The Call For Papers (and sessions) for the 2023 Society for Historical Archaeology Conference is finally open, from now until June 30 (2022)! My colleagues, Emily Haines and Liam Wadsworth, and I decided we wanted to host a themed poster session at the conference. There’s only one hiccup – the SHA does not have themed...

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Title image: The top of a 4-page pamphlet Brother XII published in 1926, announcing the formation of the Aquarian Foundation and the work they were about to begin (pamphlet is from my own collection) Recently Twitter introduced a new concept called Twitter Spaces, through which you can host speaking events on your Twitter page. After having listened in to a few great Spaces talks about topics relevant to my research (and also paying attention to…

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Wow, it has been a long time since I last wrote a blog post. It doesn’t feel like it has been that long, but in that time I have wrapped up an entire semester of classes and presented at two conferences (the CAAs and an interdisciplinary conference about Star Wars)! And as I write this blog post I’m actually attending a third conference (about right-wing extremism). So that’s why it has been four months between…

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Title image: one of my favourite quotes from Arnold 2006 If you’ve read any of my blog posts about pseudoarchaeology (A, B, C, and D for example), or read any of my pop culture reviews involving pseudoarchaeology (A and B for example), or maybe even been able to catch one of the talks I’ve given about pseudoarchaeology (like A), you’ll notice a few common themes. Firstly, I talk a lot about the dangers of pseudoarchaeology…

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First things first, HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2020 was a nightmare year for many reasons, and while 2021 won’t immediately change things (let’s be completely honest about that) it is, at the very least, a fresh new year. That I am going to remain hopeful about. If you’ll remember, a couple of years ago now I ran the Survey of Canadian Beliefs. This survey, which I modelled after the Chapman Survey of American Fears, was designed…

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Arkworld Vol. 1, April 2020, Devil’s Due Comics (Post image: Arkworld Vol 1. Cover) It’s time for another edition of my series, Digging in the Wrong Place! I have two other posts about books in the works (that one day soon I will actually finish and publish), but for now let’s talk about comics. One of my research interests is in the relationship between pop culture, archaeology, and pseudoarchaeology. I’m always interested to see how…

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So here’s a neat thing – I’m starting a PhD in September (2020). Honestly, the whole thing still feels a bit surreal, because I never imagined myself doing a PhD. For the longest time I didn’t even know what a PhD was, but as I slowly started to figure it out I also began to think that it might be something I was interested in. So I decided to take a big chance and am…

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It’s nearing the end of July and the COVID-19 global pandemic continues, including here in British Columbia where I live. Because of this, many conferences have pivoted to being hosted through online venues if they haven’t decided to cancel or postpone their events. One of these was the British Columbia Heritage Fair, which hosted their 2020 fair online at the end of June. The BC Heritage Fairs Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to history…

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Pic: To be honest, it’s just a fancy pyramid image I found in a Google search that’s vaguely reminiscent of the idea of pyramid power and sacred geometry So we’re in the midst of a worldwide pandemic right now (COVID-19), and each country and provinces/states within countries are trying to manage it and respond to it in different ways. Some more effectively than others. British Columbia, where I live, has declared a state of emergency…

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Pic: The image is promotional art for a movie called Black Mountain Side (2014), about a group of Canadian archaeologists working in remote Canadian mountains. Obviously things go wrong. You can read my Twitter review of it here As you may (or may not) be aware, the 53rd annual Canadian Archaeological Association conference is coming up and will be here before you know it. The conference, which will be in Edmonton from May 6 –…

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