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Continuing Education

SAA Continuing Education offers free and fee-based online professional development opportunities designed for students and archaeologists seeking to enhance their skill sets or knowledge base. These take the form of virtual lectures, workshops, panel discussions, and other trainings.

Please be aware when registering, all times are in the Eastern Time Zone. For any questions related to SAA Continuing Education, please contact onlineseminars@saa.org. For any questions related to Third Thursdays, please contact meetings@saa.org.

Types of Events

These one-hour seminars are focused on introductory topics and building foundational professional skills. The seminars are free to SAA members and available to non-members for a fee. Most Foundational Skills seminars are RPA-certified, which means attendees receive one Continuing Professional Education credit for participating. Attendees also receive a certificate of completion. The lectures are recorded and available to watch after by SAA members in the Online Learning Archive.

There are usually seven Foundational Skills seminars in a year.

These two-hour seminars are focused on furthering more advanced or specific essential knowledge and technological skills. The seminars are available to both members and non-members for a fee, with an SAA member discount. Most Deeper Digs seminars are RPA-certified, which means attendees receive two Continuing Professional Education credits for participating. Attendees also receive a certificate of completion. The lectures are recorded and available to watch by those who registered for two months after.

There are usually eight Deeper Digs seminars in a year.

The Knowledge Series seminars are opportunities to learn from prominent archaeologists as they share their experiences and expertise. These one-hour lectures are free and exclusive to SAA members. Attendees receive a certificate of completion.  The lectures are recorded and available to watch after by SAA members in the Online Learning Archive.

There is one Knowledge Series seminar per year.

The SALSA series is organized by the Student Affairs Committee (SAC). It consists of lectures presented by student members on their current research and provides a space to discuss and connect with other students. The lectures are free and exclusive to SAA members.

Career Pathways events are a broad category of member-led virtual professional development. They take the form of discussion panels, one-off trainings, or other learning opportunities proposed by members throughout the year. The event should be sponsored by an SAA committee, task force, or interest group, who take the lead on organizing the discussants, presenters, etc. to develop the program for fellow members. Most events are recorded and available to watch after by SAA members in the Online Learning Archive. You can submit your idea for an event using the form in the left sidebar on this page.

Third Thursdays are a pilot program launched by the SAA to encourage networking between members. On the third Thursday of each month, we will host a Zoom meeting centered on a specific topic within archaeology. During the meeting, you will be a part of three different small groups to discuss the topic, to discuss your research, or simply to connect with your colleagues. Registration is $5 for professional and joint members and $2 for all other member categories and closes two days before the meeting.

Unlike other Continuing Education events, Third Thursdays are not recorded. If you need to request a refund or have any questions about Third Thursdays, please email meetings@saa.org. 


Upcoming Event Highlights


Ancient DNA 101: What You Need to Know to Establish a Successful Project

Registration Closed!

Ancient DNA 101: What You Need to Know to Establish a Successful Project

When: December 03, 2019 12:00-2:00 PM

Duration: 2 hours

Certification: RPA-certified


Pricing

Individual Registration: $99 for SAA members; $149 for non-members

Group Registration: $139 for SAA members; $189 for non-members


Instructor
Courtney Hofman is an assistant professor of Anthropology and co-director at the University of Oklahoma's Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research. Dr. Hofman has conducted research that integrates interdisciplinary methods and fields, including genomics, ancient DNA, proteomics, and archaeology to explore human-environment interactions on two very different scales. First, she investigates human-wildlife interactions and their influence on changing environments over the past millennia to inform conservation decisions. Second, Dr. Hofman conducts research on the evolution of the human microbiome using dental calculus and paleofeces from archaeological contexts. Dr. Hofman completed her PhD at the University of Maryland in collaboration with the Center for Conservation Genomics at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the Anthropology department at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, where she is also a research associate.

Dr. Christina Warinner earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University in 2010 and received postdoctoral training in genomics and proteomics at the University of Zurich (2010-2012) and the University of Oklahoma (2012-2014). In 2014, she was appointed Assistant Professor of Anthropology and was awarded a Presidential Research Professorship at the University of Oklahoma (OU). In 2016, she was made W2 Group Leader of Microbiome Sciences at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (MPI-SHH), and in 2018 she was promoted to University Professor in the Faculty of Biological Sciences at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany. Since 2019, she is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University. Warinner specializes in biomolecular archaeology, with an emphasis on reconstructing the prehistory of human foods and the evolution of the microbiome. She is known for her pioneering work in ancient DNA and proteins research, which has contributed to the study of prehistoric human health, ancestral human oral and gut microbiota, the origins of dairying, and past human migrations. She is a 2012 TED Fellow, and her TED Talks on ancient dental calculus and the evolution of the human diet have been viewed more than 2 million times. In addition to her research, she is actively engaged in public outreach and created the Adventures in Archaeological Science coloring book, now available in thirty languages, including many indigenous and underrepresented languages.

Description
Recent technological advances in genetics, such as high-throughput sequencing (HTS), have radically transformed ancient DNA (aDNA) research, making it more accessible and affordable for archaeologists than ever before. This seminar will provide a brief introduction to the field of paleogenomics, with an emphasis on the range of questions that can be addressed using current technologies, as well as some potential challenges. We will also explore how much an aDNA study actually costs and the role of student training in aDNA labs. Participants will learn how to identify questions that are amenable to genetic analysis and acquire strategies for how to set up successful collaborations with aDNA labs.
Objectives
  1. Provide an update on major changes in ancient DNA technologies over the past 5 years.
  2. Highlight the range of questions that current ancient DNA methods can investigate.
  3. Address challenges in ancient DNA research, such as sample preservation and data authentication.
  4. Provide strategies for identifying potential research partners and establishing successful collaborations with aDNA labs.
  5. Discuss the structural differences between how research and training is conducted within the fields of archaeology and genetics, and how this impacts ancient DNA research.
  6. Establish the importance of hypothesis-driven research, and dispel the “Doing the DNA” myth.


Continuing Education FAQ

There are many benefits to registering for an SAA continuing education event:
  • Keep up to date on developments in the field and emerging topics with the help of leading experts.
  • Advance in your job or career. Many SAA online seminars are RPA-certified. Registered Professional Archaeologists (RPA) or Registered Archaeologists (RA) can receive Continuing Professional Education credit for attending certified seminars.
  • Receive a certificate of completion from SAA for attending a Foundational Skills, Deeper Digs, or Knowledge Series seminar.
Registration is on a first-come, first-serve basis and will remain open until available "seats" are filled or until the day before the event.

Click on the "Register" button on the Upcoming Events page. Choose the event you'd like to attend from the list. You'll sign in with your SAA username and password, or create an account if you don't already have one. Click on the "Register Myself" button and answer the prompts. Save your responses, and proceed to checkout. Even for free events, you will need to click the "Proceed to Checkout" button and "Submit Order" to complete your registration.

Primary registrants will receive a confirmation email immediately after successful registration, an invitation email to the event about a week before the course date, and a reminder email the day before. (If you register within a week of the event, you should expect to receive the immediate confirmation and the reminder email the day before.) If you do not receive these, please contact onlineseminars@saa.org.

Some events have a group option. Two or more individuals sharing a single computer connection in the same physical location qualify for the group rate. There is no maximum limit to how many people can be in a group. Only the primary registrant is required to be an SAA member to receive the SAA group-member pricing.

When registering groups, the primary registrant should submit the group registration form by close of business the day of the event. We regret that we cannot add group participants after that day.

The primary registrant will receive the log in information to join the event. This should not be shared with the group participants to log in separately. Everyone registered in the group will receive the same materials, credits, and certificates (where applicable).

If your group is unable to watch the seminar together, only the primary registrant will be able to view the lecture live. However, for Deeper Digs seminars, everyone in the group will have access to the lecture recording for two months. For other recorded events, recordings will be available only to SAA members in the Online Learning Archive.

Cancellations and refunds for fee-based events are allowed prior to one week before the course date. If you paid a registration fee, your cancellation is subject to a $25 processing fee.

If you find you are unable to attend an event after registering, please let us know at onlineseminars@saa.org.

SAA Continuing Education uses the videoconferencing app Zoom. You will not need a Zoom account in order to join the event, and instructions for logging in on the day will be emailed to each primary registrant. To ensure that you have everything you need, you can try a Zoom test meeting.

Participants should have a stable Internet connection and speakers (either computer or phone) in order to watch and listen. Participants can ask questions of the presenters using a chat text box. Please plan to log in 5-10 minutes before the start time in case you have technical problems.
Most often, yes! All seminars and many other events are recorded. Deeper Digs seminar recordings are made available to those who registered (including everyone in a group) for two months after. Some of these recordings are also available for purchase later as a Seminar On-Demand.

Foundational Skills, Knowledge Series, and other past seminars are available for at least two years in the SAA Member Center's Online Learning Archive. This archive of 30+ hours of free professional development recordings is available only to SAA members.
Many continuing education events are free to SAA members. However, when you do pay a registration fee for an event, you receive a professional development opportunity from an expert in the field to guide you in continuing education and new skills. You also receive (if applicable to that event) a certificate of completion from SAA and Continuing Professional Education credits from the Register of Professional Archaeologists. In addition, those funds are put to use to maintain and improve the program by:
  • Paying for the annual licenses for the online videoconferencing and video hosting platforms
  • Compensating most presenters with an honorarium for their time and expertise
  • Keeping a majority of the events free for SAA members
  • Maintaining an archive of past recordings, which SAA members can view in the Online Learning Archive
  • Supporting a full-time SAA Education and Outreach staff position to run the Continuing Education program