Hi all,

The call for papers for the always excellent TAG (UK Theoretical Archaeology Group) conference in sunny Edinburgh (15-17 December 2022) opens today with over 30 sessions on the theme of Revolutions!

I would especially like to draw list members’ attention to Gabriel Moshenska and I’s session on:

Absence: Perspectives from archaeology and heritage.

Absence is a fundamental concept in both archaeology and cultural heritage studies, but one that has not received the concerted critical attention that it deserves. Our ambition for this session is to lay the groundwork for a more focused conversation about absence and absences across these two fields. This might include the role of absence in epistemologies and knowledge-making practices; typologies of material and immaterial absences; and explorations of allied concepts such as loss, destruction, forgetting, and decay.

There have been valuable contributions to the study of absence in anthropology, memory studies and related fields – within archaeology we acknowledge the work of Gavin Lucas and others who have begun to explore these significances. Some of this earlier work has focused on the often problematic notion of ‘presencing’ absence, with the material and ethical implications of this frequently left under-explored. In this session we hope to generate discussion that can progress beyond this, and to spark critical engagements with the concept of absence that can enrich practice and thought in archaeology and heritage.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

Material absences as archaeological category;
Absence as a form of heritage making and remaking;
The idea of proxies in archaeological and heritage research: how we rely on absence to study the past;
Theoretical engagements and critiques of absence concepts in archaeology and heritage from any period or region;
Non human/hybrid absences and/or speculations on a future absence of humans.

More detail and many other excellent sessions to choose from: https://tagedinburgh2022.wordpress.com/absence-perspectives-from-archaeology-and-heritage/

To submit a 200-250 words abstract to our session or to ask a question (by 31 July) please email us: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]

Jonny

Dr Jonathan Gardner, FHEA

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow
ECA Postdoc Champion

School of Art

Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh
E.05, Main Building, 74 Lauriston Place
Edinburgh, EH3 9DF

https://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/profile/dr-jonathan-gardner
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jonathan_Gardner4

New book out!:
A Contemporary Archaeology of London’s Mega Events: From the Great Exhibition to London 2012
Download free open access at: https://www.uclpress.co.uk/collections/archaeology/products/155981