Lessons from building the Keweenaw Time Traveler explored in a new publication in Journal of Community Heritage & Archaeology

HESAL Post-Doctoral researcher Dan Trepal, KeTT co-director Sarah Fayen Scarlett, and director Don Lafreniere have just published an article proposing that community-driven digital geospatial projects like the Keweenaw Time Traveler can help develop a sustainable compromise between protecting community heritage values and fostering economic development and regeneration in postindustrial communities.

In this paper, we suggest three broad categories of challenges for studying and promoting heritage in postindustrial regions – physical, social, and political – and propose a digital data-focused geospatial approach to how community archaeologists and heritage specialists may overcome these challenges. We argue that coupling this data and technology with a robust research agenda and public programming can serve as a crucial two-way link, enabling long-term sustainable heritage-promotion and protection in post-industrial communities.

This paper grew out of presentations given by Trepal and Scarlett at the Society for Historical Archaeology annual conference in New Orleans in January 2018. Thanks to Kaeleigh Herstad @RustBeltAnthro for co-organizing that panel and co-editing this special issue. 

If you are connected to a research library you can access the paper here. If not, contact us for a copy!