Call for Posters
Archaeo-Bodies, a TRAC Workshop
09 December 2024, 4.00 pm GMT
The bodies of archaeologists are essential to the life of archaeological sites. However, they rarely populate sites’ illustrations. When they do, they appear as highly cosmeticised and homogenised entities. This portrayal neglects two vital aspects of archaeology: first, the diversity of stories and needs on site; second, the physical and intellectual labour required to prepare the site for study. Surveying, excavating, and studying archaeology are intellectually engaging yet physically demanding tasks that acquire different meanings when the diverse social, gender, class, medical aspects of people involved are accounted for. Seeking a critical understanding of the conditions under which archaeological sites are excavated, classified, and politicised, can ultimately allow us to forge nuanced interpretations of the past while contributing to also shape our present. Expanding on our TRAC session held at UCL in April 2024, this workshop places the bodies-at-work at the heart of the relationship between archaeology and modern society. It welcomes the richness of diverse bodily experiences as a way to, on one hand, tackle inequity in our world and, on the other, inspire scholars to engage with research questions that expand our understanding of the human diversity in the past.
With this Call For Posters, we invite archaeology students, PhD candidates, early career researchers, and senior scholars to submit their posters by 1st November 2024 raising the following questions: What are the unique bodily experiences of archaeologists involved on site and reconstructing the past? How are the diverse bodies of archaeologists – especially women, black and indigenous individuals, gender non conforming people, people with disabilities, people on contended sites or war zones – accounted for? What can our understanding of the diverse bodily experiences of archaeological sites today bring to our capacity to reconstruct more nuanced worlds in the past? The posters will be circulated amongst the participants a few days before the workshop and discussed during the workshop’s roundtable. The submitted posters will be taking part in the competition for the annual Lisa Lodwick Award.
Please submit your posters to [email protected] and [email protected]. The poster in the attachment should be saved as a PDF file.
Preliminary list of the authors and titles presented at the workshop:
Archaeo-Bodies, an introduction
Mauro Puddu – Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
1 Entanglement, Embodiment, Ontology: The body as medium for historical narratives
Edoardo Vanni – Università per Stranieri di Siena
2 Archaeologists Unframed: The Shaping of Perceptions Beyond the Profession
Cecilia Galleano – Historic Environment, Land Use Consultants
3 The Racialised Body in Greek and Roman Archaeology
Lylaah Bhalerao – PhD Candidate at ISAW, New York University
4 Sexism in Archaeology: ‘illustrating’ the voices of female archaeologists
Rita Gonçalves Pedro Casimiro da Costa – Pre-Construct Archaeology
5 Archaeological fieldwork for people with long-term conditions: limitations and potential for improvement
Katerina Velentza – Hull University
6 Documenting Gaza’s submerged landscapes: prospects and challenges
Georgia Andreou, Southampton University
7 Archeology or Archeologist? Navigating perspectives of health, injury, and disability on archeological field sites
Allyson Blanck – PhD Candidate at ISAW, New York University
8 “Where are all the archaeological remains of Trans people?” – A discussion of potential moral responsibility within disproving transphobic rhetoric
Tyler Kelly, MA student at University of Oxford
