2026 Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology

Description

PRELIMINARY PROGRAM 

59th Annual Conference On Historical and Underwater Archaeology 

Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. 7–10 January 2026 

The 2026 SHA conference will be held at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center, located on the riverfront in downtown Detroit, just across the Detroit River from Windsor, Canada. The conference hotel’s prime location in downtown Detroit provides direct access to public transportation and world-class restaurants, museums, architecture, cultural institutions, and archaeology that speak to the city’s vibrant history of innovation, industry, and creativity. 

The conference theme of “Mobility” is inspired by Detroit’s coastal location, industrial heritage, diverse cultural communities and history as a city of cultural and protest movements. Central to the Great Lakes region, Detroit’s history has been shaped by Anishinaabeg, Wendat/Wyandot, and French Canadians who traversed the Detroit River in canoes, by African Americans who self-emancipated via the Underground Railroad, by laborers who made Detroit the “Arsenal of Democracy” building tanks and planes during World War II, by generations of local activists who led national civil rights and labor movements, and now by automotive companies developing self-driving and electric cars in an increasingly revitalized city. Detroit’s livelihood has long depended upon its successes (and failures) in moving people, ideas, and goods from one place to another across the Great Lakes and the world.   

The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, as well as the 325th anniversary of the French settlement of Detroit by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. The year will not only be a monumental time for the city as it reflects upon its storied past, but an opportunity for historical archaeology to speak to the public and intersect with commemorative celebrations.  

Michigan is home to a longstanding, vibrant, and collegial tradition of collaborative and community-engaged historical archaeologists who have made important contributions to the development of the field over the past 60 years. Michigan archaeologists were at the forefront of organizing SHA in 1967 and the society has deep roots in Detroit. Arnold R. Pilling of Wayne State University was one of SHA’s founders, served as its first secretary/treasurer, and conducted urban historical archaeology in downtown Detroit during the 1960s. Other first-generation SHA members established the field’s theoretical and methodological practices, including David Brose, Ira Butterfield, Charles Cleland, James Fitting, George L. Miller, Vergil Noble, and Lyle Stone. Educational institutions across the state, especially Western Michigan University, Wayne State University, Michigan State University, and Michigan Technological University, have been at the forefront of public, urban, contact-period and industrial archaeological scholarship since the 1960s (producing at least three Harrington Medal recipients in the process). 

Michigan boasts more than 20,000 archaeological sites. Among the most prominent is Fort Michilimackinac, an 18th-century fortified trading village at the northern tip of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula that is home to the longest continuously operating historical archaeological excavation project in the United States. Fort Michilimackinac, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, River Raisin National Battlefield Park, and other heritage sites operate exemplary archaeological research and interpretive programs. Archaeologists working in Detroit and across the metropolitan region continue to be at the forefront of cutting-edge archaeological scholarship, with their current focus on sites associated with the Civil Rights movement, Underground Railroad, Native American boarding schools, music heritage, and postindustrial urban transformations.  

The organizing committee is proud to host the first SHA conference to be held in the Upper Midwest of the United States since 1973 and we look forward to showcasing the phenomenal archaeology and cultural heritage of the city of Detroit, the state of Michigan, and the Great Lakes region.

Registration can be accessed at https://www.conftool.com/sha2026/.