Upcoming Seminars

April Kamp-Whittaker is a PhD candidate at Arizona State University and co-host of the Archaeology Show on the Archaeology Podcast Network. She has been a member of SAA for 10 years and served on both the SAA Student Affairs Committee and the Committee on Museums, Collections, and Curation. April has held a range of positions in museums, academia, and CRM. Her work in museums and academia has focused on ways to make archaeology accessible and relevant to a broad audience.

Attending conferences can be intimidating and confusing. How do you find a session? Register? Organize your own session? And what do you wear? This seminar will try to answer common questions about participating in the SAA Annual Meeting and give you tools for leaving the conference feeling like you had the most productive experience possible. If you have never been before or feel like you are not maximizing your conference experience, then this seminar should help. The instructor will cover the basics from deciding if you should present for the first time all the way to organizing your own session. She will also discuss other ways to participate in the conference and the SAA. At the end of the seminar, you should feel confident in your ability to have a fun and successful conference!

1. Acquire strategies for being a confident conference attendee.
2. Understand different ways to be involved in the SAA Annual Meeting and how to make use of conference resources.
3. Organize your time at the SAA Annual Meeting by knowing the structure of the meetings and how to prioritize events.

Jennifer E. Payne is the Acting Division Leader for the Environmental Protection and Compliance Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Division’s portfolio includes cultural and biological resources, pollution prevention, waste management and project planning, National Environmental Policy Act compliance, the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act, air and water quality, the Environmental Management System, environmental health physics, and Integrated Project Review, and many other diverse programs. Dr. Payne received a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma, specializing in southwestern archaeology, an MA in Anthropology from the University of Colorado at Denver, and a BA in Anthropology from the State University of New York at Fredonia. She has almost 20 years of experience at Los Alamos National Laboratory, beginning as a Graduate Research Assistant in 2000. Throughout her career at Los Alamos National Laboratory, she has focused on environmental compliance. For the past 14 years, her primary focus has been on implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) are both process-based requirements. This means that they can be open to interpretation and must follow a process to show that programs and projects have done their due diligence to consider potential impacts to the environment and the public. Archaeologists and cultural resource managers who work to support government agencies often prepare NEPA documents, cultural resources reports, development of mitigation actions, and implementation of mitigations. This seminar will provide an overview of NEPA, its requirements, and the intersection between it and the NHPA.

1. Develop a more robust understanding of the National Environmental Policy Act;
2. Develop an understanding of the relationship between the National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act; and
3. Identify potential impacts from a proposed project.

Matthew Piscitelli is a Project Archaeologist and Digital Media Manager at SEARCH as well as a Research Associate at The Field Museum in Chicago. He has 14 years of experience in archaeology, museum services, and grant administration. Prior to SEARCH, Matthew served as a Program Officer at the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC. As Program Officer, he oversaw grant-making in archaeology and advised print, digital, and television teams on the topic. Matthew has conducted archaeological fieldwork in Peru, Bolivia, Greece, and the United States. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Archaeology from Boston University in 2007 and both a master’s degree and doctorate in Anthropology from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2009 and 2014, respectively. Matthew is also a National Geographic explorer.

Daniel Fiore joined SEARCH in 2018 as a Content Producer with 15 years of experience in film, television, and advertising. He is responsible for brand management, media and public interpretation, and image documentation to demonstrate compliance for technical and safety standards. In 2012, Mr. Fiore was awarded an Emmy in Cinematography for his work on Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch series. In addition, he served in an executive role at Discovery Communications Inc. for more than three years, where he developed numerous television series, such as Yukon Men and various Shark Week shows. Before his work in film and television, he worked in advertising with the agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, who were regarded as “Agency of the Decade” at the time.

Storytelling is a universal language and video, as a collection of images and sounds, is the easiest, most visceral way to speak that language. Nevertheless, we rely more on photography and drawings as non-written ways to communicate our archaeological research. To stay competitive in today’s world of viral YouTube clips, TikTok, and Instagram Stories, we need to harness the power of video to share our knowledge of the past and the processes we use to understand it. This seminar will provide archaeologists with the tools they need to confidently and effectively capture, edit, and share video with professional and public audiences.

1. Explain why you should use video to document your research;
2. Explain the mechanics of capturing quality video;
3. Describe how to do simple/inexpensive post-production (for beginners); and
4. Describe how to leverage the power of video for your audience(s).

Suzanne Stone is a professional archaeologist with experience in a variety of site and material types across the US. She has also worked in Egypt and Pompeii. She has worked with numerous artifacts in all states of preservation (or lack thereof), including artifacts/sites recovered from primary deposition to artifacts/sites affected by major natural and man-made disasters (e.g. Hurricane Katrina, BP Oil Spill). She is a member of the American Institute for Conservation, has taught college/university courses for 13+ years, and has supervised and trained colleagues and clients in essential artifact conservation practices. She authored or contributed to numerous professional reports and presented at numerous conferences on the topic.

This seminar will introduce the basics of conservation in archaeology. We’ll briefly look at what it is, what it isn’t, safety considerations, factors that affect artifacts and sites, and we’ll look at some of the more common material types and situations that archaeologists are likely to encounter in the field or in the lab. These include metals, glass, ceramics, organics, and others. Participants will come away with a better understanding of archaeological conservation and some practical considerations prior to and during fieldwork. Participants will also be provided with information about where they can find more resource materials.

1. Explain what archaeological conservation is;
2. Describe factors that affect how artifacts and sites deteriorate; and
3. Describe best practices for preservation of archaeological resources in the field and in the lab.

Dr. Carol Colaninno, RPA is a professional archaeologist and STEM education researcher. She serves as a research assistant professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Center for STEM Research, Education, and Outreach. For several years, she has researched the kindergarten to career pathways that people take into and out of the sciences. Much of this research involves understanding why women leave the sciences, which often includes women citing a perception of unwelcoming and unsafe working environments. Much of this research has implications for people pursuing careers and working in archaeology.

Shawn Lambert is an assistant professor at Mississippi State University and a research fellow at the Cobb Institute of Archaeology, a research unit at Mississippi State University. Prior to his appointment at Mississippi State, Lambert served as Utah’s state public archaeologist. His responsibilities included public outreach, education, curriculum development, and public excavations. Lambert also served as the tribal liaison for Utah’s eight sovereign Native American nations. He currently serves as the LGBTQ representative to the SEAC Sexual Harassment and Assault Task Force.

Due to the nature and structure of field schools, enrolled students are particularly susceptible to harassment and assault. In 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released recommendations to help prevent sexual harassment and assault of women in academia. Though these recommendations are specific to higher education and exclusive to women, some can be modified and applied to the context of archaeological field schools. We review the NASEM’s recommendations with particular attention to those applicable to the field school setting and provide suggestions for making field schools safer and more inclusive learning environments for all students.

1. learn the factors that lead to environments wherein sexual harassment thrives;
2. learn recommendations for building a learning environment that discourages sexual harassment and assault;
3. learn ways to implement these recommendation at their field school.