BOOK LAUNCH: Public Dialogues in Archaeology

This talk introduces Public Dialogues in Archaeology: New Methodologies from Turkey, which reconsiders the relationship between archaeology and the public.

Drawing on over a decade of research across Turkey—including nationwide public opinion polls, ethnographic fieldwork, and community-based projects—it asks a deceptively simple question: how do people actually relate to the material remains of the past in their everyday lives? Challenging the assumption that appreciation of archaeology depends primarily on formal knowledge, the book proposes that public engagement is often grounded in embodied, affective, and sensory forms of understanding. By bringing together perspectives from archaeology, anthropology, sociology, and psychology, it invites a reconsideration of what it means to make archaeology “public,” and suggests that meaningful engagement may begin not with transmitting knowledge, but with attending to the forms of knowledge that already exist.

Author: Dr Işılay Gürsu (BIAA)

Discussant: Zeynep Boz (the Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums)

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