Statement and Commitments from SAA Editors to Change the Underrepresentation of Black, Indigenous, and Other Scholars from Diverse Backgrounds in Our Publications

Abstract

The racially based murders of George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and others as perpetrated by white police officers and vigilantes have brought systemic racism, anti-Black aggression, and race-based injustices perpetuated against Black Americans to the forefront of our collective consciousness. The disciplines of anthropology and archaeology are complicit in the historical basis for these events. Indigenous peoples have also experienced institutional injustices, racism, and inequalities all over the world. Archaeologists are part of this history, and as a discipline, at its core, archaeology has been a colonial practice, which has had cumulative negative effects on not only Black populations but also on Indigenous peoples and other underrepresented populations. We recognize and include these populations in our statements below and advocate for more diversity and inclusivity in the archaeology community.

Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women and Early Career Archaeologists

“…To mitigate pre-existing issues, as well as major declines in submission by women, we recommend several strategies that aim to re-orient publishing in archaeology. Our recommendations mirror those of Gamble et al [38] and work to foster better diversity in publishing moving into the future. First, we recommend the expedition of submissions by women and historically under-represented groups; however, we recognize that those journals that rely on blind peer review may not be able to implement such a policy.…”

“…Structural inequities have been noted across several vulnerable populations in academia since before the pandemic began [33,34,[36][37][38][39][40]. BIPOC faculty are majorly under-represented in tenure-stream positions [31,38]. In addition, academic mothers are particularly prone to facing setbacks in promotion and/or tenure [41].…”

How do archaeologists write about racism? Computational text analysis of 41 years of Society for American Archaeology annual meeting abstracts

“…Sapiens , an online anthropology magazine funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, presented a series of nine webinars related to contemporary issues of racism, titled ‘From the Margins to the Mainstream: Black and Indigenous Futures in Archaeology’ (Colwell 2020). Many professional organisations issued statements acknowledging systemic anti-Black racism, and committing to action to address it, including the editors of the SAA's four publications ( Advances in Archaeological Practice , American Antiquity , Latin American Antiquity and SAA Archaeological Record ), who vowed to include more Black, Indigenous and People of Colour in their publishing activities (Gamble et al 2020). Will these commitments result not only in anti-racist strategies among our community and professional structures, but also in greater engagement with racism as a research topic?…”

Ready or Not

“…As a discipline, archaeology continues to reconcile with its history of destructive digging and cultural insensitivity (Colwell-Chanthaphonh 2009) while also addressing social issues relevant to the twenty-first century more generally. American archaeology faces calls to diversify the field and the National Register of Historic Places (Flewellen et al 2021; Franklin et al 2020; Gamble et al 2020), tackle pervasive inequity (Rivera Prince et al 2022), address sexual harassment in the field (Colaninno 2019; Meyers et al 2018), and improve public engagement (Bollwerk et al 2015). For decades, archaeology has also faced calls to better prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to succeed in the archaeological workforce in the United States.…”