Gender inequality carries high social costs, and understanding its causes and consequences remains a pressing concern. Numerous policymakers and academics have taken on this challenge, including anthropological archaeologists. Because archaeologists create narratives about the past that can justify or question current and future actions, contemporary archaeological practice impacts everyone. This themed issue builds on recent documentations of disparities and calls to address them. To do so, contributors use a mix of quantitative and qualitative analyses, as well as novel theoretical perspectives, to understand why intersectional gender-based inequalities continue and to propose interventions to rectify them. We begin by considering the history of feminist equity critiques. We then argue that scholars should build on existing research by reconceptualizing not only difference but also exclusion. Policymakers, academics, and others must move beyond the problematic yet ubiquitous metaphor of a leaky pipeline and instead consider the active—though often unconscious and unintentional—ways individuals and institutions exclude, including through notions of fit, prestige, and the hysteresis of habitus, also known as the Don Quixote effect. The overarching goal of the themed issue, and this article, is to advocate for interventions in contemporary archaeological practice and beyond.

Due to the intellectual, physical, and emotional demands of field research, those doing this work need to strategies to monitor and maintain their own mental health before, during, and after a field season. Moreover, they should have a framework for supporting their colleagues. This review article will present a framework for assessing the mental health hazards and the reactions, both positive and negative, to fieldwork. First, it will use U.S. epidemiology to show that most field teams are at risk. Second, it will frame the field season both as a workplace and wilderness exposure event and discuss the elements of the field research environment that can be therapeutic for some but toxic for others. Third, it will discuss the psychological impacts of travel and reintegration as they are pertinent to the practice of archaeology. Research will be presented in order to guide evidence-informed policies for the field research team to improve the mental-health readiness and resiliency of the research team. Last, it will provide guidance on how to manage the anxiety caused by separating from social media platforms.

In STEM fields, women tend to leak out of the pipeline to the professoriate. In archaeology, however, robust databases and chronological control reveal that there is no leakage from earning a PhD to tenure-track positions. Nor is there a leak from assistant professor to associate professor. Nevertheless, men get hired as faculty in PhD programs more often than women. This is important because PhD programs are research-intensive and train future leaders. Furthermore, women PhD students have women as advisers more than often men and report advantages to this arrangement. Yet with fewer women faculty in PhD programs, women mentors are in short supply. Potential solutions to these problems target areas where bias can intervene. Specifically, job search committees should (1) wait until late in the process before consulting letters of recommendation, (2) standardize the valorization of coauthorship for both men and women, and (3) prioritize applicants who match the job description when creating long lists. Finally, implicit bias training is critically important, and mentoring should be continuous and enthusiastically positive.

Chronic diseases and preexisting conditions shape daily life for many archaeologists both in and out of the field. Chronic issues, however, can be overlooked in safety planning, which more often focuses on emergency situations because they are considered mundane, or they are imperceptible to project directors and crews until a serious problem arises. This article focuses on asthma, diabetes, and depression as common medical conditions that impact otherwise healthy archaeologists during fieldwork, with the goal of raising awareness of these conditions in particular, and the need to be more attentive to chronic diseases in general. Archaeological fieldwork presents novel situations that put those with chronic diseases and preexisting conditions at risk: environmental hazards, remoteness from medical and social resources and networks, lack of group awareness, and varying cultural norms. As a result, if chronic diseases are not attended to properly in the field, they can lead to life-threatening situations. Managing the risk presented by these conditions requires a group culture where team members are aware of issues, as appropriate, and collaborate to mitigate them during fieldwork. Descriptions of how chronic diseases affect archaeologists in the field are followed by “best practice” recommendations for self-management and for group leaders.

In recent years, scholars have convincingly argued, on both ethical and epistemic grounds, for the need for archaeological research “with, for, and by” descendant communities. Realizing such collaborative projects, however, is often challenging, and the prospect of beginning such an endeavor intimidating. This article shares a successful methodology implemented in the Xaltocan Archaeological Project (PAX) carried out in 2009–2011 in Mexico. This format—field crew-centered education in the context of excavations, culminating in a public symposium by all team members disseminating preliminary findings—is a simple, manageable way to begin engaging descendants. In addition to describing the symposium format, I discuss how I mitigated two major challenges to its implementation: (1) incentive or compensation (and, thereby, funding) and (2) community members’ critical assessments of their own relevant knowledge. I reflect on the impact of the symposium on subsequent collaborative efforts, and I contemplate institutional obstacles that remain for scholars attempting to decolonize archaeological research in Mexico. Finally, I consider how the symposium format could be implemented in other research contexts.

Archaeology field schools provide unique opportunities for firsthand exposure, team-based learning, and pre-professional experience. A participant's decision to pursue a career in archaeology may reflect initial fieldwork group experiences and individual interactions with field school leaders and staff. Today, safety, security, and equity policies along with staff and operational procedures that support them are essential for instructing and inspiring all who wish to experience archaeological fieldwork. Drawing on three decades of field school participation and administration, the author describes specific examples of fieldwork learning contexts as well as insights into operating a safe, secure, and welcoming field school. Conclusions include general guidelines that are applicable and desirable for short-term, season-long, or special skills field schools.

This article discusses the effectiveness of Mexico’s national heritage business model within a context of economic growth, infrastructure development, and structural shifts that pose risks to the preservation of heritage resources. To meet these challenges, the future heritage professional requires a training profile that most archaeology departments in Mexico are unable to accommodate. Recognizing the importance of cultural resources management (CRM) and heritage business and marketing skills, the BA program in Development and Intercultural Management, offered at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, is exploring new ways to create business models to finance heritage preservation. In an emergent economy, many students lack the opportunity to pursue higher education degrees, joining the labor market at a very early stage in their careers, without much knowledge of how to make heritage a lever for economic growth. Thus, a goal of this article is to encourage the early teaching of business and marketing in programs around the world by demonstrating how such training opportunities are opening up unimaginable career avenues for the future heritage professional in Mexico.

This article examines field experiences across archaeological sectors and demographics through the results of a survey aimed at understanding how the culture of toughness is manifest in archaeological fieldwork through the prevalence of discrimination and pressure to accept inappropriate behaviors and to push oneself physically, mentally, and emotionally. We selected these particular behaviors as they demonstrate ways in which archaeologists perceive expectations and how individuals prove they can endure, that they are tough enough. Our survey data demonstrate that women, noncisgendered, and entry-level archaeologists are the most vulnerable to negative experiences, that the pressure to push beyond one’s limits is universal, and that discrimination and harassment are factors increasingly considered by women as they decide whether to continue in the profession. We argue that many of these rules and social conditions are created and maintained inconspicuously through performative informality which is linked to the discipline’s culture of toughness. Through analysis of our quantitative survey results, we discuss how archaeology’s work culture shapes experiences in the industry and examine avenues for reform to promote equity in archaeology.

Field schools are essential for undergraduate students pursuing careers in archaeology, but they are expensive and, consequently, inaccessible to many. Although there have been efforts to rectify this through the creation of scholarships, there have been no systematic studies of the full cost of archaeological field schools. Here, we present a study of 208 field schools from 2019, including their tuition, room and board, and airfare, as well as the wages that students may lose by participating in them rather than working. We also explore how archaeologists interviewed for Heath-Stout's dissertation study of diversity issues in the discipline have navigated finding field experiences. We argue that scholarships are an ineffective and insufficient means of promoting equity and accessibility in the field because the root of the problem lies in institutionalized inequality and exclusivity. We provide strategies that students and faculty can use to address these problems on both individual and systemic levels. By making field schools affordable and accessible to a more diverse set of undergraduate students, we can create a more just and inclusive discipline.

Despite improvement over the past few decades, particularly for white, cisgender women, intersectional gender-based inequality remains prominent within anthropological archaeology and beyond. Building on critiques of the leaky pipeline metaphor laid out in the introduction to this themed issue, and drawing on Black, Indigenous, and Posthumanist Feminisms, we advocate for a metaphorical shift focused on care, inclusivity, and diversity—that of a garden. The garden metaphor provides a way to express and explore the complex and intertwined ways disciplinary norms, institutions, and individuals structure and shape experiences in archaeology. After reviewing the garden metaphor and summarizing previous suggestions for improving equity in archaeology, we present recommendations for actionable steps at disciplinary, institutional, supervisory, and individual levels. Drawing on insights from the articles in the issue, as well as existing literature within and beyond archaeology, we argue that a greater emphasis on care, and its integration into the value structure of archaeology, would create a more inclusive discipline.

Archaeologists have an obligation to conduct research that is relevant and responsive to the desires, interests, values, and concerns of Indigenous descendant communities. Current best practices for collaborative, community-based archaeologies emphasize long-term engagement and “full collaboration,” including the coproduction of knowledge and total stakeholder involvement. The present-day structures and demands of archaeology—especially in CRM and graduate student research contexts—can serve to make such fully collaborative work difficult, if not impossible. Oftentimes, these difficulties result in a complete abdication of collaboration or even consultation beyond the bare minimum required by law. However, professional archaeologists must strive in all instances to work alongside Native communities in respectful, responsive, and mutually beneficial ways even if this work may often fall short of the loftiest ideal. In this article, the authors present two case studies in collaboration from recent projects conducted in the North American midcontinent. These case studies clearly demonstrate how tribal fieldwork monitoring, working with tribal institutional review boards (IRBs), and other related forms of “imperfect” collaboration can still help move us toward a more ethical, inclusive, and respectful future archaeology.

Cultural resource management (CRM) archaeology is a multimillion-dollar industry in Canada and the lead employer for archaeology graduates. Yet, the growth of and the challenges facing the Canadian CRM industry remain poorly documented. We therefore designed and distributed a job satisfaction and labor market survey to Canadian CRM practitioners with the goal of understanding how industry professionals feel about their positions and the health of the industry as well as what they believe are the most pressing challenges facing the Canadian CRM industry. These data indicate that the sector has grown faster than the supply of labor, that owner-operators are faced with difficult challenges related to the staffing required for the scale and volume of work, and that employees in the CRM sector are experiencing frustration with working conditions, compensation, and the preparation that postsecondary training offers. In this article, we attempt to determine the size of the Canadian CRM industry and highlight the challenges faced within the industry that must be addressed for CRM in Canada to attract and retain professional archaeologists.

Legal reforms in California are reshaping archaeological education and professional training in ways that may soon warrant national attention. These changes challenge traditional pedagogical models, particularly in bachelor’s and master’s degree programs that have long served as entry points into cultural resource management (CRM) careers. Drawing on one of the most extensive surveys of CRM organizations in California, this article examines how employers are responding to this evolving landscape. The data reveal a demand for field experience, local familiarity, knowledge of relevant laws, and interpersonal skills. We contextualize these findings within broader efforts to reform training and research models in California and discuss tensions in this shifting terrain. We advocate for a new public archaeology that redefines training and professional pathways through collaboration, accountability, and a deeper commitment to the communities that archaeology serves.

In 2014, the Southeastern Archaeological Conference (SEAC) conducted a sexual harassment survey of its membership. The survey's goal was to investigate whether sexual harassment had occurred among its members, and if so, to document the rate and demographics of harassment. Our findings include a high (66%) level of harassment, primarily among women, with an additional 13% of respondents reporting sexual assault. This article provides an overview of the survey and responses. Additionally, we analyze survey data aimed at capturing change over time in harassment and assault, correlation between field and non-field tasks and harassment and assault, and correlation between gender of supervisor and harassment and assault. We also discuss the effects of harassment and assault on careers. We conclude with suggestions for decreasing the rate of harassment and assault and urge professional archaeological organizations to document sexual harassment and assault to mitigate the effects on their members and on the discipline as a whole.

There is a current and projected dearth of individuals with the required skills and education to become professional archaeologists. Because of this, the discipline should consider underlying causes leading students to have a lack of interest in pursuing archaeological careers. Social cognitive career theory posits that self-efficacy, expected outcomes, and goal mechanisms mediate a student's career-relevant interest and aspirations. To understand undergraduate students’ perceptions of archaeological careers, we surveyed and interviewed students enrolled in an introductory course in biological anthropology and archaeology at a regional comprehensive university in the United States. Students completed surveys at the beginning and end of the course, and some students volunteered for an interview. Survey results revealed no significant changes in career interest from the beginning to the end of the course. Interview data indicated that taking the course gave students a better appreciation for archaeology, and none interviewed felt less likely to pursue a career in the discipline. We identify persistent perceptions that students held about the discipline that may dissuade them from considering archaeology as a viable career option, and we provide recommendations that may help attract more students to careers in archaeology.

In the next 10 years, the US cultural resource management (CRM) industry will grow in terms of monies spent on CRM activities and the size of the CRM labor force. Between US fiscal years 2022 and 2031, annual spending on CRM will increase from about $1.46 to $1.85 billion, due in part to growth in the US economy but also to an added $1 billion of CRM activities conducted in response to the newly passed infrastructure bill. The increased spending will lead to the creation of about 11,000 new full-time positions in all CRM fields. Archaeologists will be required to fill more than 8,000 positions, and of these, about 70% will require advanced degrees. Based on current graduation rates, there will be a significant MA/PhD-level job deficit. Accordingly, there is a compelling need to (a) stop the trend to close or decrease the size of current graduate programs, (b) reorient academic programs to give a greater emphasis to the skills needed to be successful in CRM, and (c) better integrate academic and applied archaeology to leverage the vast amount of data that will be generated in the next decade to best benefit the public.

The goal for many PhD students in archaeology is tenure-track employment. Students primarily receive their training by tenure-track or tenured professors, and they are often tacitly expected—or explicitly encouraged—to follow in the footsteps of their advisor. However, the career trajectories that current and recent PhD students follow may hold little resemblance to the ones experienced by their advisors. To understand these different paths and to provide information for current PhD students considering pursuing a career in academia, we surveyed 438 archaeologists holding tenured or tenure-track positions in the United States. The survey, recorded in 2019, posed a variety of questions regarding the personal experiences of individual professors. The results are binned by the decade in which the respondent graduated. Evident patterns are discussed in terms of change over time. The resulting portraits of academic pathways through the past five decades indicate that although broad commonalities exist in the qualifications of early career academics, there is no singular pathway to obtaining tenure-track employment. We highlight the commonalities revealed in our survey to provide a set of general qualifications that might provide a baseline set of skills and experiences for an archaeologist seeking a tenure-track job in the United States.

Debates about the best means of preparing archaeologists continue. This article reviews data from 674 archaeological job postings to assess in-demand archaeological knowledge, skills, and abilities. The needs assessment reveals American archaeology's demand for dynamic, highly skilled professionals capable of identifying, preserving, and protecting the past. The skills demanded in archaeology job postings are the skills necessary to not only succeed as an archaeologist in any sector but also meet the challenges faced by the discipline more generally.

Since the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in 1990, university museums and academic units have struggled to accomplish the volume of collections work necessary for compliance with available personnel. Simultaneously, students pursuing collections management careers rarely receive adequate compliance training in classroom settings. Involving students in collections documentation is a possible solution for helping practitioners manage archaeological collections and addressing the NAGPRA education gap; however, there are ethical concerns with including students in NAGPRA teams. In this article, we discuss challenges associated with employing students, the need to consult with Tribal Nations about involving students in NAGPRA projects, and safe ways to incorporate student workers into collections management workflows that support repatriation. Ultimately, we argue that employees with student status can be valuable members of a NAGPRA team when their roles are defined through consultation with Tribal Nation partners. Institutions with archaeological collections provide a unique opportunity to train students in proper procedures for documenting NAGPRA collections, cultural sensitivity, and the decolonization of collections management practices. Involving students in NAGPRA initiatives is an important way to teach the next generation to be respectful, well-rounded, and collaborative archaeologists.