I Have Re-Surfaced Down Under!

Greetings, archaeo-blogosphere! I have triumphantly returned from a successful conference and fieldwork trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. The IPPA conference was a smash hit, and my panel on the illicit antiquities trade in Southeast Asia garnered much more attention than I expected, to my great honour. I feel that this topic is finally "on the radar" for our region, so that documentation, research, and advocacy will increase.

What's more, it was fun to participate in the "live-Tweet" team, organized by my colleague Noel Hidalgo-Tan. We successfully, I think, covered a wide spectrum of talks and topics during the conference as they occurred! I had never done this before, but will do so again.

My time in Hanoi was also very productive. Besides catching up with old friends and colleagues, there was much learned and some (I feel) very important data gathered. While there is not much I am really at liberty to blog about at the moment, I'm sure that as time goes on, this might change.

It was lovely to be in Vietnam again for the Tet New Year (Year of the Horse), and I look forward to my next chance to visit and continue this project throughout the country someday. For now, I look forward (with trepidation) to the two months to come, where "organized chaos" will rule my life as I prepare for an international move. Wish me luck! Until next time.

Season's Greetings!

Season's Greetings to all of you in the cultural heritage blogosphere who visited my home in cyberspace this past year, or may do so in 2014. This is just to confirm that I'm still alive, so be prepared for more news and updates on my travels and adventures. As a preview, I can report that I will attend the IPPA (Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association) conference in Siem Reap, Cambodia in January. I am honored to be able to host a small panel on the illicit trade in Southeast Asia, which should bring together speakers who can offer both archaeological and legal/criminological insight as applied to that region of the world.

From there, I am Hanoi bound for two weeks in order to conduct "pilot" research for what I hope will be a long term project to better understand the antiquities trade within and from Vietnam using quantitative and qualitative data (see initial announcement here in the Oct. 1st post). Planning continues apace, but as always with research in this part of the world, some aspects will be played by ear. However, good outcomes are anticipated by myself and all involved.

As a final happy announcement, I am overjoyed to report that I will officially be a post-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution from April next year. Yes, this does mean that I am DC bound. I will maintain three affiliations, be engaged in what should be a very exciting bioarchaeology research project, and also be well positioned (I feel) to keep things going in regards to antiquities trade research (and the application of archaeological science to it) and public outreach. So, whilst updates here might be intermittent (more so!) from February through April, once I've arrived I will do my best to tap into the Smithsonian's wider outreach and training programs as a way to share what I do with an even wider audience and do new things to boot. Stay tuned!

As we close out 2013 (where did it go?!), may I take this chance to wish one and all Happy Holidays and a joyous New Year.

Your Feedback is Important to Us!

As those of you who follow this blog would know, Vietnam and its ancient past are near and dear to my heart. The need to better conserve its archaeological record and understand what threatens it remains important...but the degree to which it is threatened is less known than other countries in the region. Research begun by myself and a colleague with legal and criminological expertise in art crime will begin to remedy this.

As part of our overall goal, we have drafted a series of questions designed to produce qualitative data via elucidating Western and Vietnamese archaeologists' experiences and observations of looting and the antiquities trade on the ground. We have already posted a call for interview subjects on three key Southeast Asian archaeology forums. I announce it here as well so as to keep spreading the word. If you or your colleagues would like to contribute, let us know and we can send you the questionnaire and more information about the project and its goals. There's plenty of time, and a diversity of perspectives would be very informative! Anonymity will be preserved.