Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis Solicits Proposals for Topic of a Fall 2025 Design Workshop

A key way in which CfAS supports collaborative, synthetic research is through design workshops. Over 6 days, a diverse group of about 12 individuals engaged in research on a specific research topic meet in order to refine research questions, identify relevant sources of existing data, develop concrete plans for research, and outline proposals to fund those plans.
 
The Amerind Museum has recently funded a new design workshop. This fall 2025 workshop will be held at the Amerind Museum in Dragoon, Arizona and is expected to include both US and international participants. Travel, meals, and lodging expenses are covered. CfAS is now soliciting suggestions for the research topic to be pursued by the workshop. To offer a suggestion, please email a one or two paragraph proposal to Scott Ortman (scott.ortman@colorado.edu) by November 27, 2024. That proposal should provide a brief statement of the research topic and a discussion of how a collaborative, synthetic research project on that topic might benefit the discipline and/or the broader public. With your proposal, please indicate if you would be interested in leading or participating in the working group.
 
In December, the CfAS Board of Directors will select the topic for the workshop from the proposals submitted. The Board is especially interested in proposals for topics that are of interest to archaeologists in all sectors of the discipline, including cultural heritage professionals controlling substantial amounts of relevant data. While the Board is open to all suggestions, it may be useful to review the list of CfAS research priorities developed in 2020. Particularly relevant are those topics not currently being pursued by CfAS: 1) Colonialism, 4) Food Security, 5) Infectious Disease, 6) Enslavement, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking 7) Demography, 8) Coping with Natural Disasters, 9) Archaeology of Genetic Identities and Ancient DNA, 10) Town & Country / Urban & Rural, and 11) Creative Destruction/Resilience.
 
The Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis was established in 2017 with the mission of fostering synthesis in archaeology to expand knowledge and benefit society. The rationale behind the Coalition is articulated in two papers (Altschul et al. 2017, 2018) available through the CfAS Website. As design workshop is intended to put into practice the collaborative research model laid out in those papers, proposers are encouraged to consult them.