This is a timeline for on-going and planned project activities.  It will be updated throughout the project.  Please contact Project Manager Teresa Nichols if you have more questions.

Spring 2018

  • Working with educators to test pilot educational modules
  • Launching new website and raising awareness of the availability of free educational materials
  • Distributing final newsletter
  • Presenting at the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in Washington D.C.

Winter 2017

  • Revising and submitting the survey results paper for publication
  • Making final revisions on all educational materials
  • Developing a new website to host all educational materials
  • Recruiting educators to test pilot educational modules in their classroom.  If interested, please email lrnagpra@indiana.edu 

Fall 2017

  • Hiring Graduate Assistants to Coordinate Project Activities and Project Technology
  • Submitting Drafts of Educational Materials for Comment by the Review Committee
  • Analyzing teaching study data and writing a publication about the processes in NAGPRA teaching
  • Submitting presentation abstracts for the Midwest Archaeology Conference in October 2017 and the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in April 2018
  • October 26, 2017 from 3 to 5 pm offering a free webinar "NAGPRA for the CRM Professional". Email lrnagpra@indiana.edu to register

Summer 2017

  • Submitting the textbook analysis publication
  • Faciliating working group meetings to collaboratively develop educational materials
  • Preparing a directory of open-acess materials relating to NAGPRA and connected issues
  • Holding the 3rd and final Learning NAGPRA Collegium at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM

May 2017

  • Writing a draft of the textbook analysis publication
  • Organizing the logistics of the 2017 Collegium workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico
  • Analyzing data from the comparative teaching study
  • Collecting and developing resources to support the working groups and collaborative publications
  • Writing and distributing the Summer 2017 Newsletter

April 2017

  • Conducting more interviews and transcribing
  • Regular meetings with working groups
  • Collecting resources for working groups
  • Presenting at the 2017 AAPA annual meeting in New Orleans, LA at our organized session "Training the Next Generation."  See our Learning NAGPRA Project Poster on "Anthropology education in the age of NAGPRA: Where we stand and where we might go" here.

March 2017

  • Sending a draft of the publication on the student and educator surveys to beta readers
  • Transcribing
  • Gathering input from reviewers
  • Sending interview requests

February 2017

  • Spring videoconferences with reviewers
  • Final meeting for the Teaching Study and outlining future presentations
  • Writing publication on the student and educator surveys
  • Outlining publications on textbook analysis, NAGPRA in the classroom, and the teaching study
  • Transcribing

January 2017

  • Analyzing data from the comparative teaching study
  • Learning NAGPRA Team Meeting and setting up monthly meetings to plan the 3rd Collegium in Santa Fe
  • Scheduling Spring videoconferences for all working groups with review committee

December 2016

  • Checking in with working groups
  • Sharing results from the RPA survey
  • Sending invitations to the review committee
  • Wrapping up the comparative teaching study
  • Transcribing

November 2016

  • Checking in with working groups 
  • Writing an article on the student & educator surveys
  • Analyzing the responses to the RPA survey
  • Transcribing interviews and training a transcription assistant
  • Submitting final reports for Phase 1 of the project to the NSF

October 2016

  • Writing an article on the student & educator surveys
  • Launching a survey for Register of Professional Archaeologists (RPA) to better assess NAGPRA training needs
  • Fall videoconference with our educators participating in a semester-long teaching study
  • Attending the annual meeting of the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM) and their repatriation summit
  • Roundtable co-organized with Indiana University's Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) on "Teaching about Tribal Nations: Paths for Engaging Complex Topics".  

September 2016

  • Comparing syllabi for NAGPRA coverage
  • Writing an article on the student & educator surveys
  • Hiring and training a transcription assistant

August 2016

  • Launching the comparative teaching study
  • 2016 Learning NAGPRA Collegium is held at IU, Bloomington
  • Assisting working groups with their projects

July 2016

  • Planning for the 2016 Collegium meeting and sending out preparatory materials to all working groups
  • Final editing for a book chapter 

June 2016

  • Distributing our 2016 newsletter
  • Getting IRB approval from all institutions with educators participating in the Teaching Study
  • Planning for the 2016 Collegium meeting

May 2016

  • Developing a symposium for the 2017 AAPA meeting
  • Preparing the question set for our Fall semester teaching study and IRB
  • Visiting Santa Fe to meet with colleagues and begin planning our 2017 Collegium meeting there

April 2016

  • Presenting project updates and survey data at the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting
  • Facilitating the second Scholarship of Teaching and Learning workshop and beginning the survey design and IRB process for our Fall semester teaching study

March 2016

  • Organizing and facilitating two Scholarship of Teaching and Learning workshops in collaboration with Indiana University's Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning
  • Preparing survey data for presentation at the Society for American Archaeology meeting in April and for publication
  • Combining data from the course syllabi and textbook textual analyses projects

February 2016

  • Sending invitations to the 2nd Learning NAGPRA Collegium
  • Planning virtual workshops for the comparative research study on teaching
  • Finishing analyzing anthropology- and museum-studies course syllabi
  • Preparing survey data for publication

January 2016

  • Planning for a Comparative Research Study on Teaching
  • Analyzing anthropology- and museum studies-related course syllabi
  • Defining the working groups for the Learning NAGPRA Collegium

December 2015

  • Team planning for the 2nd Collegium Workshop and Comparative Research on Teaching
  • Finishing textual analysis project of introductory textbooks in anthropology and museum studies
  • Analyzing student and educator survey data

November 2015

  • Strategic planning meeting
  • Presenting at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting in Denver
    • Wednesday, November 18, 2015: 12:00 PM-1:45 PM “TEACHING CULTURALLY-ENGAGED RESEARCH: LESSONS FROM NAGPRA” Roundtable
    • Friday, November 20, 2015: 1:45 PM-3:30 PM "Learning NAGPRA: Nationwide Survey Results from Educators and Students" Poster
    • Saturday, November 21, 2015: 11:00 AM-2:00 PM, "Lessons from Repatriation" Discussion at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Ricketson Auditorium

October 2015

  • Closing the educator and student surveys and beginning analysis of the data
  • Attending the Midwest Bioarchaeology & Forensic Anthropology Association (BARFAA) meeting in Chicago, IL
  • Participating in IPinCH's DNA & Indigeneity Workshop.  See the workshop summary here.  

September 2015

  • Distributing the student and educator online surveys for the final of two data collection phases
  • Transcribing interviews
  • Conducting more interviews by phone
  • Project planning for phase 2 of the Learning NAGPRA project
  • Analysis of NAGPRA-related course syllabi and textbooks

August 2015

  • August 7th, 3pm EST. Online Question and Answer Session about the Learning NAGPRA Project with project personnel April Sievert, Jayne-Leigh Thomas, and Teresa Nichols.
  • August 14th, 4 pm EST.  Online Discussion of Helpful Examples of NAGPRA Education as part of the 2015 Learning NAGPRA Collegium.Connect with us using the following link:
  • Hosting the first Learning NAGPRA Collegium
  • Submitting a book chapter about the project

July 2015

  • Transcribing interviews
  • Planning and preparing for our August collegium meeting
  • Distributing our first newsletter
  • Writing a book chapter about the project

June 2015

  • Desigining our first newsletter
  • Analyzing preliminary results from our student and educator surveys
  • Transcribing interviews
  • Planning and preparing for our August collegium meeting

May 2015

  • Continuing phone interviews with educators, repatriation professionals, and students
  • Closing online surveys for students and educators the week of May 25th
  • Transcribing interviews

April 2015

  • Submitting AAA proposals for a roundtable session and a poster presentation on "Learning NAGPRA"
  • Attending and conducting interviews at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA
  • Distributing the online surveys for students and educators the week of April 27th

March 2015

  • Submitting the grant to the NSF program on Cultivating Cultures of Ethical STEM to fund the second phase of the project
  • Presenting at the Indiana Archaeology Council's 2015 Spring Meeting & Workshop: "NAGPRA Past, Present, and Future: Repatriation 25 Years Later" in Noblesville, IN  This has been rescheduled for December
  • Attending and conducting interviews at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists Annual Meeting in St. Louis, MO

February 2015

  • Drafting survey questionnaires for students, educators, and repatriation professionals
  • Reaching out to other institutions about collaborative opportunities 
  • Rewriting the grant to the NSF program on Cultivating Cultures of Ethical STEM to fund the second phase of the project
  • Beginning conducting interviews via phone and in person about NAGPRA education  

APRIL 15th, 2015 PROJECT UPDATE by PI Dr. April Sievert

We are currently conducting interviews and surveys of students, educators, and professionals who work with NAGPRA and repatriation across the U.S. Later this year we will hold a Collegium meeting in which twenty faculty, consultants, and students affiliated with both federally recognized tribes and institutions participate in open conversation about the current state of NAGPRA training and needed improvements. Currently eight Native American scholars have agreed to be part of the Collegium, which will (1) compare the character and content of NAGPRA training at universities and at tribal institutions (2) identify the roadblocks or bottlenecks in developing appreciation of ethical issues with respect to repatriation, and (3) evaluate the effectiveness of current NAGPRA-related ethics pedagogy. We also plan close readings of statements of ethics for professional associations to see how these align with expectations based on the law. Reporting will occur at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association 2015.

 In March 2015 we resubmitted the proposal, now under review, for a three-year, implementation phase. For the next phase, the Director of IU’s First Nations Educational and Cultural Center (FNECC) joins as co-PI, and educators from the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum Studies program take on a major role for comparing tribal with institutional approaches. During the implementation phase, if funded, the Collegium would develop, recommend and test resources to improve skills for implementing NAGPRA, conducting NAGPRA‐compliant and ethically conscious scholarship, supporting ethical practice at institutions, and improving consultation and collaboration. The second phase calls for bringing together consultants to two additional face-to-face Collegium meetings. The first will be to discuss and collaborate on developing specific ideas and potential educational interventions for getting NAGPRA across to students, faculty, and administrators. The second collegium will assess results of testing the training interventions, and create and/or assemble a set of materials in a variety of media for open access. We envision the result to be a web-hub where a site visitor can hear a talk, explore a case study, connect to other NAGPRA-related resources or blogs, consult the wisdom of NAGPRA experts both tribal and non-tribal, or find links to materials to add to course planning. In the third year we submit an online training module to RPA for consideration as Continuing Professional Education.

Why IU? Indiana is among large Midwestern research universities having sizable collections, and its repatriation responsibilities are prodigious. We perceive challenges daily. IU now has a NAGPRA office to coordinate and conduct repatriations university-wide. IU has also been a center for archaeological ethics with its Archaeology and Social Context Ph.D. concentration, as well as a leader in the scholarship of college-level teaching and learning (SOTL). This SOTL project hopes to assist future professionals in meeting institutional and tribal needs across the country, and to promote restorative justice with respects to cultural items held in institutions.