Since 2011, the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University has convened a series of State of the Field workshops. These annual conferences are hosted by the Joukowsky Institute to reflect upon trends in archaeological work, each year focusing our discussion on issues impacting an area of particular interest to our faculty and students.
Past events have examined the countries of Italy (2011), Turkey (2012), Greece (2013), the Iberian Peninsula (2014), North Africa (2014), and Egypt (2016). In 2018, we held State of the Field 2018: Archaeology and Social Justice, which expanded the focus of our State of the Field workshops beyond geography. For 2019, we continued this trend, organizing State of the Field 2019: The Ancient DNA Revolution. In 2020, we had planned to return to a geographical focus, hosting State of the Field 2020: Archaeology of the Levant, but were forced by the onset of the pandemic to postpone and ultimately cancel the conference. State of the Field returned in Spring 2023, with State of the Field 2023: Archaeologies of the Mediterranean.