SHA 2026 Conference on
Historical and Underwater Archaeology
Mobility
Detroit, Michigan | January 7-10, 2026
Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 24th Apr 2026, 06:09:18am EDT
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Daily Overview |
Thu08Jan
Ambassador Foyer
Ambassador 1
Renaissance Foyer
Richard A & B
Brule A & B
Cadillac A & B
Mackinac East
Mackinac West
Ontario East
Ontario West
Cabot
Cartier
Nicolet A & B
Michelangelo
42 Degrees North
Detroit Historical Museum
07:00
08:00
09:00
10:00
11:00
12:00
13:00
14:00
15:00
16:00
17:00
18:00
19:00
20:00
21:00
BOOK 1: SHA Book Room
8:30am - 5:00pm
Ambassador 1
Location: Ambassador 1
Hours: Thursday, January 8, 2026 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.Friday, January 9, 2026 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.Saturday, January 10, 2026 ...
The SHA Book Room is a marketplace for exhibitors of products, services, and publications from a variety of companies, agencies, and organizations in the archaeological community.
POS-01 (T/UW): Technological Applications in Archaeology
9:00am - 11:45am
Renaissance Foyer
Location: Renaissance Foyer
Presentations: 10
POS-02 (T/UW): People in Motion
1:30pm - 4:15pm
Renaissance Foyer
Location: Renaissance Foyer
Presentations: 9
SYM-124T: Camp Nelson, Civil War Depot and Emancipation Center for Kentucky
9:00am - 11:45am
Richard A & B
W. Stephen McBride, William B. Lees
Location: Richard A & B
Session Chair: W. Stephen McBride, Greenbrier Valley Archaeology
Discussant: William B. Lees, University of West Florida (retired)
Camp Nelson, Kentucky was created in 1863 by the United States Army as a supply depot, hospital, prison, and recruitment and training center that covered over 4,000 acres, housed 2000 to 8000 troops, and employed 1000-2000 civilians. In Spring 1864 it became one of the nation’s largest enlistment an...
Presentations: 8
SYM-378T: The Ambivalence of Emptiness
9:00am - 12:00pm
Brule A & B
Guido Pezzarossi, Alanna Warner-Smith, Michael Roller
Location: Brule A & B
Session Chair: Guido Pezzarossi, Syracuse University
Session Chair: Alanna Warner-Smith, American University
Discussant: Michael Roller, N/A
Emptiness does not simply signify a space devoid of anything. Rather, “emptiness can be very full, but not with the ‘right’ things” (Dzenovska and Knight 2020). This session considers emptiness as materially and discursively generated by removal, destruction, abandonment/decay, and violence. These l...
Presentations: 9
GEN 01 T: Drink and Foodways
9:00am - 10:15am
Cadillac A & B
Christopher P. Barton
Location: Cadillac A & B
Session Chair: Christopher P. Barton, Chronicle Heritage
Presentations: 4
GEN 09 T: Technical Analysis
10:30am - 11:45am
Cadillac A & B
Marco G. Meniketti
Location: Cadillac A & B
Session Chair: Marco G. Meniketti, San Jose State University
Presentations: 5
SYM-110T: Hearts in Transit: Emotional Journeys in Historical Archaeology
1:30pm - 5:30pm
Cadillac A & B
Tania Casimiro, Susana Pacheco
Location: Cadillac A & B
Session Chair: Tania Casimiro, University of Stirling
Session Chair: Susana Pacheco, CFE-HTC NOVA University of Lisbon
This session explores the emotional dimensions of mobility in historical archaeology. While movement across landscapes, borders, or social roles is a core theme in archaeology, its emotional aspects are often overlooked. How did people feel when they moved? What material traces reflect emotions like...
Presentations: 15
GEN 10 U: Underwater Archaeology in the Great Lakes and Beyond
9:00am - 11:15am
Mackinac East
Ben Ford
Location: Mackinac East
Session Chair: Ben Ford, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Presentations: 8
SYM-192U: Stories from the Shelves: Novel Approaches to Submerged and Coastal Landscapes
1:30pm - 4:45pm
Mackinac East
Eric Rodriguez-Delgado, Loren R. Clark
Location: Mackinac East
Session Chair: Eric Rodriguez-Delgado, UC San Diego
Session Chair: Loren R. Clark, Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology
From the continental shelves to inland lakefronts, submerged and coastal landscapes hold interwoven stories of past lifeways, environmental shifts, and contested futures. Yet, recovering stories from these complex spaces is a difficult task as their study requires archaeologists to employ a variety ...
Presentations: 11
GEN 11 U: Underwater Archaeology in the Southeast
9:00am - 10:30am
Mackinac West
Allyson G. Ropp
Location: Mackinac West
Session Chair: Allyson G. Ropp, East Carolina University
Presentations: 6
SYM-153U: The Conservation of Materials from Underwater Sites
11:00am - 11:45am
Mackinac West
Chris Dostal
Location: Mackinac West
Session Chair: Chris Dostal, Texas A&M University
The conservation of archaeological materials from submerged sites brings in unique challenges not present in terrestrial archaeological conservation. Storage, pre-treatment, conservation strategies, and curation strategies all have to be tailored to contend with the way different materials degrade i...
Presentations: 3
SYM-119U: Recent Findings in Maritime and Terrestrial Archaeology of WWII in the Pacific
1:30pm - 5:00pm
Mackinac West
Lucas S. Simonds, Matthew F. Napolitano, Jennifer McKinnon
Location: Mackinac West
Session Chair: Lucas S. Simonds, International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc.
Session Chair: Matthew F. Napolitano, International Archaeology
Discussant: Jennifer McKinnon, East Carolina University
World War II has long been a focus of archaeologists working in the Pacific, whether searching for the remains of missing service members, studying battlefield landscapes, seeking sunken vessels, or interpreting the formation processes of sites damaged by the conflict. This work continues, bringing ...
Presentations: 12
FOR-363T: “What Produced This Feeling?" Marking The Passing Of Mark Leone And His Contributions To Archaeology
9:00am - 12:00pm
Ontario East
Matthew M. Palus, Christopher N. Matthews
Location: Ontario East
Session Chair: Matthew M. Palus, University of Maryland
Session Chair: Christopher N. Matthews, Montclair State University
Mark Leone\'s impact on historical archaeology cannot be overstated. From his rigorous intellectual engagement with Marxist critical theory in archaeology to sustaining his decades-long field school program Archaeology in Annapolis and on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, to his mentorship of students at th...
Presentations: 1
FOR-313T: Atlantic Pasts, Caribbean Futures: Honoring the Scholarship, Mentorship and Service of Doug Armstrong
1:30pm - 5:30pm
Ontario East
Matthew Reilly, Mark Hauser, Laurie Wilkie
Location: Ontario East
Session Chair: Matthew Reilly, City College of New York
Session Chair: Mark Hauser, Northwestern University
Session Chair: Laurie Wilkie, University of California Berkeley
This forum honors the remarkable career of Doug Armstrong, whose transformative scholarship, dedicated service, and profound mentorship have indelibly shaped the contours of the field and inspired generations of scholars. His expertise in Historical Archaeology has focused on the overlapping fields ...
Presentations: 1
FOR-109T: Traversing Michigan’s Historical Archaeology: Places and Stories That Matter in the American Experience, Part 1
9:00am - 12:00pm
Ontario West
Michael S. Nassaney
Location: Ontario West
Session Chair: Michael S. Nassaney, Western Michigan University
Michigan archaeologists were leaders in the establishment of the field of historical archaeology and continue to make substantial contributions to understanding the state’s history and culture. From rural farmsteads to urban settings, on land and underwater, Michigan’s rich archaeological record ref...
Presentations: 1
FOR-111T: Traversing Michigan’s Historical Archaeology: Places and Stories That Matter in the American Experience, Part 2
1:30pm - 4:30pm
Ontario West
Dean L. Anderson
Location: Ontario West
Session Chair: Dean L. Anderson, State Archaeologist for Michigan (Retired)
Michigan archaeologists were leaders in the establishment of the field of historical archaeology and continue to make substantial contributions to understanding the state’s history and culture. From rural farmsteads to urban settings, on land and underwater, Michigan’s rich archaeological record ref...
Presentations: 1
SYM-163T: Remaking the City: Archaeology, Mobility, and the Legacies of Urban Renewal
9:00am - 12:00pm
Cabot
Rebecca Graff, Krysta Ryzewski, Kelly Britt
Location: Cabot
Session Chair: Rebecca Graff, Lake Forest College
Session Chair: Krysta Ryzewski, Wayne State University
Discussant: Kelly Britt, Brooklyn College
Urban renewal is at once destructive and generative—reshaping neighborhoods, displacing communities, and redefining the identities of city landscapes. Archaeologists working in urban environments often encounter the material consequences of 20th-century renewal efforts, many of which were federally ...
Presentations: 8
SYM-169T: Landscapes of Movement: Research Contributions from the Northeastern U.S.
1:30pm - 4:00pm
Cabot
Holly Herbster
Location: Cabot
Session Chair: Holly Herbster, The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc.
This session highlights recent CRM research in New England and the Northeast that examines the home and work spaces of individuals engaged in local and long-distance exchange networks. The papers investigate how mobility shaped and was shaped by interactions across physical, cultural, technological,...
Presentations: 7
SYM-113T: The Potteries: The Heritage, Archaeology, and History of Stoke-on-Trent and the North Staffordshire Ceramics Industry
9:00am - 11:15am
Cartier
Alasdair Brooks, Teresita Majewski
Location: Cartier
Session Chair: Alasdair Brooks, Re-Form Heritage
Discussant: Teresita Majewski, Statistical Research, Inc.
The city of Stoke-on-Trent was the centre of the British ceramics industry from the second half of the 18th century into the 20th century. The pottery produced in Stoke was traded and consumed globally, and has had a global impact on the archaeological record. This session explores recent studies on...
Presentations: 6
SYM-369T: Unearthing Craft and Customs Embedded in Clay: The Archaeology of Locally Made Coarse Earthenwares
1:30pm - 5:15pm
Cartier
Elizabeth A. Bollwerk, Jillian E. Galle
Location: Cartier
Session Chair: Elizabeth A. Bollwerk, Thomas Jefferson\'s Monticello
Session Chair: Jillian E. Galle, None
Locally produced coarse earthenware pottery represents one of the most abundant yet poorly understood artifact categories across the Colonial Atlantic World. Imported and costly ceramics are more immediately identifiable and useful as markers of chronological change and the reach of global markets. ...
Presentations: 13
FOR-413U: The Future of Deepwater Archaeology: Emerging Technology and Innovations
9:00am - 11:00am
Nicolet A & B
Anne Nunn, Hannah P. Fleming
Location: Nicolet A & B
Session Chair: Anne Nunn, Henry Jackson Foundation
Session Chair: Hannah P. Fleming, HJF supporting DPAA
Deepwater archaeology poses both significant opportunities and challenges. (For this panel, deepwater is defined as greater than 100 m). Recent technological advances have allowed scientists easier access to the deep sea, and present numerous possibilities for furthering the field of underwater arch...
Presentations: 1
GEN 05 T: Managing Collections
1:30pm - 2:45pm
Nicolet A & B
Leah A. Stricker
Location: Nicolet A & B
Session Chair: Leah A. Stricker, Preservation Virginia/Jamestown Rediscovery
Presentations: 5
RL-1: Living Museums in the Sea
12:00pm - 1:15pm
Michelangelo
Location: Michelangelo
Host: Charles Beeker, Indiana University
Living Museums in the Sea is an internationally recognized model for the protection, preservation, and public interpretation of submerged cultural heritage, specifically historic shipwrecks. This model integrates conservation science, maritime archaeology, and sustainable tourism to safeguard shipwr...
RL-2: Publishing for Early Career Researchers and Students
12:00pm - 1:15pm
Michelangelo
Location: Michelangelo
Hosts: Alasdair Brooks, Editor-in-Chief, Historical Archaeology; Sarah Holland, SHA Co-Publications Editor; and Mary Sue Daoud, Publisher, Springer
You’ve done the research and synthesized the results. Now you need to share your findings with the community. What are your options? SHA provides many ways to publish your results: our journal Historical Archaeology, books co-published with academic presses, and print-on-demand special publications...
RL-3: Words and Things: Textual and Linguistic Methods in Historical Archaeology
12:00pm - 1:15pm
Michelangelo
Location: Michelangelo
Host: Stephen Chrisomalis, Wayne State University
Because historical archaeologists engage with archival and textual material, inevitably they must draw on words in context as well as things in context. This workshop introduces text analysis as a set of approaches from linguistic anthropology to expand the range of questions that can be asked and a...
SPECIAL EVENT-2: Past Presidents Student Reception
4:30pm - 6:00pm
42 Degrees North
Location: 42 Degrees North
Time: 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.Cost: No fee for student conference registrants.
The Past Presidents’ Student Reception will take place on Thursday, January 8, 2026, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Students will have an opportunity to talk to senior professionals.
SPECIAL EVENT-3: The “Streets of Old Detroit” Reception at the Detroit Historical Museum
6:00pm - 9:00pm
Detroit Historical Museum
Location: Detroit Historical Museum
Location: 5401 Woodward Ave, Detroit Time: 6:00–9:00 PM Maximum: 150 people Cost: $100.00
The annual Thursday night conference reception will take place at the Detroit Historical Museum, located in the heart of the city’s Cultural Center in the Midtown neighborhood. Attendees will enjoy heavy appetizers, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and live music within a large-scale installat...