Applied Archaeology — Applied Humanities

Studio Michael Shanks Stanford University Newsletter 2024 Stanford Archaeology Center Archaeological mission and vision? Ivory tower as lighthouse? In a recent newsletter for Stanford Archaeology Center [Link] I talked of slow archaeology, of the benefits of long-running projects that afford time for unfolding reflection. Three interrelated projects remain ongoing. A kind of archaeological triptych. —…

hybrid Humanities – Ben Cullen

On the anniversary of the untimely and sudden death of Ben Cullen in 1995. [Link] [Link] [Link] Ben Cullen thought beyond conventional distinctions under a fresh evolutionary notion of humanity as deeply hybrid – material and immaterial, personhood and artifact, species and thing. Humanity: an undecidable, in Derrida’s sense. The lens through which he approached…

Deep Mapping

I’m in a workshop about Deep Mapping, delivering the opening keynote. A fascinating gathering (Venice and online), organized by Cristina Manzetti (University of Cyprus), and Valentina Mignosa (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Digital and Public Humanities (VeDPH). The topic is an old favorite of mine, developed in my theatre/archaeology with Cliff McLucas and Mike Pearson…

Science Learning – a future

I am in Copenhagen at the annual meeting of the European Science Education Research Association ESERA [Link]. Here is my summary statement for our session that introduces Creative Pragmatics as a framework for reshaping science education [Link]. The world our students face today is not stable, predictable, nor neatly divided into disciplines. It is complex,…