Event: 10th Cotsen Graduate Archaeology Conference: Plural Geographies

The 2025 Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Graduate Student Conference centers on the theme of “Plural Geographies: exploring Alternative Ecologies and navigating through the Field.” This topic is meant to provide a platform for alternative approaches to archaeological methods. With this year’s theme, the conference organizing committee encourages graduate students to reflect, explore, and challenge the field of archaeology and related fields, especially through spatial, placebased, land-based, ecological, or geographical means, construed broadly. We root our discussions within the realms of geography, space, and place in order to interrogate the ways in which archaeology is necessarily intertwined with discussions of land, land use, ecology, political ecologies and more across multiple scales, from the material level of excavation and other forms of land-based research to its engagement and entanglement with the construction of nations and inscription of borders on a global scale. We look forward to welcoming discussion on systemic, disciplinary, and personal approaches to negotiating bias, identity, and deep-rooted legacies of colonialism within the field.

Plural Geographies features two keynote speakers who together represent diverse scholarly backgrounds and intellectual engagements with the conference theme: Dr. Anna Agbe-Davies (UNC-Chapel Hill), a historical archaeologist with a particular focus on African diasporic contexts, and Dr. Menna Agha (Carleton University), an architect and scholar of social justice within the field of architecture. They will be joined by 13 papers presentations, roundtable and breakout sessions, undergraduate poster session, and a film screening from graduate students and community across different fields working around the globe.

Registration for in-person or Zoom required.

Register here

For more information on papers and the timing of sessions and speakers, please see the schedule. For any inquiries, questions, or comments, please email the Organizing Committee at pluralgeographies@gmail.com.