Digital Archaeology Workshop Series (2024–2027)

We are pleased to announce the second workshop in the four-year international series Exploring the Layers of Digital Archaeological Practice, held at the Norwegian Institute at Athens from 2024 to 2027. The series brings together researchers examining how digital technologies shape archaeological knowledge, practice, and ethics.

Focusing on the socio-technical ecosystems of archaeological work, the series explores how data is produced, mediated, and interpreted—while critically engaging with the ethical, methodological, and theoretical dimensions of digital archaeology. Each annual workshop features a keynote lecture, thematic sessions, and roundtable discussions, and results in a standalone publication of proceedings.

For more information on the series, including the full schedule and workshop topics, please consult the relevant circular (below).

The 2025 Workshop

Following the 2024 workshop, Digital Impacts on Archaeological Fieldwork: Advantages and Limitations (proceedings forthcoming), the second workshop, titled Data and Technology Politics in Archaeology, will take place on December 3–4, 2025 at the Norwegian Institute at Athens.

This workshop will critically explore the socio-political dimensions of digital data and technologies in archaeology, critically examining their role in shaping research priorities, interpretative frameworks, and professional structures. While digital and AI-driven tools are rapidly expanding the horizons of archaeological inquiry, they also raise complex ethical, epistemological, and infrastructural challenges. These include the production, processing, and interpretation of data, as well as how access to digital tools and infrastructures reinforces or disrupts existing power asymmetries within the field.

The workshop will cover a range of topics, including, but not limited to:

o Ethical and Practical Concerns with Digital Tools

o Digital and Algorithmic Power Dynamics in Archaeological Research

o Postcolonial Approaches in the Digital Realm

o Standardization Policies and Agendas

o Technological Bias, Labor Conditions, and Automation in Archaeology

By addressing these themes, the workshop aims to deepen critical engagement with the politics of digital archaeology, interrogating the frameworks that shape the discipline’s digital transformation and fostering dialogue on more equitable and reflexive digital futures.

Series Organization Board:

Paschalis Zafeiriadis (NIA / University of Bergen), Markos Katsianis (University of Patras), Nicoló Dell’Unto (University of Lund), Björn Nilsson (University of Bergen), and Søren Handberg (University of Oslo)