Communicating Archaeology: Pandemic Lectures

I taught a class called “Communicating Archaeology” from 2017 – 2021, and recorded lectures for the 2020 pandemic edition, when we went remote. My good friend and colleague James Taylor actually headed it up, but I wrote and recorded all the lectures. These lectures were intended to accompany a 2 hour hands-on practical wherein students could try their hands at archaeological illustration, mapmaking, filmmaking, making 3D models, and photography.

It was created partially in response to the James article regarding the lack of “visual competence” in archaeology, a problem which continues to plague the profession.

Unfortunately, except for a select few, our archaeology students really hated it. I tried not to take it too personally, every archaeologist I’d talked to loved the idea of the class, wanted to take it themselves, etc etc. But yeah, the reviews weren’t great. We tried to change it in many ways, but students…wanted to write essays and not make stuff, and the reviews were starting to impact my career. Maybe it was because I told them to fight fascism? So it goes.

We aren’t teaching Communicating Archaeology any longer, but there are undergraduate classes on illustration, on archaeogaming, presenting archaeology and heritage, and digital futures in archaeology, so some of the content persists across other classes.

Anyway, if you’d like to watch them, I’ve uploaded the lectures I recorded in 2020 to YouTube, linked below. Sorry if they’re a bit rough, I was lockdown single parenting at the time and not having a great time.