For those of you who don’t do this kind of work, understand that archaeologists come in two basic flavors. There are traditional academics, employed at universities, who mostly teach and conduct research. There are also resource managers, who work at public agencies and private sector firms who consult with those agencies. They do their work ahead of various kinds of infrastructure and resource extraction projects, in compliance with federal and state laws and regulations. Resource managers are something like 70-80% or more of the profession. There are a small but growing number of folks who do both. What I have to say comes out of two sessions I attended today. My observations have much to do with the interaction of those two tribes and how that interaction affects young folks.
One session was entitled “If You’re not at the Table, You’re on the Menu”. The subject was not cannibalism. It was a forum sponsored by the Coalition for American Heritage on effective civic advocacy for archaeological protection and funding. The other session, in which I was a participant, was entitled “Agencies and Academia: A How-to Guide for Sustainable Partnerships”, a somewhat self-explanatory moniker.
Here’s some food for thought and, hopefully, action that flowed from these discussions, on developing and training the next generation of resource managers.
- Newly minted BA’s, MA’s and PhD’s are typically unprepared for a career in resource management work when they leave the university. That’s always been true. They learn the field skills they’ll need on the job, but that’s just part of what they’re missing.
- Few university programs and few resource management entities provide young professionals with much exposure to the legal and regulatory underpinnings of archaeological and historic preservation in this country. Nobody, as far as I know, is educating them in basics of civic advocacy. Indeed, every year I have to start young interns down this path with the differences between a law and a regulation. This is pretty basic stuff. These are usually straight-A students, the cream of the crop.
- The people who really know the regulatory and legal landscape all work in resource management. They almost never work at universities. Opportunities for these folks to provide formal, structured instruction to young practitioners are very limited or nonexistent at their workplaces and in academic settings.
- This is extraordinarily important in a world where students now face unprecedented levels of educational debt to get a degree. STEM programs and trade schools are booming. Archaeology and preservation programs are withering on the vine.
- That’s a problem. Archaeologists play a small but significant role in environmental permitting and planning in the implementation of all kinds of public infrastructure. My generation of practitioners is retiring. Young folks and new blood are needed.
- The problem is exacerbated by the unwillingness of a lot of university programs and resource management entities to dirty their hands with cooperative agreements. Lots of academics still view resource management work as second-class archaeology and as enabling the oppressor state. Lots of agencies won’t partner with universities because they view them as incompetent amateurs who don’t know what a deadline or a budget is. This is, of course, a circular firing squad.
- The legal and regulatory underpinnings of American preservation and archaeology programs are always under attack, and the current crop of political leaders are especially anxious to make them disappear. If they are successful, not only will our collective history and heritage disappear, so will the careers of a lot of bright kids.
If there has ever been a need to build a big, solid, durable bridge between university programs and resource management entities in the public, private and non-profit sectors, for God’s sake, it’s now. I have some thoughts on how to do that, but right now I’m mostly interested in yours. You can comment below or at my Facebook page. More later…
