21/10/2025
Join the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology for their Geoff Egan memorial lecture during TAG!
Where: York Medical Society
When: 16 December between the afternoon sessions and the annual party
The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception provided by SPMA.
Details for how to book can be found soon on the SPMA website: https://spma.org.uk/geoff-egan-memorial-lectures
Archaeology as a discipline is at an ethical crossroad. Claims to be neutral and to depoliticise our practice – or to defend the status of archaeology as an ‘objective science’ – have alarmingly (re)gained traction. This turn away from humans (past and present), their suffering, and the ethics of care is the product of unaddressed postcolonial demands that hide our privileged position as (white) archaeologists.
Drawing on a long tradition of the social in Latin American arts and scholarship, I propose an ‘archaeology of radical tenderness’ that combines protest and profound critical thought with deep care, affection, and vulnerability, especially in the face of systemic harm and oppressive political structures. Using the archaeological record and the living experience, the archaeology of radical tenderness challenges inherited power structures and colonial histories offering new alternatives for our discipline as a site of openness, resistance, and relatedness. The archaeology of radical tenderness advocates for an embodied-situated practice and a critical and loving approach to social justice, emphasising collective care, the transformation of communities through shared vulnerability, and the healing needed to birth new (more equal) futures.
Geoff Egan, a former President of SPMA and serving Vice-President, died in 2010. To honour his work we hold the Geoff Egan Memorial Lecture each year. Geoff's influence on medieval and post-medieval artefact studies has been, and will continue to be, very considerable and far-reaching. To read some....
