VOICES IN THE MAKING: QUEER, FEMINIST DISRUPTIONS OF (DIGITAL) ARCHAEOLOGY
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 28/01/2021

Coding, maker and hacker cultures revel in the ways in which creating, tinkering and breaking can be used to radicalize participation and change engagement and power. Public archaeology has in turn adopted many of these practices and principles to make room for more voices, for more individuals and communities to make the past. In challenging who gets to do digital archaeology we can also challenge representations of people in the past, and ultimately contemporary perceptions of culture, diversity, and inclusivity. However, in removing barriers, the digital equally throws up new boundaries and limitations. Critical appraisals of digital scholarship and tech-centred industries have increasingly underscored the pervasive structures of privilege, inequity and inaccessibility, both for audiences/users/participants and coders/makers/hackers. This paper will examine the intersections of dissent, public-ness, and risk-taking in archaeological knowledge production and reception. Focussing on the intersections of research, classroom and museum contexts, this paper will consider the relationship between identity, inclusion and making in (re)formulating archaeology as a place to transform the past, present, and future. The ways in which queer and feminist voices are using digital, translational storytelling and creative media to disrupt traditional narratives of the past but also contemporary sociopolitical structures, including in academic/professional circles, has the potential to establish a valuable and dynamic future agenda of activism, advocacy, and
impact in archaeological theory.


Author(s): Cook, Katherine (McMaster University)