The SHA Guide to Higher Education

Are you an undergraduate interested in historical archaeology and mulling the possibility of going to graduate school? Do you need some guidance on what options are out there for you? Do you have a specific thematic (forensic, African Diaspora, Atlantic World, etc.) or temporal focus that you would like to learn more about? Do you find it difficult to navigate the archipelago of departments and individual faculty that a simple web search inevitably yields? Well, the SHA is here to help, with our Guide to Higher Education!

The Guide is a listing of the academic departments around the globe that offer instruction in our discipline. There are entries for the University of Southern Denmark, the University of Vienna, Flinders University in Australia, and the University of Ulster. In North America, everything from Simon Frasier in Vancouver to the University of West Florida appear in the Guide. Being biased, I’d point you towards the entry for the College of William & Mary.

For each of these institutions (there are 71 listed), the Guide contains the institution’s name and the department which teaches historical archaeology (East Carolina University appears twice, once for Anthropology and once for Maritime Studies). Also included is an enumeration of the faculty at that institution (often including both historical archaeologists and prehistorians) along with their specialties, degrees, and position (lecturer, associate professor, professor emeritus, etc.). Affiliated staff members, who may be in other departments or state/federal agencies housed in the same city, appear in a separate subsection. Additionally, you get a general statement of the foci and strengths of the department as well as contact information for the department in case you want more information. It’s a great, centralized resource for the knowledge you need your search for the next step in your educational journey.

There is one caveat to be offered. The Guide was originally compiled by Dr. Alicia Valentino, and for many years was updated annually, which, when the list grew to its current length, became a massive undertaking for those tasked with maintaining it. It is now updated by individual academic departments who choose to send in updates*, so there is some potential for the information to be dated. Though the Guide is a great baseline of information, it is highly advisable that the Guide be used as an introduction to a department that should be checked against current departmental web pages to ensure the information is still current.

Best of luck with your search!

– Carl G. Drexler
The College of William & Mary

* Faculty who see that their department’s entry needs to be updated can send a note to SHAGradGuide@gmail.com