The return
Hello! I’ve missed writing to you. I’ve finished my Very Big Project, which was—*drum roll*—my first book proposal. I’m not ready to say more about it publicly, but I hope to have news to share relatively soon. So, I am returning to the weekly newsletter! This week is short and sweet, because I just finished the proposal on Tuesday and still catching my breath. But definitely stay tuned for next week, which will feature a conversation with my sister Carrie Wade about thriving during quarantine—which, amazingly, we are both doing! Longtime readers will remember Carrie from her brilliant insights about productivity bros.
For now, I want to share my latest article for Science, about the archaeologists who are trying to make field schools safer and more inclusive. Every single archaeologist trained in the U.S. must attend a field school, where they learn methods like excavation and survey through hands-on work. But for the first century or so that this training model has existed, field schools have been environments where sexual harassment, heavy drinking, and a overall “cowboy culture” thrived. They also cost students thousands of dollars, with very limited financial aid available. In addition to teaching students how to do archaeology, field schools teach them if they want to be archaeologists—if they “fit” in archaeology. So changing the culture of field school is a step toward broadening the discipline to more kinds of people, which is a step toward expanding how we all come to know and understand our past. It’s a pleasure to be writing about archaeology at a time when these problems are being acknowledged and changes are being made.