Alan Saunders Lecture 2019

2019 Alan Saunders Lecture will be delivered by Professor Alison Wylie (UBC)

Title: Witnessing and Translating: The Indigenous/Science Project

Abstract: Reconciliation is unfinished business in Australia. But we're not alone: the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls on non-Indigenous Canadians to build equitable, respectful and transparent partnerships with Indigenous Peoples as a primary means for advancing reconciliation. One project launched by the University of British Columbia brings the tools of archaeological science to Indigenous-led research projects designed to serve the interests of Indigenous communities. In this seventh annual Alan Saunders Memorial Lecture, Alison Wylie, philosopher of archeology, discusses her work on the project and on collaborative process, raising a number of challenging questions of power, hierarchy, and the role of experts.

Alison Wylie is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of the Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of British Columbia. She works on epistemic and ethical/political issues raised by archaeological practice and by feminist research in the social sciences. Recent publications include Material Evidence (2015) and Evidential Reasoning in Archaeology (2016), co-edited and co-authored with archaeologist Bob Chapman; journal articles on “What Knowers Know Well” (Scientiae Studia, 2017) and “How Archaeological Evidence Bites Back (STHV 2017); and contributions to collections such as the Springer Handbook of Model-based Science (2017), Objectivity in Science (2015), How Well do 'Facts' Travel? (2010), Agnotology (2008), The Ethics of Cultural Appropriation (2009) and Embedding Ethics (2005).