Join the CAA! Call for candidates for four open CAA committee posts

I love the CAA and I thoroughly enjoy being able to give something back to this community by being CAA secretary. If you think this is a great community and are keen to be involved, consider applying for one of the open positions!

Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) invites CAA members to apply for one of four open committee posts: outreach officer, treasurer, publication officer, bursary and student/low income officer. The current treasurer and publication officer will stand down at CAA2016 in Oslo, the outreach and the bursary and student/low income officers are two new posts. Candidates must be CAA members and applications by all CAA members will be considered. CAA encourages in particular applications from female or non-European CAA members. The tasks associated with these posts are given below. Candidates must express an interest in the posts before 29 February 2016 by sending a motivational statement and CV to the CAA secretary. Please contact the CAA secretary if additional information is required. To become a CAA member, please visit our website.

CAA is a growing international community with an active membership of over 500 academics and professionals with a shared interest in archaeological computing. The CAA has organised annual international conferences since 1973 and has 14 national chapters spread across the globe. As an officer of CAA you will help carry on this strong tradition by coordinating CAA’s organisation throughout the year and by encouraging the continued growth of a diverse and inspiring community.

The outreach officer is a steering committee (SC) post (ex-officio member of the executive steering committee [ESC]) that will be filled by the most appropriate candidate selected by the CAA ESC from all received applications.

The other three are ESC Officer posts. ESC officers are elected by CAA members at the Annual General Meeting for terms of three years, and each officer may hold their post for up to two terms. It is then however possible to be elected for a different post. Candidates must be able to commit an estimated equivalent of three weeks of full-time work spread throughout the year to CAA business. Candidates must also be able to attend the yearly conference and an ESC meeting at the conference venue (or sometimes via Skype) usually in December/January before the conference (financial assistance is available for this pre-conference meeting but not for the conference itself). The election of officers for these three posts will happen by CAA members during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) at CAA Oslo (29 March – 2 April 2016). If there are multiple candidates for a post, the candidates will be asked to give a short (2 minute) motivational statement at the AGM before the vote takes place.

Outreach (NEW CAA steering committee post)

Candidates for this post will probably be young, creative and pro-active CAA members who have experience and interest in communication, social media, and outreach aimed at diversifying communities.

The tasks of this new post will include:

• Actively encourage new areas of membership and the diversity of the CAA community
• Share news, deadlines, advertising of CAA on selected social media and the CAA website
• Responsible for all external communication of CAA, but not to the membership (which is done by the Membership Secretary)
• Advise local organisers of social media strategies
• Oversee our connection to and collaboration with other conferences and academic communities (UISPP, DH, TAG, WAC). Consultation on conference dates and venues with these communities
• Provide an annual report of activities

Candidates interested in applying for this post should send a short motivational statement and a CV to the CAA secretary before 29 February 2016.

Bursary and student/low income officer (NEW CAA executive steering committee post)

The tasks of this new post will include:

• Coordinate student/low-income bursaries
• Chair the bursary committee
• Coordinate handing out of bursaries
• Coordinate Nick Ryan bursary
• Coordinate the student/low-income representation
• Liaise with local organisers regarding affordable fees/accommodation

The creation of this new ESC post is subject to the acceptance of a modified CAA constitution incorporating this post, which will be proposed at and voted on during the Annual General Meeting in Oslo before the officer’s elections.

Candidates interested in applying for this post should send a short motivational statement and a CV to the CAA secretary before 29 February 2016. Candidates are invited to get in touch with the current student/low income SC officer (John Pouncett, bursaries@caaconference.org) to find out more about the responsibilities and future duties.

Treasurer (CAA executive steering committee post)

The Treasurer deals with all financial activities of CAA, including:

• Keeping a detailed overview of finances
• All CAA related bills apart from those directly linked to conference organisation
• Organise annual auditing
• Managing bank accounts
• Primary contact for financial information regarding CAA
• Reporting all this to the officers and membership

The treasurer is also a member of the bursary committee, which is responsible for deciding which applicants will receive bursaries to attend the conference. Any incoming bursary application is decided by this committee on the basis of a set of rules, which will be published on the CAA webpage.

Candidates interested in applying for this post should send a short motivational statement and a CV to the CAA secretary before 29 February 2016. Candidates are invited to get in touch with the current treasurer (Axel Posluschny, treasurer@caa-international.org) to find out more about the responsibilities and future duties of the CAA treasurer.

Publication officer (CAA executive steering committee post)

The Publication Officer is responsible for ensuring and organizing the publication of the annual conference proceedings. S/he will be supported by an Editorial Board, consisting of other members of the SC, including co-opted ex officio members and the CAA Review College. Any member of CAA can be co-opted as an Editorial Board member by the ESC upon request from the Publication Officer.

Tasks of the publication officer include:

• Communication with publishers
• Communicating with and directing local organizers where it concerns the publication process
• Occasionally communicating with Editorial Board to discuss relevant issues
• Occasionally answering questions on publication issues from members
• Maintaining publication guidelines
• Maintaining Review College database and communicating with its members
• Digital archiving of Proceedings
• Continue the new publication plan for 2016 and beyond, including digital proceedings and the CAA journal

Candidates interested in applying for this post should send a short motivational statement and a CV to the CAA secretary before 29 February 2016. Candidates are invited to get in touch with the current publication officer (Philip Verhagen, publications@caa-international.org) to find out more about the responsibilities and future duties.

Present your archaeological networks at CAA Oslo!

Do you have something to say about the way network methods are used in archaeology? Maybe you have some networky research lying around somewhere, begging to be presented. Or maybe you just need an excuse to come to Oslo and hang out with awesome academics! These are all good reasons to submit a paper to our networks session at CAA 2016 in Oslo (although I prefer the first two reasons to the third)! Together with Mereke van Garderen and Daniel Weidele, I will chair a session that aims to work towards best practice in archaeological network science. Since network methods are still very new in our discipline, there is a need to explore how they can be usefully and critically applied and developed to lead to insights that could not have been gained through any other approach. We believe there is a need to develop guidelines for best practice for archaeological network science that will help archaeologists explore the potential use of network science techniques for achieving their own research aims. Come join us and add your thoughts to the discussion!

Deadline call for papers: 25 October 2015
Session code: S16
Abstract below
Dates conference: 29 March – 2 April 2016
More CFP info: CAA website 

For those interested in getting their hands dirty and learning how to use the awesome network science software Visone: we will also host a workshop at CAA Oslo!

Networking the past: Towards best practice in archaeological network science

Mereke van Garderen, Tom Brughmans, Daniel Weidele

The full diversity of network perspectives has only been introduced in our discipline relatively recently. As a result we are still in the long-term process of evaluating which theories and methods are available, the ‘fit’ between particular network perspectives and particular research questions, and how to apply these critically. How can network science usefully contribute to archaeological research by enabling archaeologists to answer important questions they could not have answered through other approaches? In what circumstances is the use of network science techniques appropriate? There is a need to address these questions by working towards guidelines to best practice in archaeological network science. This is a goal that should be achieved by a community of scholars in collaboration, drawing on the lessons learned from applying network science critically and creatively in a diversity of archaeological research contexts.

This session aims to build on the growing interest in and maturity of archaeological networks science to lay the foundations of guidelines for best practice in archaeological network science. It invites papers debating best practice in archaeological network science, addressing methodological and theoretical challenges posed by the archaeological application of network science, or presenting archaeological case studies applying network science techniques. It particularly welcomes papers presenting work in which the use of network science techniques was necessary and well theoretically motivated, and papers applying network science to exploring ‘oceans of data’.

CAA 2016 Call for papers open

The call for papers and posters for the Computer Application and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) conference held 29 March – 2 April 2016 in Oslo (Norway) is now open. Submission can be uploaded via CAA conference management system.  Abstracts can contain up to 300 words. The submission deadline is 25 October 2015. Oral papers will present new and ground breaking research within the session themes. Oral presentations are limited to 20 minutes, with an additional 5 minutes provided at the end of each paper for questions. Presentations must be prepared in a way that is self-contained and work on all operating systems. One person may present one oral paper, but may also be a co-author of multiple papers. Authors can present both an oral paper and a poster. We will organise a digital poster gallery, in addition to the traditional printed poster presentations.

The annual CAA Conference is one of the major events in the calendar for scholars, specialists and experts in the field of computing technologies applied to archaeology.

The 44th Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Conference (CAA 2016) has been given the theme “Exploring Oceans of Data”, in reference to Norway’s maritime heritage. The conference will address a multitude of topics. Through diverse case studies from all over the world, the conference will showcase ground-breaking technologies and best practice from various archaeological and computer-science disciplines. Archaeological documentation is, to an ever greater extent, born digital. Together with decades of digitalisation of archive material, we now have deep oceans of digital information that can and should be explored. Rivers worth of large data sets come from 3D, GIS, LIDAR, as well as near surface geophysical prospection.

The conference will bring together hundreds of participants from around the globe, immersing delegates in parallel sessions, workshops, tutorials and roundtables. The conference will be held at the University of Oslo, Norway, from March 29th to April 2nd 2016.

We warmly welcome participants and contributors from every corner of the world to the beautiful capital city of Norway. The harbour city of Oslo houses the spectacular Viking ships, which bravely set sail into the deep oceans some 1200 years ago.

For general information about the conference: caa2016conference@khm.uio.no