Learning from the Past: the Challenges and Future of Data Curation
Abstract: Excavation is often described as a destructive activity since archaeologists must remove objects from the contexts that provide key information on the object’s past use. Archaeologists are therefore active practitioners of data curation: ensuring that the objects they collect and the data they ultimately destroy are retrievable and replicable for fellow and future researchers. However, archaeologists can also be considered students of data curation since the objects they dig up and the information they can gain from them are the result of past peoples’ own curatorial choices. Drawing upon examples of data curation in archaeology as well as the challenges archaeologists face in preserving the past, this talk will present the significance and potential of data curation to the academic community.
Zenobie Garrett received her Ph.D. in anthropology from New York University in 2016. Her work in Peru, Ireland, France, and the U.S. has illustrated the wide variety of living options available to humans, and the unique social and environmental challenges involved in the maintenance of wherever people call home, both in the past and today. To answer these questions, she uses new technologies and spatial analysis to understand how past groups organized and thought about the landscape around them. She is particularly interested in how digital tools can transform how researchers visualize, analyze, and share data and engage with the public.
Presentation Information:
April 30, 2018
9 a.m. - 10 a.m.
KL 371
