(Australian Parliament House, Canberra at dusk, Wikimedia Commons)

We are excited to announce that the 2024 Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology (ASHA) Conference will be held at the University of Canberra. As the nation’s capital, Canberra is home to iconic Australian landmarks, national museums and galleries. The conference will be held from 25 to 27 September, commencing with a welcome function on the evening before. The keynote address will be given by Dr Alasdair Brooks, followed by conference sessions from Wednesday to Friday inclusive. We also hope to offer a field trip on Saturday 28th.

Theme: A capital idea: from colonies to nation states

Conference Dates: 25 -27 September 2024

Conference Venue: Ann Harding Conference Centre, (Building 24) University of Canberra, 24 University Drive S, Bruce ACT 2617

Registration: TBA, but will be via the ASHA website.

Call for Sessions

The 2024 conference theme recognises that our conference will be taking place in Canberra, Australia’s national capital, established as a direct result of Federation of the Australian colonies. We welcome session proposals, which should link to the conference theme, from any field of historical archaeological inquiry, including: historical archaeology, cultural heritage management, maritime archaeology, archaeological or research methods, and public archaeology.

Session organisers should provide a title and abstract (up to 200 words) for the proposed session and select the session format, which will run for 1.5 hours (90 mins):

Standard Session – 4 presentations of 20 minutes each, with 10 mins at the end of the session for general Q&A. Please advise the number of standard sessions proposed.

Short Papers Session – 8 presentations of 10 mins each, followed by 10 minutes for Q&A or general discussion. Short papers would be well suited for current projects including heritage management projects and might present initial results or ongoing analyses, as well as final conclusions.

Workshop or Panel Session – Could be particularly suited to discussions of specific issues or methodologies. Please include principal aims in your abstract, and advise potential number of speakers. Note that any such session would be open to all conference participants.

Sessions may incorporate multiple presentations on the same overarching project, or a geographical area (e.g. New Zealand, Melbourne, Tasmania, Northern Australia, etc., or an International Session) or papers which link in another way.

Potential Session Topics might include:

• Papers in memory of Professor Graham Connah
• Ecology & Environment (including threats to the archaeological record from climate change)
• Colonies to nation states
• Pacific Islands
• Urban archaeology, Interaction or ‘Contact’ archaeology
• Buildings archaeology, Material culture studies
• Interdisciplinary collaborations
• ‘Commonwealth’ or national topics such as defence, immigration, industry, trade

Note to presenters:

Presenters may only present one oral paper during the conference, although they may be co-authors on other papers. This includes panellists and/or workshop convenors.

The lead session organiser and lead presenter must be ASHA members and all session organisers and presenters must register to attend the conference. As there will not be parallel sessions, the conference committee may combine similar themes.

Session abstracts are due by 5pm AEST 21 JUNE 2024. Email to: [email protected]

We will announce the conference sessions that have been accepted on 1 July 2024 and issue a Call for Paper and Poster Abstracts soon afterwards. Conference registrations will open in July.

ASHA appreciates assistance from GML Heritage (Canberra) in organising the 2024 conference.