: A Supplement to Alternative Field Schools.” This piece explains and contextualizes the need for and goals of the Archaeological Data Literacy Practicum, which is in development for launch in Fall 2025. Behind the scenes the Data Literacy Program, is working to bring that practicum to the public soon and we were so glad to have the platform of tSAR to drum up interest in signing up for it.
We hope you enjoy the whole issue and if you have any questions about either the ARF field school or the Archaeological Data Literacy Program don’t hesitate to reach out!
