Carleton University’s Department of History will host the Shannon Lecture #InventedFantasies – Using Social Media to Talk About Pseudoarchaeology presented by Steph Halmhofer.
When: Friday, Oct. 19, 2018 at 1 p.m.
Where: Room 2017, Dunton Tower, Carleton
Info: This event is free and open to the public. A campus map can be found online.
Media are invited to attend the event.
Skeletons of giants in British Columbia, people using psychic abilities to find proof that the empire of Atlantis included Nova Scotia, a cult in Quebec proposing aliens invented life on Earth. These are topics of pseudoarchaeology – a real concern facing both archaeologists and non-archaeologists.
With the rising popularity of social media, it’s not difficult to imagine how quickly pseudoarchaeological theories can spread online. The lecture will discuss what pseudoarchaeology is, how to identify it, the racism of pseudoarchaeology, how various media platforms are used to spread it and how social media can be used to talk about and debunk pseudoarchaeology.
About the Shannon Lecture Series
The 2018 Shannon Lecture series examines “bad archaeology” – what happens when the practice of archaeology is done in bad faith? Modern archaeology emerged from a colonialist setting where the heroic lone (male) adventure wrestled knowledge in exotic (to him) places. In many ways, the field has never shed that association and the promise of adventure and heroism. The 2018 series of lectures will explore some of the ways “bad archaeology” has meaningful consequences – especially in the Canadian context. By understanding “bad” archaeology, we may begin to understand the power of “good” archaeology for our present day and age.
The Shannon Lecture series is made possible by the Shannon Fund, an endowment created by Lois May Long, who was a friend of the Carleton History Department and longtime support for both students and faculty.
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Tuesday, October 16, 2018 in Media Advisories
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