TAG 2019 Conference

Archaeology, along with other disciplines in the humanities and sciences, has kept pace with the accelerated and accelerating tempos and rhythms of the modern world. This acceleration has produced what some have called “fast science,” characterized as “managerial, competitive, data-centric, technocratic, and alienated from the societies it serves and studies” (Cunningham and MacEachern 2016:4). Critiques of these accelerations have emerged as offshoots of the broader “slow movement” in the sciences that call for the multivalent benefits—in theory, method, practice, publication, and teaching—of “decelerating” archaeology. Advocates for slow science—and slow archaeology in particular—highlight the importance of social relationships, long-term engagements (both social and material), and careful contemplation and collaboration.