THE FUTURE OF ENGAGEMENT, a session at CIfA 2015 conference will be held in the Mercure Holland House hotel Cardiff on Wednesday 15th April 2015.
Organisers: Doug Rocks‐Macqueen, Landward Research Ltd (doug@landward.org) and Cara Jones, Archaeology Scotland (c.jones@archaeologyscotland.org.uk)
In the fiscal year 2013‐14 more jobs were advertised on BAJR and the Jobs Information Service for Archaeology Public Engagement than for Supervisor positions or Senior Managers or Consultants or a whole host of other positions.
Engaging with the people is fast become one of the largest sub‐sectors of archaeological work. But where is engagement going? Themes we wish to discuss within this session include:
- Will Public Archaeology become its own profession?
- Will we change how we interact with people in the future, as new methods of engagement (such as digital) become more attainable for all?
- Who will undertake engagement on behalf of professional archaeologists ‐ Universities, Charities, Commercial Units, or with budgets cuts, the public themselves through peer‐to‐peer learning and support?
- And as the range of stakeholders increase, will practitioners becoming more fractured and isolated or will support be readily available?
The goal of this session is to explore the future of engagement of/with archaeology with people. We want to examine‐ where are we heading or where do we want to go in Public Archaeology.