Dr. Michelle Sivilich
Founder & Co-Director of CIRCA
Executive Director of GARI
My vision for CIRCA
I believe strongly that there needs to be a centralized research hub where scholars of conflict can network, share data, develop new and cutting edge methodologies and broaden our understanding of the past so we are better equipped to protect and save it.
There has been tendency to only collaborate with those within the same field – archaeologists work with other archaeologists, historians with historians, and so on. My dream is to bring scholars from multiple disciplines together to undertake a more holistic and integrative approach to studying conflict. We need historians, archaeologists, tribal members, anthropologists, and those currently serving in the military to collaborate and find new ways to view and interpret conflict.
Additionally, scholars tend to look at the tangible remains of past conflict such as locations of skirmishes, where troops may have camped, and how battles played out on the terrain. But there are so many other important aspects of conflict that often don’t get discussed, such as logistics of supplying a marching army (where was their food being shipped from and how did it get to them), how were soldiers trained to think and fight and did that impact the battle, what social and economic ramifications did that conflict have on the local populations, etc. I find this side of conflict studies fascinating – more so than just locating old battles.
We also need to broaden our study of conflict beyond just war and battles like those of the Civil War to include aspects such as irregular warfare, indigenous conflicts, blockades, and a whole host of ancillary parts of conflict. We need to add the social and anthropological aspects into the study of conflict because if we aren’t studying these past pieces of history, how can we protect them for future generations? How can we learn from them?
Dr. Colin Parkman
Co-Director of CIRCA
Research Associate of GARI
My vision for CIRCA
I have been a professional archaeologist for 18 years, with 15 years as a specialist in conflict and battlefield archaeology.
I wish to see CIRCA become a place where scholars can engage in meaningful discussions and collaborate on research to increase the number and quality of both conflict archaeology publications, and field research.
I hope that CIRCA can become a clearing house for information, data and reports relating to the study of conflict. This will bring our academic community together and inform researchers of current field projects, research and methodologies.
It’s been a dream to create, organize, codify and experiment with various field and research methodologies to create new avenues and approaches to the research of conflict archaeology. While also encouraging fellow archaeologists to occasionally reevaluate and continuously improve those methodologies and tools for analyses so we are always striving to improve our approaches. This is especially important as we train the next generations of conflict archaeologists. We want to ensure that conflict archaeology continues to thrive and expand despite shrinking academic opportunities.
I am excited to see what other opportunities there are to grow CIRCA and create something we can all be proud of.