The challenge of relevance: Framing the impact of archaeological research

Abstract

In the US, universities and disciplines have been increasingly challenged to demonstrate their value. In some contexts, value is couched in market terms, such as return-on-investment (ROI). Faculty have generally recoiled against the intrusion of business-oriented ideologies into universities. But the resistance often focuses on maintaining the status quo rather than evaluating and addressing the nature of these conversations about academia’s value. One response has been to develop “applied” avenues to tie one’s disciplinary relevance to others' rather than to develop our own strategies to provide more accurate representations of our discipline’s value. However, focusing on only academic relevance has become less effective. External forces have changed the employment landscape, the nature of research funding, and the structure of higher education institutions. Unfortunately, disciplines that appear to have limited relevance are at greater risk of being under- or de-funded. In this talk, I discuss how we can think about relevance more broadly across context, scale, and stakeholders in archaeology and academia in general.

Seminar Recording

About the speaker

Lisa Nagaoka is a zooarchaeologist, a researcher who studies animal bones and shells found in archaeological sites to understand how past human societies interacted with animals and their environments.  As an archaeologist, she has worked mainly in the Pacific Islands (New Zealand, American Samoa, Cook Islands, Hawaii), but also has participated in projects in the US (Great Basin, Southwest) and western Argentina.

“Archaeology is valuable for understanding long-term ecological processes and human impacts, and thus can provide insights on how to address modern-day conservation and environmental management challenges”, says Nagaoka.

“Archaeology is also a discipline in which researchers tend to be a jack of all trades.  We work at multiple scales across time and space.  Our datasets are often incomplete, so we are aware of data quality issues and how to address them.  And we work with people, things, and ideas.  I have applied the broad skill sets developed through archaeology to projects on campus sustainability, transportation, and women in science. “