Physically disabled people are vastly underrepresented in the field of professional archaeology. This is likely in part due to the inaccessibility of field school and an unwillingness to build in accommodations. This paper proposes that accommodating physical disabilities in field schools is possible and worthwhile. This research includes three case studies using the author’s experience in archaeological field schools as an amputee who uses crutches and a wheelchair, as well as those of fellow students with disabilities. These case studies include two local field schools, one in an urban setting and the other in the mountains, and one international field school. Through these three field schools, this paper demonstrates ways that have been found to accommodate various disabilities. It is necessary to find ways to accommodate disabilities in field schools in order to the open door for physically disabled people in discussions of archaeology, especially archaeology of disability.

Gateway National Recreation Area preserves a mosaic of coastal ecosystems interwoven with precontact, military defense, and maritime archeological sites that are extremely vulnerable to climate change stressors. As cultural resource stewards, it is our duty to adapt to the changing climate in policy, planning, and decision-making to ensure the stories that shape human heritage are not lost. At Gateway, a unit of the National Park Service in New York and New Jersey, the cultural resources team is creating a sensitivity model integrated with data from the USGS Climate Change Likelihood (CCL) tool to document sensitive sites and plan for the protection of these nonrenewable resources from further disturbance. This presentation focuses on how the park, in collaboration with a group of stakeholders, will use this model to identify treatments and mitigations to proactively address the effects of climate stressors at locations with the most at risk archeological resources.

The greater Reno, Nevada area is home to more than 250 historical markers. Despite this proliferation of public-facing histories, the stories of historically marginalized groups are overwhelmingly absent. Indigenous peoples, women, Chinese peoples, African Americans, and the LGBTQIA+ community are among those overlooked by historical markers. Through the lens of activist archaeology, the institutionalization of dominant narratives via historical markers becomes clear, as well as the related disenfranchisement of non-dominant groups. These historical markers constitute a territorial appropriation of the region and erase the histories of many peoples important to Reno’s past, present, and future. Archaeologists should play a role rewriting historical markers that ensure adequate representation of all peoples.

A decolonial approach to archaeology reflects on the power archaeologists maintain over historical epistemology, the damage archaeologists have caused to indigenous and marginalized communities, and how the continued neglect of indigenous agency perpetuates injustice. Institutions in the Global North responsible for safeguarding cultural heritage of the Global South still stifle conversations which consider the role they play in exacerbating the ongoing malpractice of cultural stewardship, the nuances between allyship and tokenization, and how institutional gaslighting induces accepting a neocolonial status quo. We must recognize how highlighting the lack of institutional capacity in the Global South as an excuse for not building sustainable partnerships, recentering traditional knowledge, and defending indigenous agency is, in the interest of reputational preservation, an exceedingly flimsy stance. Instead, shifting this paradigm prompts opportunities for archaeologists, universities, and cultural stewardship institutions to bridge capacity gaps, foster meaningful North-South relationships, and serve as a replicable ethical model.

Mobile, Alabama, City of the Six Flags; not signifying an amusement park, but rather the variety of European/European descendants who claimed the western shore of the Mobile River already occupied by diverse Indigenous Nations, and to which additional genetic and ethnic diversity came from enslaved Africans brought to its port. In 2015, the Mobile City Council, due to the relation of flags, diversity, equity, and inclusion, removed all six flags from the city seal. Here, we provide estimates of precontact demography, reconstruct contact period demography from available data, present U.S. census data from 1820 to 1950, and consider demographic projections into the future. These data provide new insights into Mobile’s ethnic diversity through time. The emerging patterns and trends provide insight into who lived in Mobile through time, and changes that led to Mobile’s present in terms of neighborhood composition, socio-political relations, and ideology.

The Convention of 1882 formed a temporary joint commission to resurvey and place additional international boundary monuments from El Paso, Texas to San Diego, California along the United States – Mexico border. Today, a total of 258 cast iron and cut stone monuments were emplaced within line of site along the border. Under the Trump Administration, a new steel bollard wall was partially completed which consisted of reshaping the borderlands and impacted the monuments. Over several years, the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) has surveyed and recorded sites dealing with the construction camps, older emory monuments and current impacts due to the border wall construction. Monument 40 at the New Mexico “Bootheel” has shown in situ artifacts and features associated with its construction in the 1890s. Discussion will focus on this wall-less pristine site and the area before wall construction could begin again, forever changing the landscape and site.

The New Historia is a digital platform of encyclopedic information of female identifying histories organized into condensed biographies (referred to as schemas) for private and educational use. This online encyclopedia provides an alternative or accompanying outlet for scholars to write comprehensive biographies of women and allows persons without institutional access to research libraries and databases to investigate a given figure.

Archaeology uncovers the lives of women; but the context in which these women’s lived experiences were found through archaeological artifacts and recorded texts is a site of continuing investigation. Further, female identifying histories are changed in accordance with the social and political climate of the contemporary moment, as well as current understanding of women’s medical conditions. This paper will investigate the questions of narrative formation, access to information, and why alternative digital platforms are important as outlets for publicly accessible academic resources.

"Blackbirding" refers to the 19th-century practice of coercing, tricking, or kidnapping Aboriginal women and transporting them far away to endure a life of servitude and harsh conditions. Many indigenous women were forced to dive for pearls off Broome, Australia, based on the belief that women had a greater lung capacity for staying underwater longer. Some were made to dive to significant depths with stones tied to their legs to keep them submerged, even while pregnant. Many of these women drowned, and others perished in shipwrecks. The scars from this exploitation remain.
This paper will examine the role of these women in the once-lucrative pearl diving industry, recognizing their outstanding yet silent contributions to the profession. It will also explore the qualities of these diver women, highlighting how their attributes can be valuable as pioneers, leaders, and innovators in ocean security today.