By Aislinn Sanders

Kevin Garstki, lecturer at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, recently published his new work Critical Archaeology in the Digital Age: Proceedings of the 12th IEMA Visiting Scholar’s Conference through UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. Garstki, a UWM alum, completed his PhD in 2017 with a dissertation titled Production and Technological Change: Ironworking in Prehistoric Ireland under the direction of Dr. Bettina Arnold. His current research interests include visualization and representation in archaeology, 3D scanning techniques, late prehistoric Europe, and archaeological pedagogy. His new book is the outcome of the Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology’s Visiting Scholar Conference held in April 2019, an event which Garstki organized as a postdoctoral scholar. The work encompasses papers discussing topics of impactful technologies, the rethinking of data, and the digital future of archaeology. The full abstract can be read here:

“Every part of archaeological practice is intimately tied to digital technologies, but how deeply do we really understand the ways these technologies impact the theoretical trends in archaeology, how these trends affect the adoption of these technologies, or how the use of technology alters our interactions with the human past? This volume suggests a critical approach to archaeology in a digital world, a purposeful and systematic application of digital tools in archaeology. This is a call to pay attention to your digital tools, to be explicit about how you are using them, and to understand how they work and impact your own practice. The chapters in this volume demonstrate how this critical, reflexive approach to archaeology in the digital age can be accomplished, touching on topics that include 3D data, predictive and procedural modelling, digital publishing, digital archiving, public and community engagement, ethics, and global sustainability. The scale and scope of this research demonstrates how necessary it is for all archaeological practitioners to approach this digital age with a critical perspective and to be purposeful in our use of digital technologies.”

Critical Archaeology in the Digital Age: Proceedings of the 12th IEMA Visiting Scholar’s Conference can be read for free online here (https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vh9t9jq#main)