Past Events

Kaitlyn Davis, RPA, Ph.D., Northern Arizona University

Dr. Kaitlyn Davis was the lead author on a publication in Advances in Archaeological Practice’s 2021 special issue on Health and Wellness in Archaeology, specifically focusing on safety considerations for first time field directors (such as graduate students). She also co-led a well-attended SAA seminar in 2022 on safety and logistical considerations for preparing a first field project. She teaches one of Northern Arizona University's archaeological field schools.

Dr. Davis is an archaeologist with over 10 years of experience including cultural resource management, community collaboration, public lands management, and academic research. She is interested in community-based archaeology, public archaeology, artifact sourcing, paleoethnobotany, geoarchaeology, and landscape archaeology. She especially values community-based collaborative archaeology, having worked in cooperation with community members from the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes, the Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) Tribe, the Santa Fe South Cooperative Association, the Friends of Fort Owen, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Ute Indian Tribe, and collaborating for 11 years with the Pueblo of Pojoaque. She has completed archaeological projects for the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Parks Service, New Mexico State Land Office, Archaeological Conservancy, and Montana State Parks. She has previously worked in several midwestern and western states and Ireland, and at archaeological sites ranging in date from the early archaic period through the early twentieth century. She has supervised the crews and planned the logistics for multiple of the projects previously described. These crews have ranged from volunteers of all ages and experience levels to university and federal employees. She earned her PhD from the University of Colorado in 2022 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Archaeology at Northern Arizona University and a Senior Archaeologist at Chronicle Heritage.

Graduate schools provide students opportunities for fieldwork and training in archaeological methods and theory, but can sometimes overlook instruction in field safety and well-being. More explicit guidance on organizational considerations for projects and how to conduct safe fieldwork will improve the overall success of student-led projects and prepare students to direct safe and successful fieldwork programs as professionals. This guidance can also be instilled during field school, and so a portion of this course will be dedicated to considerations for organizing and directing field schools to meet the needs of today’s workforce and to emphasize crew safety and training scaffolding. In this seminar, we will draw on the experiences of current and recent graduate students as well as professors who have overseen fieldwork to outline key considerations in improving field safety and well-being and to offer recommendations for specific training and safety protocols. While discussing these considerations and recommendations, we will use primarily domestic field project examples, particularly those involving community collaboration, but will briefly touch on international projects.

The resources and recommendations provided in this seminar will be especially useful for projects whose crews are comprised at least partially of students, interns, or volunteers (such as Passport in Time, university, or nonprofit-sponsored projects).

1. Learning how to protect and register your project.
2. Provide information to share with your crew (e.g. acknowledgement of risk form, code of conduct agreement, info packet).
3. Learning things to keep in mind when structuring your project (i.e. structuring a safe project).

To be announced.

Join SAA to learn about career options in archaeology and heritage management! Attendees will be able to pick two career paths they want to learn more about and talk to professionals in the field.

• Each breakout room will be capped at 40 people per room.
• Registrants will receive a confirmation email immediately, an email with log in information about one week before the event, and a reminder email the day before. If you do not receive the automated confirmation email, please double-check that you have completed registration.
• This event is FREE to SAA members and not available to non-members.

Dan Sandweiss, Ph.D., University of Maine

Dan Sandweiss es un arqueólogo andinista con casi 50 años de experience en la América Latina. Ha participado en comités de selección para premios de la SAA y hizo una nominación exitosa para un premio. Fue el presidente de la SAA de 2022 a 2025 y ortorgó los premios de la SAA a los ganadores cada año.

En este curso, vamos a hablar de como hacer una nominación para un premio de la SAA.

1. Saber que premios ofrece la SAA
2. Saber como extraer la información clave de las convocatorias para nominaciones para premios
3. Saber como escribir una nominación para un premio

Ryan Seidemann, J.D., Ph.D., RPA, Arizona State University, University of New Orleans, The Water Institute, Southern University Law Center

Ryan has been studying cemeteries and biological anthropology for over 30 years. He holds a BA (Florida State) and an MA (Louisiana State) in anthropology and a Ph.D. (Univ. of New Orleans) in urban studies/urban anthropology. Ryan also holds two law degrees (Louisiana State) and has been a licensed lawyer for over 20 years (Louisiana and Vermont). Ryan's legal, anthropological, and academic pursuits have been guided by studying the intersections of law and archaeology, including historic and archaeological preservation, human remains law, and shipwreck law. As a lawyer for the State of Louisiana for 20 years, Ryan policed the illicit trade in human remains in that state and collaborated with other states and federal agencies engaged in such endeavors. At the same time, Ryan authored or coauthored the laws that today make Louisiana's cemetery site protections the strongest in the United States. In addition, Ryan regularly teaches CRM, historic preservation, property law, and the anthropology of death and burial through adjunct appointments at the University of New Orleans, Southern University Law Center, and Arizona State University.

This course provides practitioners, both within CRM and academia, with a basic overview of federal and Louisiana law governing cemeteries and human remains. The focus on Louisiana law is expanded to the rest of the United States, reviewing both statutory law, court interpretations (case law), and basic common and civil law concepts that relate to these unique spaces. This course also provides recommendations for amending existing law around the U.S. and highlights the importance of descendant community agency in the protection of these sites.

1. Provide a clear understanding of what the law does and does not protect in terms of cemeteries and human remains in the U.S.
2. Provide guidance for how these laws interact with the basic practice of CRM in the U.S.
3. Provide guidance for working to improve protections of these sites in jurisdictions around the U.S.

Elizabeth Reetz, Strategic Initiatives Director, University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist. Formerly a Cultural Resources Management fieldwork director, Elizabeth now focuses on archaeology education, communications, and making archaeology accessible to all ages.

Mary De La Garza, Research Technology Director, University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist. Mary is a Systems Administrator who uses her technical skills in the digital archaeological realm. She is a licensed drone pilot and produces and analyzes aerial lidar and thermal data collected from archaeological sites by a UAS.

Ervan Garrison, Professor Emeritus, Geology & Anthropology, University of Georgia. Ervan currently conducts geoarchaeological research using drone and ROV-hosted geophysical sensors.

This webinar is designed for those participating in the 2025-2026 FIRST® LEGO® League UNEARTHED^TM season focused on archaeology. Our expert panelists will discuss the various challenges archaeologists face with logistics, research, excavation, fieldwork, artifact analysis, storage, and more! We'll address common questions that archaeologists receive and will answer questions from attendees. Coaches and students are invited to attend, but an adult must be the one to register on behalf of their team. No matter what point your team is in preparations, this session will help you brainstorm the ways that new innovations can address real-world archaeological challenges.

The webinar was recorded and can be found here: Exploring Archaeological Challenges: A Webinar for FIRST® LEGO® League and Robotics Teams - YouTube

This webinar is designed for those participating in the 2025-2026 FIRST® LEGO® League UNEARTHED^TM season focused on archaeology.