Blogging Archaeology – SAA 2011 Draft

So here is a draft for a proposed session for the meeting of the Society for American Archaeology 2011 on blogging archaeology.  Please let me know what you think and if you’d like to participate!

Blogging Archaeology

A vital, diverse community of archaeologists are experimenting with online weblogs or “blogs” for publishing research data, reaching out to their colleagues and the public, and as a venue for personal expression.  Once considered a relatively rare and nonstandard practice, blogging is becoming a part of archaeological practice during excavations, in classroom settings, and by professional organizations as a venue for outreach.  Even as the number of personal and professional archaeology blogs increases, their use has remained largely unscrutinized and unrewarded within the profession.  Even so, blogging has become an incredible source of archaeological news and data that bypasses traditional media sources, giving unprecedented public access to working archaeologists.  However, this access is not without repercussions as issues of anonymity, personal expression and privacy become increasingly relevant.  Another issue is the publication of information that may adversely affect the archaeological record through the identification of sensitive and potentially sacred sites.  In this session we will explore these questions and the complexities of archaeological blogging with perspectives from students, professors, professional archaeologists and full-time archaeology bloggers.

Author: colleenmorgan

Dr. Colleen Morgan (ORCID 0000-0001-6907-5535) is the Lecturer in Digital Archaeology and Heritage in the Department of Archaeology at the University of York. She conducts research on digital media and archaeology, with a special focus on embodiment, avatars, genetics and bioarchaeology. She is interested in building archaeological narratives with emerging technology, including photography, video, mobile and locative devices. Through archaeological making she explores past lifeways and our current understanding of heritage, especially regarding issues of authority, authenticity, and identity.

6 thoughts on “Blogging Archaeology – SAA 2011 Draft”

  1. If all the archaeological blogs could be saved for the future it will become a new source of information. Like old photographs in city archaeology.

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