Dr. Ethan Watrall visits LSU Spring 2024 for mini-residency from HSS Humanities Center grant

Dr. Ethan Watrall of Michigan State University Department of Anthropology, had a visiting “mini-residency” at LSU for Anthropology 7108: Ancient Maya in 3D course, funded by a Humanities Center grant from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences to Dr. Heather McKillop in Geography & Anthropology. Dr. Watrall led a workshop for the class, along with additional graduate students and faculty, followed by dinner and discussion with the class.

Dr. Watrall’s workshop for the course was titled “Practical Approaches to Digitizing Archaeology and Heritage Collections & Materials.” In this workshop he explored the life cycle and workflow of digitization projects that focus on archaeology and heritage collections and materials. He walked through each stage of a project including project design, digitization, documentation, preservation, and access. The workshop will paid particular attention to practical and thoughtful approaches that consider openness, ethical concerns, sustainability, management, and community standards.

Other activities during his 4-day visit as part of the Humanities grant included a Graduate Student Luncheon with Dr. Watrall, (open to all graduate students in the Dept of Geography & Anthropology), a meet and greet/ round-table discussion with Dr. Watrall in the LSU DIVA lab, and a Friday Forum talk in Geography and Anthropology. That talk was entitled “Building the Internment Archaeology Digital Archive - A Practical Discussion of a Community Engaged Digital Heritage Project."

His recent publications include two edited volumes, Digital heritage and archaeology in practice. Data, ethics, and professionalism [electronic resource] / edited by Ethan Watrall and Lynne Goldstein and Digital heritage and archaeology in practice. Presentation, teaching, and engagement [electronic resource] / edited by Ethan Watrall and Lynne Goldstein available from the LSU Library.