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Archaeological Horizons:

Assessing Affinities with Archaeology Across Social Groups

Archaeological Horizons is a bi-pronged project that aims to assess the causes for underrepresentation of some social groups in archaeology, particularly people of non-white heritage, and in doing so to test research methods and questions appropriate for addressing this question effectively.

Surveys have shown that academic and commercial archaeology in the UK and US, as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, is a field which is overwhelmingly made up of people who identify as being of white European-descent. The problem with this is that it limits critical perspectives in reconstructions of the past, meaning aspects can be overlooked, neglected, or even wrongly cast. It may be assumed that combined with knowledge of more overt colonialist origins of archaeology as a discipline, this continuing lack of representation causes a loop: non-white people tend to feel less of an affinity with and interest in archaeology as a discipline, and are therefore less likely to want to participate. 

Archaeological Horizons was designed to fill a gap in empirical data collection and testing of these assumptions and to expand our knowledge of how people feel about archaeology: whether it is on their horizons as an area in which they would like to participate, whether they feel welcome to participate, and why or why not.  It adds to previous reports on research from focus groups run by heritage and museums NPOs and outreach projects which can have ephemeral outputs. The project employs a questionnaire survey developed through pilots run in Bermuda, and will be aimed initially at year 12 students in UK schools. Survey analysis will contribute (1) quantitative data on how year 12 students who identify as belonging to differing social groups feel about archaeology, (2) qualitative data on reasons why, and, intersecting with this, the efficacy of questions for gathering useful data on that aspect, and (3) an action plan including further refining and/or enlarging the survey, further participatory research methods for enriching the information capture, and recommendations for stakeholders in archaeology.

Research and Impact Groups

Heritage and Partnerships

Publications

Lectures 

  • 2023: “Archaeological Horizons II: moving forward with participant research into the intersections of interest in archaeology and social groups”. TAG 44, session16: Environments of Equity, Climates of Work, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK , 18-20 December 2023
  • 2019: “Investigating Intersections of Race and Public Perceptions of Archaeology: a pilot survey run in Bermuda, 2019”. TAG 41, session 45: The Decolonisation of Archaeology and Archaeological Collections in Museums. UCL, London, 16-18 December 2019
  • 2019: “Why is Archaeology so White? A proposal for research and action”, public lecture, Thinkfest Bermuda, Bermuda College, Sept. 11 2019

 Press

Staff

PI – Catherine Draycott
Research Assistant – Anita Datta

Funding: EDI Fund, Durham University


Last updated 27.02.2025