V JIA 2012 Archaeology for the XXI Century Dear colleagues, Once again, we would like to invite you to participate in the V Conference of Jóvenes en Investigación Arqueológica – JIA 2012, aimed at young researchers (PhD candidates). This year, thanks to the election of the Scientific Committee at the recent JIA 2011 in Faro (Portugal), the Conference will be hosted by the Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit) in Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain). From this institution, the members of the Organizing Committee will try to do our best to equal and even go beyond the success of previous editions. JIA 2012 will be held in the Hospital de San Roque (Santiago de Compostela) from 9th to 12th May 2012. Over the years, this event has consolidated itself into an important date marked on the calendar of the young research community; becoming internationally popular in just a few years. We will strive to maintain the high standards set by organizers on previous occasions, but we also would like to introduce some modifications to make the Conference even more attractive than it already is. We especially look forward to increasing the quality of the interaction and contribution of all the participants, in order to achieve a more productive and fruitful final result.
SCIENTIFIC PROJECT From Incipit we want to present an original, interesting and ambitious proposal for JIA 2012. The project is aimed at creating the best scenario for the exchange of ideas between all the participants, avoiding traditional expositive conferences. Our intention is to bring about deep and real thoughts on different facets of XXI century archaeological practice. These are our two specific proposals: 1. NEW SUBJECTS. JIA always appreciate innovative proposals. This time we would like to ask you to focus the sessions on the main subject that gives the title to the Conference: Archaeology for the XXI Century. These are the subjects we will consider as preferred options to present at JIA 2012:
- Non-professional participation in archaeological discourses and practices. - The role of social networks in the creation of archaeological knowledge. Archaeology 2.0 - Multidisciplinary Archaeology: the need to open up (even more) our horizons. - Current management policies of archaeological knowledge. - Social Archaeology and Public Archaeology. - Archaeology and Heritage Administration - Archaeology and Education: how do we evaluate today the education of future archaeologists? - A bit of theory: Narratives in Archaeology for the XXI Century. Reflections after saying farewell to Lewis Binford.
2. NEW STRUCTURE. We consider it a necessity to modify the structure of the Conference, replacing traditional sessions (long papers and short discussion) by round tables, in order to give put discussion at the heart. Even so, we will also consider traditional proposals.
CALL FOR SESSIONS Proposals must be submitted by 1st December 2011. The Organizing Committee and the Scientific Committee will announce the accepted sessions in early January 2012, with the resulting opening Call for Papers and Posters. The conditions listed below are required for the acceptance of any submitted proposal. We ask you to read them carefully as some are being raised for the first time. These are the options we suggest:
1. Round Table Sessions These sessions will be divided into two sections with a short break. The first section will be composed of a maximum six papers of not more than 10 minutes per person. After a break of 10 minutes, we will begin the round table discussion until the end of the session. The aim of the round table is to replace the traditional question time with a colloquium in which both, speakers and audience, can participate on the same level. It is estimated that the total length of the round table will be 2 hours.
RECOMMENDATIONS: - Be in frequent contact with the people who will participate in your session, informing them about the deadlines and the requirements before, during and after the Conference. - Receive in time the texts from the participants so as to design a suitable strategy to manage the specific aspects you would like to highlight during the discussion. - Circulate the texts between the participants involved in the round table for everyone to think about possible questions or issues to raise during the discussion. - In relation with the circulation of texts, it is very important not to wear out the discussion before the round table. This could happen if there is fluid contact between participants or an excessive exchange of ideas between them. In this case, the speeches would result too flat and the debate would be exhausted too easily. - We are currently working to install audio recording during the round tables. Even so, it would be convenient that a member of the coordinating team try to register by hand the issues dealt with during the discussion. This way you will have useful information when drafting the final article. - For the time being, we cannot inform you about the kind of publication we will produce after the round tables. We do anticipate that it will have a larger extension than those of traditional sessions, and will show the names of all the participants in the round table discussion, distinguishing between editors (coordinating team), speakers, and the authors of the final text. The latter will be defined by the way the coordinating team decides to work after the Conference: either including the complete texts of speakers, adding a joint text, or preparing a general text with the most important ideas considered during the round table. This can be decided freely and in future announcements we will give you more information.
2. Traditional Sessions This kind of session will maintain the structure of previous JIAs, where coordinators propose a thematic issue for guiding the session. The traditional session will also be divided into two sections: a first entirely dedicated to speakers and a shorter second part for questions and discussion. It is estimated that the total length of the table will be 1 hour.
The person/team who proposed a session, regardless of the format, acquires all the rights and obligations of any coordinator or coordinating team if it becomes elected. This entails being in frequent contact with the people who will participate in your session before, during and after JIA 2012. In short, being the link between all the participants of the session.
As has been stated above, the Organizing Committee will give priority to those sessions related to the subjects we set out at the beginning of this announcement as well as those whose coordinators choose the round table format. To all interested researchers we inform that our website is already working at http://sites.google.com/site/jia2012compostela/ and we will receive your proposals through this email: jia2012secretaria@gmail.com. These are the requirements: •
Abstract of up to 1000 words. It has to contain the main objectives and motivations of the session. This text will be used as a description in following announcements if it is finally elected, so it has to be complete enough for possible participants.
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Brief script with specific questions and discussion points working as a plan of action for guiding both papers and discussion.
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Name, institution, email and postal address of the coordinators.
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List of authors already interested in presenting a communication in the session.
LAST REQUESTS AND COMMENTS •
If we receive similar proposals we will attempt to coordinate you with the aim of reformulating a joint session with both.
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We will design the structure of the Conference depending on the number of sessions received. This is important for regulating the length of communications and discussion. Until January 2012 this information will not be provided.
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The Organizing Committee will work to offer varied sessions in order to get as many young researchers as possible. Therefore, we encourage you to send us your proposals as well as to publicize the JIA 2012 among your colleagues.
Should you have any questions or comments, do not hesitate to contact us at our email address: jia2012secretaria@gmail.com http://sites.google.com/site/jia2012compostela/proyecto-jia-2012
We hope to see you in Santiago de Compostela next year!
Organizing Committee, JIA 2012.