2023 Call for Submissions

2023 Call for Submissions

Posted by Panos Kratimenos on 2023-03-23

Papers from the Institute of Archaeology (PIA) is now accepting submissions for our 2023 issue. Aside from the main volume, we are also running two special features, details of which are outlined below.

PIA is a peer reviewed, open-access journal that publishes research on all aspects of archaeology, museum studies, cultural heritage and conservation. We publish research papers and short reports, and also welcome reviews of conferences, exhibitions and books. We accept online submissions via the journal website. Please see the author guidelines for further information or contact the editorial team.

Run by doctoral researchers at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, one of the core aims of PIA is to provide authors with experience in publishing articles early in their careers. While we are open to all, we therefore place extra emphasis on the provision of peer review feedback and editorial assistance to early career authors. We publish online as soon as articles are ready, so there is no delay in research being released and submissions can be sent throughout the year.

The journal is fully indexed, double-blind peer-reviewed and fully open-access.

In addition to the main volume, we are also accepting submissions for two thematic special features. Titles, points of contact and abstracts are listed below.

If you have any queries, or we can be of assistance with anything, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, either via the contact form on the PIA website, or via ioa.pia-editor@ucl.ac.uk.

Plague and Prejudice: Archaeology, COVID-19 and the Resurgence of Social Justice Movements
Special feature lead editor: Panos Kratimenos (p.kratimenos@ucl.ac.uk)

The last few years have been eventful, to say the least.

In relatively short order, a wide array of social justice movements – from #MeToo, to Black Lives Matter, to indigenous struggles (both long-standing and new), to a litany of regional and global class-, sex-, gender- and ethnicity-based movements – have exploded into (and back into) life across the world. Concomitantly, various reactionary, nativist and revanchist tendencies have emerged, aiming to stifle and, indeed, in many cases, roll back the achievements of such movements. This fractious political environment has fomented in a time of increasing economic inequality and precarity, with two supposedly once-in-a-lifetime global economic cataclysms occurring barely a decade apart (2007/8 and 2019 to present). All of this, of course, cannot be separated from the ongoing climate catastrophe and, in particular, the seismic demographic and economic shifts which this has and will continue to entail.

Then, of course, there is the small matter of a (hopefully!) once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. Since December 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to an estimated 6.5 million deaths (WHO, 2022) and forced a sea change on the majority of the world’s population, the effects of which continue to be felt in many parts of the world. Crucially, however, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been fundamentally unequal (see, for example, Ahmed et al. 2020, McGreal 2020, and Patel et al. 2020), with the bases for this differential impact largely centred around many of the same vectors at the root of the myriad social justice movements outlined above (see, for example, Isaac & Elrick 2021; Valencia et al. 2021).

This special issue of Papers from the Institute of Archaeology draws together researchers, lecturers, professionals and students to reflect on the intersection of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and resurgent social justice movements across the world on archaeology, cultural heritage, museums and the study of the past more broadly. We invite participants to consider the theoretical, methodological and practical impact, and to share experiences of how these last few years have shaped or altered their perceptions of these disciplines, inherent assumptions therein, teaching, research, learning and the role of these disciplines within society more broadly.

References

Ahmed, Faheem, Na’eem Ahmed, Christopher Pissarides and Joseph Stiglitz. 2020. ‘Why inequality could spread COVID-19’, The Lancet Public Health 5(5):e240. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30085-2

Isaac, Maike & Jennifer Elrick. 2020. ‘How COVID-19 may alleviate the multiple marginalization of racialized migrant workers’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 44(5): 851–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1842900

McGreal, Chris. 2020. ‘The inequality virus: how the pandemic hit America’s poorest’, Guardian, 9th April 2020. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/america-inequality-laid-bare-coronavirus

Patel, J. A., F. B. H. Nielsen, Ashni A. Badiani, Sahar Assi, V. A. Unadkat, B. Patel, Ramya Ravindrane, & Heather Wardle. 2020. ‘Poverty, inequality and COVID-19: the forgotten vulnerable’, Public Health 183: 110–11.

Valencia Rendon, Andres Felipe, Isabela Mendes Volschan, Manoella de Novais Pereira, Alessandra de Freitas Pimentel, Wagner Lima Monteiro, Gláucia Maria Moraes de Oliveira. 2020. ‘Marginalization, Vulnerability and Economic Dynamics in COVID-19’, International Journal of Cardiovascular Studies 34(3): 319–23. https://doi.org/10.36660/ijcs.20210029

World Health Organization (WHO), Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. Available at: https://covid19.who.int/; accessed: 21st July 2022.

Understanding Archaeology: Communication, Fragmentation, and Future Directions
Special feature lead editor: Michael D’Aprix (michael.d'aprix.15@ucl.ac.uk)

Archaeology around the world has grown rapidly in the past 30 years. In the UK alone, since the 1990s and the introduction of planning policy, there has been a 220% increase in practicing archaeologists (Aitchison et al., 2020). That growth has led to the development of a wide range of institutional structures, legal frameworks, commercial units, and new pathways to becoming an archaeologist. Alongside this diversification of Archaeology has come an increasing divergence of communities and decreasing common ground between different groups of archaeologists leading to a breakdown in communication between sectors and a fragmentation of the discipline.

This breakdown of communication has been briefly highlighted as a challenge in recent reports from the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (Wills, 2018) and the Society for Antiquaries London (Andrews et al., 2020). Others have seen the closing of departments, potential cutting of education budgets, low pay, and an overall siloed ecosystem of groups as a crisis for the discipline (Belford, 2021).

These divides of varying severity have developed between the academic and commercial sectors but also between other areas of Archaeology based on region, period, specialisation, and the overlap of other closely related disciplines.

A major hurdle in discussing the growing issue of fragmentation in Archaeology is our knowledge of Archaeology itself has not kept up with its growth. Many of our most important discussions are informal, as referenced often in both publications and semi-formal settings like conferences (Johnson, 2013; Morel, 2014; Rocks-Macqueen, 2016; Pétursdóttir and Olsen, 2018).

This special issue of the PIA is designed to explore the current state of Archaeology and examine the importance of various organisations and institutions that have been created to support certain niches within the discipline.

We welcome voices from students of Archaeology on their journey to becoming Archaeologists, from Early Career Archaeologists and their experiences in working, and from leaders in the field and those embedded in the organisations that support archaeologists.

The goal is to focus on the underdiscussed aspects of fragmentation in Archaeology from differing viewpoints and how that fragmentation impacts research, accessibility, funding, and how improving our understanding of the discipline can lead to more innovative and diverse practices of archaeology and improvements in the environments in which archaeologists work.

From students: expectations and perceptions of divisions in archaeology, the hurdles they face as new and aspiring archaeologists, the value organisations and institutions provide, and the hopes and goals in becoming an Archaeologist.

From Early Career Archaeologists: expectations and perceptions of divisions in archaeology, the outcomes of those expectations in their career, the hurdles they face in new stages of their career, and the value provided by different groups and organisations that support Archaeologists.

From experienced Archaeologists: the way that becoming an archaeologist has changed throughout their careers, the relationship between different sectors and groups, and also observed changes in the institutional support systems provided.

References

Aitchison, K., German, P. & Rocks-Macqueen, D. 2020. Profiling the Profession. Landward Research Ltd: Chartered Institute for Archaeologists. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14333387

Andrews, G., Brookes, S., Brown, D. & Lewis, J. 2020. 'The Future of Archaeology in England: A Manifesto'. London: The Society of Antiquaries of London.

Belford, P. 2021. 'Crisis? What Crisis? Archaeology under Pressure in the United Kingdom'. Archäologische Informationen, 44: 9-24. https://doi.org/10.11588/ai.2021.1.89110

Johnson, M. 2013. 'What Is Theory For?', in The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Theory, edited by Andrew Gardner, Mark Lake and Ulrike Sommer. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199567942.013.001

Morel, H. 2014. 'The Individuals Behind Contemporary Archaeology'. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 24(1): p.Art. 26.

Pétursdóttir, Þ. & Olsen, B. 2018. 'Theory Adrift: The Matter of Archaeological Theorizing'. Journal of Social Archaeology, 18(1): 97-117. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605317737426

Rocks-Macqueen, D. 2016. 'When You Are More Likely to Die of Cancer Than Become an Academic: What Is the Role of Phd Students?' Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 25(2). p.Art. 14. https://doi.org/10.5334/pia.513

Wills, J. 2018. The World After PPG16: 21st Century Challenges for Archaeology. Reading: Chartered Institute for Archaeologists.