TAG2024

S4 Abstract: Archaeology is often romanticized as a discipline for its discoveries and insights into past civilizations. However, the profession encompasses a variety of uncomfortable situations that practitioners encounter, ranging from fieldwork to academic settings. This session explores the multifaceted nature of discomfort experienced by archaeologists, digging into personal anecdotes, language barriers, systemic issues when trying to publish, feedback from reviewers, or the implications of past scholarly works, to mention a few.

In fieldwork, archaeologists often demonstrate remarkable resilience in the face of harassment and hostility, whether due to gender, ethnicity, or other personal attributes. Additionally, working within or alongside communities can present challenges when there is resistance to external researchers or when crossing complex socio-political landscapes. These encounters can strain professional and personal well-being, necessitating strategies for conflict resolution while fighting for safer working conditions.

Within academic institutions, students and professionals alike confront uncomfortable realities. Experiences of overt and subtle discrimination can hinder academic progress and personal growth. Moreover, the academic journey often includes engagement with historical and contemporary scholarship that perpetuates racism, misogyny, and other forms of subalternisation. These moments of discomfort are critical for promoting a reflective practice that questions and challenges the ethical dimensions of our work.

This session aims to encourage archaeologists to share their experiences, promoting an open dialogue about the uncomfortable aspects of our profession. By addressing these issues head-on, we aim to inspire a more inclusive and ethical field of archaeology. The discussion will highlight the potential for creating supportive networks, implementing institutional changes, and promoting a critical examination of the discipline’s foundations and methodologies.

S18 Abstract: Last year we ran a TAG session that looked at interrogating and disrupting the ways language operates in theory, archaeology, academia and life on a whole. We identified different experiences, limitations and methodologies that addressed the challenges of English being the lingua franca in academia, culminating in an upcoming publication on the topic. But this conversation is not confined to a 10-page special issue nor needs to stay within the four walls of the lecture theatre at UEA. This year we will continue facilitating a conversation around how and what language is doing to our research and communities.

The theme of TAG 45 touches on this topic in an interesting way. Evolution is based on the concept of progress, which is generally perceived as positive. However, this does not align with the message we wish to convey. We instead acknowledge that communication is a never-ending changing and evolving activity. By choosing one language and/or dialect and expecting its full proficiency would mean interrupting this change which would then be perceived as a barrier that all individuals are expected to overcome. Therefore, this session explores: How can we create an evolving academic environment where all voices are heard without imposing one language over another? How can we address a multilingual academia and what might this look like in the classroom? Specifically, how can we decolonize archaeology as a discipline?

We invite all to join us in a workshopping session where we will discuss, disrupt and try to build a praxis on how we can foster more inclusive and accessible language diversity in our daily practices.

9:20am | Discomfort is the key to everlasting comfort: a personal account in field archaeology   | Susana Henriques

9:35am | I am an outsider, and I don’t know how to deal with it: Reflections on Archaeological Practice, Empathy, and Discomfort.  | João Sequeira  

9:40am | Voices of Discomfort - Silenced Emotions in the Archaeology of Asylums  | Elias Michaut & Joel Santos

10:05am | Challenging Discomfort: The psychological side of learning theory   | Joel Santos & Tânia Manuel Casimiro

10:20am | Discussion |

11:00am | Margins: Journey of A Gay Chinese Archaeology Student in China and the UK   | Guo Peng Chen 陈国鹏

11:15am | The “2000 Words” theatre/archaeology performance in Koutroulou Magoula, Greece: an experiential approach to decolonizing archaeology through language | Jason Goodman  & Efthimis Theou

11:30am | The intricacies of multilingualism in archaeology: Sa Limba Sarda as a decolonial path from publication to outreach   | Mauro Puddu

11:45am | Walking towards a wider academic language(s)  | Judith M. López Aceves & Alvaro Felipe Ortega González

12:00pm | Discussion/workshop |

Full paper abstracts available here:
https://tag2024.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/tag-2024-session-abstracts-1.pdf