Archaeology and Futurity Conference Keynote

Thursday, April 14, 2016
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
In a particularly troubling academic climate that is witnessing departmental amalgamation and a relative dearth in full-time faculty hires, how does the discipline of archaeology envision its future? What is its role beyond the walls of the academy? Should archaeology be useful and, if so, for what purposes? This conference addresses archaeology’s potential role in contributing to pressing world problems including climate change, economic inequality, human rights, neocolonialism, and militarism.
This conference also seeks to address how futurity plays a role in how archaeologists confront the past in the present. Through a departure from linear time, this conference will explore alternative notions of time, material vestiges of the past in the present, and embodied experiences that transcend temporalities. If we accept that archaeology is a discipline about the present, how are we to think about time and futurity?
Keynote: Laurent Olivier (National Museum of Archaeology at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France)
**Some images used by presenters are copyrighted materials NOT owned by individual presenters. In these cases, images are depicted under the terms of fair use.