Via the Portable Antiquities Scheme Blog, I noticed there is an upcoming community archaeology conference in early 2009:
Community Archaeology in South West England
Free Conference held at Exeter University on the 21st of February 2009.For abstract submissions and registration please see their website or contact Faye Simpson at fs216@exeter.ac.uk.
The South West of England has a plethora of innovative community archaeology projects working within the region to provide archaeological outreach to local communities. These archaeological outreach and education projects are varied in both there approaches and organisation. They range from ‘grass roots’ projects initiated and organised by interested amateurs, individuals and local societies, to ‘top down approaches’ by commercial archaeology firms and universities. Furthermore, they include a range of hands on activities such as standing building surveys, historical research, field-walking, oral history projects, excavations and finds processing, to name just a few.
As hosts, the Heritage Lottery Fund and University of Exeter’s Exploring Archaeology Project (XArch), provides the means in which the conference can act as a forum to discuss the variety of community initiatives in the South West of England, and assess how they work in practice. It will also open up communication between these different individuals, groups and organisations as to where the future lies for community archaeology in this region, and investigate the possibility of partnerships between these groups and projects.
Abstracts for papers should be no longer the 200 words in length and should be received by the 30.09.08.
