As the Fall Academic Term & 2023 are coming to a close, it is time for a brief reflection and thoughts about the future of archaeology. There are many ways to think about archaeology, we are focusing on its urgent relevance to the understanding of the Anthropocene.
THE RELEVANCE & IMPORTANCE OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHAEOLOGY
No doubt that 2023 was a challenging year. Wars across the world, political polarization and spreading intolerance are the hallmarks of this year. The globalization of military conflicts and the observed similarities of political ideologies across the world are reminders of the power and impact of humanity on our physical environment. Humanity has become a potent geological force, changing the earth to fit our needs and desires. Alas, human impact seems to no longer be limited to earth. Justin Holcomb & colleagues just published an article in Nature Geoscience, proposing a Case for a Lunar Anthropocene.
While we all have opinions about contemporary political, cultural and economic issues, the root of our current dominance and impact began millennia ago. Engaging with archaeology, therefore, has never been more relevant, more important, or more critical. If we wish to understand humanity’s impact on our environment – earth or lunar – it is not enough to identify the end result of our actions. We must explore the processes by which we produced such impact so we may understand who we are, what were the internal and external pressures that led to our actions, and what can we do to possibly reverse or mitigate some of our more damaging activities.
If you or your students consider becoming a professional archaeologist, a field school is an important stepping-stone to explore such a career.
CFS ARCHAEOLOGY PROGRAMS
The Center for Field Sciences is offering many archaeology programs to choose from. Our field schools provide intensive training in academic archaeology and cultural resource management – using the Skills Log Matrix™ from Twin Cairns to prepare students in all of our programs to a possible CRM careers. Currently, we are listing 15 programs to choose from, located across the US, Europe and Latin America. More will soon be posted as our Board of Directors is still examining several proposals.
AVAILABLE SCHOLARSHIPS
Thanks to the generosity of many donors, CFS is offering a broad range of scholarships. Application for our own scholarships will open Jan 1 (2024) and students are encouraged to apply. We list many external scholarships and students should explore eligibility and apply where they can.
WHY CHOOSE CFS?
Why should students choose CFS field schools? Because of our extensive peer-review process, CFS programs are of the highest academic quality. Because we emphasize Cultural Resource Management in every field school, our programs prepare students for both academic and well-paying jobs & careers in CRM. And, because we understand how costly a field school can be, our programs are some of the most affordable around.
WHAT DOES “AFFORDABLE FIELD SCHOOL” MEAN?
How should students evaluate field school cost and its affordability? The answer is a bit complicated. It is NOT just about the cost of tuition. The value of any field school is based on three general elements: quality, duration, and availability of transferable credit units.
Quality is determined by both scholarship and commitment to ‘teaching through research’. Students should scrutinize the program syllabus (not having one should be a red flag…) and explore the publication list of the program directors.
Duration is significant as most graduate programs or CRM jobs require a field school with a minimum of four weeks in the field (or 160 instructional hours). Shorter field schools usually do not qualify as minimum training.
And, transferable credit units allow students to recuperate the cost of a field school by transferring the credit units earned at the program to their home university. When these credits are applied towards the student record, they become part of the graduation requirement and reduce the cost of overall tuition paid to the home institution.
WHY CFS FIELD SCHOOLS ARE SOME OF THE MOST AFFORDABLE?
CFS field schools are certainly not the cheapest (Fig 1). Other field schools are cheaper, but they are shorter and/or offer no academic credit units (Fig 2 & 5). When comparing the cost per week –a simple comparative cost unit for fair evaluation – CFS field schools are still not cheap (Fig 3). What makes CFS programs some of the most affordable is the number & cost of credit units awarded to participants.
A four-weeks CFS field school awards eight semester credit units (equivalent to 12 quarter credit units). This number of credit units is 23% higher than the average awarded in all credit bearing field schools (Fig 4). Given that only a minority of field schools awards students with credits units (Fig 5), the importance of credit unit cost and student awareness of the same should be a significant part in the decision which program to attend. When calculating the cost of credit units, CFS programs are highly competitive and affordable (Fig 6). CFS per unit cost is 22% below the average cost-per-credit of other credit-bearing programs. And, our credits units and official transcripts are issued by Culver Stockton College – our School of Record – so they are highly transferable to student’s home institutions.
Check out CFS 2024 offerings. Help write the archaeology story!
Figure 1: Average, minimum and maximum of field school costs, CFS compared with all other field schools (Due to Covid 19, there were no field schools in 2020-21)(Data from the Twin Cairns Intelligence Unit and AIA database)
Figure 2: Average length of field schools, in days (Data from the Twin Cairns Intelligence Unit and AIA database)
Figure 3: Average, minimum and maximum cost of CFS field schools vs. general average cost of all field schools per week (Data from the Twin Cairns Intelligence Unit and AIA database)
Figure 4: Average number of credits units awarded, all adjusted for semester credit units (Data from the Twin Cairns Intelligence Unit and AIA database)
Figure 5: Percentage of field schools awarding any number of credits units (no reliable data is yet available for the 2024 programs) (Data from the Twin Cairns Intelligence Unit and AIA database)
Figure 6: Average cost of credit unit, all adjusted for semester credit units (Data from the Twin Cairns Intelligence Unit and AIA database)