CALL FOR PAPERS: Archaeology as Service Theme Issue
The editors of the Society for American Archaeology journal Advances in Archaeological Practice are seeking papers for a theme issue to be published in August 2023.
The goal of this theme issue is to illustrate how archaeology can serve people today and in the future. How is archaeology as service practiced in communities around the world? What approaches are used? We want to explore when archaeology serves as part of larger planning projects, when it is community-driven, or when the archaeologists themselves are from the communities they seek to serve. Such approaches are providing exciting directions for the field, as seen in Indigenous and Black Feminist archaeologies.
The idea of archaeology as service can be furthered through critical assessments along multiple axes. Is archaeology as service a valid concept? What are the apt theoretical orientations, ethical frameworks, and on-the-ground practices? How can power and historically fraught relationships be engaged to advance community interests without sacrificing scholarly values and standards?
We invite archaeologists to contribute project or program case studies. We are keen to receive contributions describing work that is state-, museum-, community-, and university-sponsored, as well as work grounded in both for-profit and non-profit cultural/heritage resource management (CRM/HRM) or in international development work. Authors are asked to note the context of the work conducted. We also ask authors to comment on how variation in funding, policy, and practice shapes the relationships that archaeologists have with the communities and stakeholders we work with—especially with communities who have been historically and politically marginalized.
The papers we would like to publish will be examples of hands-on projects that show archaeologists grappling with the real-world problems and the responsibilities of trying to apply their humanistic and scientific skills and knowledge in ways that are relevant at interpersonal, societal, or global levels. Collaborative authorship is encouraged.
The topics identified below are offered as starting points for consideration by prospective authors. We strongly encourage papers from authors who live or work outside of the U.S. and Canada.
- Collaborations to ensure that traditional knowledge becomes part of interpretation or informs management decision making
- Working in places of violence and trauma to be part of conversations around reconciliation and reparation
- Working to recover casualties of recent wars
- Documenting the creation of tribal CRM and Tribal Historic Preservation offices in the United States, or the work tribal archaeologists do to recover their ancestors through state, federal, and international laws
- How archaeological research relates to the construction of modern ethnic identity and the related management of ancestral landscapes.
- Using information about past foodways or past diseases to inform modern community health
- Considering the role of CRM/HRM in serving developers, states, and communities
- Use of archaeological information to help plan for climate-related adaption and to develop strategies for resilience
Information for potential authors
For this issue, we seek research and how-to papers, as well as a digital review. For more information about Advances in Archaeological Practice please visit: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/advances-in-archaeological-practice/information/author-guidelines.
Research papers often begin with a broad problem-oriented statement about the authors’ approach to archaeological practice and, in this case, service as they define it, present a case study, and a critical assessment of the work. We encourage authors to write to teach the reader, so that what they have learned in practice facilitates another’s research conduct. How-to papers are step-by-step resources for the reader. We are willing to entertain formats that might include interview, as well, if that is a good way to include non-traditional authors and collaborations. Research and how-to papers are peer reviewed. Digital reviews are not peer reviewed but are created with the digital review editor; and here we seek a review that is in line with the overall issue theme.
As a digital journal, well -illustrated articles are encouraged. Articles can also include video, sound files, hyperlinks to stable websites, 3D models, widgets, and more.
Project schedule
Drafts for first editor review due by October 14, 2022
Editors will review article for readiness for peer review and then return to authors
Drafts for peer review uploaded to Editorial Manager (https://www.editorialmanager.com/advances/default2.aspx) by November 11, 2022
Editors will send articles to peer reviewers identified with the author and the Editorial Board.
Final articles uploaded to Editorial Manager for transfer to Cambridge University Press by May 5, 2023
Cambridge University Press and Society for American Archaeology editors work with authors to edit and format the articles and prepare the overall journal.
To participate
To be considered, please email a 100-200 word abstract for a proposed research or how-to paper and a short comment about your interest to journal editors by August 1, 2022. Drs. Sarah Herr, Christina Rieth, and Sjoerd van der Linde: aap_herr@desert.com, aaprieth@gmail.com, sjoerdvdlinde@gmail.com. If you are interested in providing a digital review please contact Dr. Peter Cobb by August 1: pcobb@hku.hk. Advances editors will select 10 articles that will best represent a diversity of approaches to this topic by August 22, 2022.
We also welcome questions at the email addresses above.