Thank you to all the delegates who joined us in York for TAG this year, it was such a success and we appreciate everyone's patience and enthusiasm throughout!
A few final announcements:
The Don Hanson Prize winner is Liz Carter, University of Glasgow, for her paper - Prosthetic Materials for Prosthetic Memories: ’Inauthentic’ Objects of WW2 Memory in Local British Museums in the session "Invisible threads - relational theories and the immaterial"
The runners up are:
Max Jacobs (Phenomenology of Engagement: Walking and Storytelling as modes of Engaging and Teaching within our Landscapes)
Lizzie Lovejoy (Fossil flash fiction)
(you can find Lizzie on Instagram at @lizzie_lovejoy_illustration and Bluesky at @lizzielovejoy.bsky.social)
Lizzie has written a poem for the event:
TAG - Group Self-Portrait Poem
We are…
Here.
We are quite stupid, but curious
We are disillusioned and anxious
But we are many
We can…
Find ourselves.
We can listen, observe and speak.
We can think.
We can come together.
We can change and adapt and help and remember.
We will…
Learn and theorise.
Prevaricate.
We will act.
We will take some rest (especially after a three day conference).
We will join together
And drink.
We will hold space.
We will return.
We are welcoming donations to support the bursaries for TAG.
For further information, view our Busaries page.
Click the button below to donate.
Students and Staff of the Department of Archaeology at the University of York are delighted to be hosting the Theoretical Archaeology Group meeting in York in 2025. York last hosted TAG in 2007, and we are excited to welcome you back to our historic city. Alongside upstanding archaeology from the Roman period, Vikings galore, and a rich collection of museums, we hope to be able to show the other side of York, as a City of Sanctuary and the UK’s first Human Rights City; a great setting to debate how to put theory into action.
The conference will run live and in person from Monday lunchtime on 15th December to late afternoon of Wednesday 17th December. We anticipate that York will be very busy in the run up to the Christmas period and advise you to book accommodation and plan early.
Keep an eye on this website and our socials for regular updates.
You can also find information about the Theoretical Archaeology Group, previous TAG Annual Meetings, and events run by the wider international TAG Family here.
Queries about this website or TAG 2025 should be directed to the TAG Organising Comittee at: tag2025.york@gmail.com
This year’s TAG theme is ‘theory in action’, a broad theme in which we want to be inclusive to everything that makes this conference wonderful: fringe theory that you think needs more attention, bringing untold stories and objects to light, critical reflection on the field, giving voices to diverse communities, and presenting creative crossovers between archaeology and the arts. We are hosted in the School of Arts and Creative Technologies, there is a stage, a cinema, a rehearsal room at our disposal, meaning that we have a great space to bring theory into action in non-traditional ways, and we would like to encourage participants to think about creative ways of presenting papers and hosting sessions.
Theory in action is also about how we as a group, who study, teach, do research in archaeology and heritage, relate to a world that is on fire. From the ruins of Gaza, increasing anti-LGBTQI policies, the increased adoption of archaeology in extreme right-wing politics, climate change, to continuing colonial practices harming indigenous communities and heritage: archaeology needs more thought and more action. We need to find new ways to make our voices heard, louder than before.
How can we challenge systems of power and oppression and promote care, compassion, and social justice together? How can we celebrate our diverse communities and contributions to interpreting our shared pasts?
Theory in action pushes us to take this step, to think about action and to perform our theories. We welcome sessions, academic interventions as well as those from development-led archaeology, creative artist responses, and any collaborations with community organizations and activist groups to add to this year’s TAG and we hope to create an inclusive and welcoming environment.
Welcome to York!
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TAG is committed to creating a conference which is inclusive and accessible for all participants. This will be achieved through a focus from the outset on creating an environment which is accessible for all, and through the provision of accommodations and adjustments. We acknowledge that we will inevitably fall short of a completely accessible conference for everyone, but we are constantly striving to make the necessary changes to improve accessibility, within the financial constraints of this conference, and leave a legacy of an accessible TAG for years to come.
A personal meeting space, engagement, and communion are central to TAG, but we all know that conferences are not the most environmentally friendly events. We are committed to minimising environmental impact. We follow the plan of our university towards net zero carbon where we can. It is, however, to an extent, a shared responsibility, and we hope that you consider the following:
