Department of Anthropology

Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences

East Carolina University & 231 Flanagan & Greenville, NC 27858-4353

252-328-9430 office  & 252-328-9464 fax

www.ecu.edu/anth

 

 

November 23, 2009

 

 

To Whom It May Concern:

 

 

Re:  Certificate in Cultural Resource Management

 

I am writing this letter to present a proposal for an undergraduate certificate within the anthropology department.  The premise of this proposal is the changing contexts for the practice in archaeology over the last few decades necessitate that the department reevaluate our archaeology curriculum.   In short, we suggest that changes in the practice of archaeology are significant enough to warrant a need for an explicit program within our major that identifies archaeology as a professional career option.  Broadly speaking, when completed, the certificate would provide students a basic level of competency to pursue an entry-level job in either the public or private sector of archaeology or be equally prepared to continue their education in graduate school.  In so doing, the certificate is clearly aligned with at least one goal in ECU’s strategic plan:  education for a new century.  

 

In the late 1990s, the Society for American Archaeology Committee on Curriculum recognized that the skills needed to practice archaeology were changing dramatically.  One result of this recognition was a volume entitled Teaching Archaeology in the Twenty-First Century.  A significant point made in this volume was the recognized disconnect between how archaeology was being taught in the university and how archaeology was actually practiced in the late twentieth-century.  This disconnect was largely recognized to be a product of the fact that the vast majority of archaeology was being done outside the university.  In general, much of this work is labeled as Cultural Resource Management (CRM) or Public Archaeology and includes archaeology done as required by historic preservation laws and involves archaeologists employed by either federal or state agencies or by private firms.  Some statistics, for example, indicate that there are nearly five times as many jobs available in CRM as in academia and the majority of those are not at the Ph.D. level.   The committee observed that academic programs had too long been focused on producing archaeology professors when the archaeology market was increasingly a nonacademic one.  In short, they proposed a need to redesign curriculum to include programs that produce students with the skills to become a professional archaeologist with bachelors or masters degrees.  This proposal for an archaeology certificate is our attempt to partially address this need at an undergraduate level. 

 

Beyond benefitting students, the proposed certificate provides several benefits to the department.  These include:

·         An archaeology certificate increases the “market value” of an anthropology degree. 

·         An archaeology certificate may attract more departmental majors.  We suspect students might initially be attracted to archaeology via a certificate and hence be enticed to take other anthropology courses they might not otherwise consider. 

·         Increases enrollment in archaeology classes—particularly the field school where we have seen a decline in enrollment over the years. 

·         Makes us more competitive with other universities by providing students with a specific strategy of course work designed to provide them with the skills to pursue archaeology jobs or a graduate degree. 

·         Raises our profile within the university by explicitly aligning our teaching with ECU’s strategic plan.   

 

Attached are the certificate requirements and letters of support from history and geography.  If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

I. Randolph Daniel, Jr.

Professor 

 

 

 

Email Approvals

 

Georgaphy

From:                                         Crawford, Tom

Sent:                                           Thursday, April 16, 2009 10:16 AM

To:                                               Daniel, Randy

Cc:                                               Mitchelson, Ron

Subject:                                     RE: archaeology certificate

 

Randy,

I’ve talked about this with Ron Mitchelson (chair) and others about the certificate.  We support your certificate and are happy to have our GEOG course included as part of it.  We will be able to accommodate your students choosing to take the GIS course.

 

One slight thing you need to change:  We renumbered GEOG 3410 to GEOG 2410.  It is the same course, just renumbered.

 

Let me know if you need any more input or information.

 

Tom Crawford

 

From: Daniel, Randy

Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 9:22 AM

To: Crawford, Tom

Cc: Wolfe, Linda

Subject: archaeology certificate

 

Tom,

 

Attached is a proposal to create an archaeology certificate in our department.  One of the proposed electives for the certificate is GEOG 3410.  I am seeking input from Geography regarding the appropriateness of including your course in the certificate.  Would you discuss this with the powers that be in your department and then let me know your decision?  If you have any questions just let me know.

 

Thanks,

 

Randy

 

I. Randolph Daniel, Jr.

Professor

Department of Anthropology

Flanagan 271

East Carolina University

Greenville, NC 27858

Phone: 252-328-9455

Fax: 252-329-9464

 

 

History

 

From:                                         Tilley, John

Sent:                                           Friday, April 17, 2009 6:44 PM

To:                                               Prokopowicz, Gerald J.; Daniel, Randy

Cc:                                               Wolfe, Linda

Subject:                                     RE: archaeology certificate

 

Randy,

I certainly agree with Gerry that HIST 3993 would be a valuable addition to your proposed curriculum.

 

Another course that folks in that program might consider is HIST 5920/5921, "Fundamentals of museum and historic site development."  As you probably know, anthropology grad students take it on a fairly regular basis.  It covers such things as interpretation and analysis of material culture, museum organization and theory, registration methods, conservation and care of collections, and exhibition design.  The course involves a series of field trips (including an overnight one to Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg).  I won't pretend that everything in the course is directly relevant to the archaeology profession, but archaeologists, almost by definition, spend a fair amount of their time working with, in, and around museums.  You might want to consider putting HIST 5920/5921 on a list of options from which your people can choose.  We'd certainly be happy to have them.

 

Best,

 

John Tilley

 

From: Prokopowicz, Gerald J.

Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 2:25 PM

To: Daniel, Randy

Cc: Wolfe, Linda; Tilley, John

Subject: RE: archaeology certificate

 

Randy,

 

Thanks very much for asking. From the description of the need for the certificate, the situation seems parallel to that in history, where “public history” has become a distinct subfield that trains students to practice history outside of academia. The imbalance between public history and academic history jobs is not as dramatic as the 5:1 ratio of CRM to university archaeology positions, but the concept is similar.

 

HIST 3900 Introduction to Public History touches on the many kinds of jobs available to historians outside of academia, and also focuses on the relationship between the producers and consumers of public history.

 

It would do no harm to include more archaeology students in HIST 3900, but a much more relevant elective course for them would be HIST 3993 Approaches to Historical Objects. This course looks at the theory of historical objects, and focuses on how institutions identify, collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret them. I would welcome more archaeology students in HIST 3993, and think it would be a real benefit both to them and to other students in the course to have them in HIST 3993.

 

At present I am the only faculty member offering HIST 3900 or HIST 3993. I am copying Dr. John Tilley, Director of Public History, to see if he has any thoughts on this subject.

 

Gerry

 

Gerald J. Prokopowicz

Acting Chair, History Dept

 

From: Daniel, Randy

Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 9:27 AM

To: Prokopowicz, Gerald J.

Cc: Wolfe, Linda

Subject: archaeology certificate

 

Gerry,

 

Attached is a proposal to create an archaeology certificate in our department.  One of the proposed electives for the certificate is HIST 3900.  Thus, I am seeking input from your department regarding the appropriateness of including that course in the certificate curriculum.  If you have any questions, just let me know.

 

Randy

I. Randolph Daniel, Jr.

Professor

Department of Anthropology