Past Events

Brian Fagan, PhD, Emeritus, University of California, Santa Barbara

Dr. Fagan is a Cambridge-trained archaeologist, who spent his early career in East and Central Africa working on the African Iron Age. This research involved extensive fieldwork, also public outreach. Since coming to the United States in 1966, he has specialized in communicating archaeology to both students and general audiences. A combination of large class teaching, textbook writing, also lecturing and writing for general audiences around the world has given him a unique perspective on the challenges of practicing public outreach. His talk will revolve around his long experience in such work during a multi-faceted career.

Effective public outreach is now a central issue in archaeology. The instructor will take attendees on a journey through the day-to-day challenges of lecturing and writing about the past for general audiences. He will use his first-hand experience and examples from around the world to highlight some of the challenges of working full-time on public outreach whether in the classroom or outside it—until recently not a popular activity for archaeologists. How do you write successfully about archaeology for the general public? What are the potential careers for those doing this? This is a seminar that will explore a growing, and often neglected segment of archaeological work.

The Knowledge Series seminars are opportunities to learn from prominent archaeologists as they share their experiences and expertise.

Stephen Dan Humphreys, PhD, RPA

Dr. Humphreys founded American Veterans Archaeological Recovery (AVAR), a 501c3 nonprofit, in 2016. AVAR provides American military veterans and service personnel with the opportunity and training to carry out archaeological fieldwork in a way that improves their mental health. Many of the individuals who have participated in the program have diagnosed mental health-related disabilities and as a result, the program has continuously adapted to better serve this population. He holds a Ph.D. in archaeology from Durham University (2020) as well as an MA in Archaeology and Biblical Studies and an MA in Theology from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a National Geographic Explorer with excavation experience in Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, the United Kingdom, Sicily, and the USA.

This seminar will provide practical measures that field excavation directors can implement with minimal additional financial commitment in order to better safeguard the mental health of project participants. The information presented is research-based, and the suggested measures have been gathered, implemented, and refined by American Veterans Archaeological Recovery in their work with military veterans and civilian students since the program's inception in 2016.

1. Understand the commonality of mental health issues in the fieldwork environment, and the need for change
2. Identify elements of the fieldwork environment that are potentially damaging to the mental health of all participants
3. Recognize reasonable, practical methods that can be implemented on field projects to mitigate or eliminate elements of the fieldwork environment that negatively impact mental health