Mini-Seminar: Politicised prehistories: How Archaeologists Can Counter the Far-Right Appropriation of Prehistory

Abstract

Over the last few decades, increasing numbers of researchers who study the past have noticed their research being appropriated by bad-faith far-right actors. Selective archaeological motifs and data/interpretations from our papers are being spread across far-right online spaces to justify racist, misogynistic and homophobic views. This has become so prevalent that it is even affecting members of the public, who are increasingly exposed to far-right narratives about the past. To counter this, a cross-institutional, independent collaborative group of researchers was formed. This is  Archaeologists Resisting Far-Right Appropriation (ARFA): https://archaeologistsrfa.wordpress.com/. Our aims are to workshop, suggest and propose methods to make our work less vulnerable to appropriation. We also invite relevant speakers to share their research on this subject, organise events, and produce material to engage with the public.

In this session, I’ll be briefly presenting some suggested methodological changes that another researcher (Jacob Blewett) and I have included in a soon-to-be-published paper. These methods primarily target archaeologists but are likely applicable to anyone who works with the past. These methods range from small and semantic to large and epistemological. All of them aim to make it harder for far-right actors to appropriate our work. After this short presentation, I would really appreciate feedback on these suggested methods, as well as any other methods you think could be effective. I am particularly interested in hearing from colleagues in linguistics and genetics, as these disciplines likely face unique challenges and have specific vulnerabilities.

Daniel Brown – a CHP postdoctoral researcher and an interdisciplinary archaeologist