Voices of the Society for American Archaeology

By K. Kris Hirst, About.com Guide

Listen to Dawn Hadley.

My name's Dawn Hadley and I'm from the Department of Archaeology in the University of Sheffield which is in the UK. This is the first time that I've been to the SAA and it's the first time that Sheffield University has had a stall in the exhibition hall. I find it a really exciting conference to be at, a lot of people, a lot of diversity of opinions, of research that people are conducting and that's really invigorating and exciting, but I have noticed it is a very male environment, it's overwhelmingly men. It's also an overwhelmingly white environment which really is not untypical of archaeology generally across the world, certainly in the western world. It's typical in Britain as well although I think in Britain it's much more of a profession that's open to women as well. Perhaps it's open to women in the US, but one is struck by the preponderance of men in this environment, so perhaps that's one of the negatives. I think one of the positives is really just how many people are here talking about things, exchanging ideas, there's a real buzz about the place. And I think that's the thing that I've mostly enjoyed through being here.