May 6 – 8, 2011 – Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) Conference, University of California – Berkeley – Archaeology of and in the Contemporary World – Session F.  Memory, performance, and identity in archaeological explorations of space and materiality.  http://arf.berkeley.edu/TAG2011/

Paper and Lecture:

Ghost Excavations: The Archaeology of the Interactive Past

John Sabol, C.A.S.P.E.R. Research Center, cuicospirit@hotmail.com

Ruins are sites haunted by a palimpsest of past presences, many contained within non-contiguous layers of cultural uncertainty. A ghost excavation is a trans-disciplinary approach combining an archaeological sensibility with performance-based acts. I use contextual (and resonating) cultural scenarios to unearth past interactive memory practices. An example of this field practice is the recovery of traces of inherent military probability of the culture of war on Civil War battlefields. This haunted archaeology, forming part of the current interest in spectral traces, is a rethinking of presence and material remains within symmetrical spaces of unfolding time at those locations considered haunted. I have written 12 books (10 published; two currently at publisher) on performance-based field practices to unearth spectral traces. I call this approach, “Ethnoarchaeoghostology”, an archaeological, ethnographic, and theatrical approach to the unearthing of past memory practices.

September 2 – 5, 2011 — Dragon*Con, Atlanta, Georgia – Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe! http://www.dragoncon.org/index.php

John Sabol will be appearing for multi-media purposes – interviewing on radio and television programs as well as newspaper interviews.  He will also be signing autographs at various venues.  Archaeologist, Cultural Anthropologist, and author, John Sabol is known as the “Ghost Excavator”. He is the author of 12 books on the paranormal, and is a professional actor. http://www.dragoncon.org/dc_guest_detail.php?id=2473

Bio:

John Sabol is an archaeologist, anthropologist, actor, and author. He has extensive field experience as an archaeologist and anthropologist, and has worked in Europe, Mexico, and the United States. He has appeared in more than 30 films (including the original Dune, Conan the Destroyer, and the James Bond classic, License to Kill), TV programs, and documentaries. He has written 12 books on interactive haunting archaeologies. These include, Ghost Excavator, Ghost Culture, Gettysburg Unearthed, The Anthracite Coal Region, The Politics of Presence, Bodies of Substance, Fragments of Memory, Phantom Gettysburg, Digging Deep: An Archaeologist Unearths a Haunted Life, The Re-Hauntings of Gettysburg, The Haunted Theatre: Digging Deeper, and Digging-Up Ghosts. He has also investigated Bigfoot, and is cited in the Wikipedia reference to Charles Pierce, the director of The Legend of Boggy Creek. He has also been an consultant on the A&E series, Paranormal State.

October 20 – 22, 2011 — Things in Culture, Culture in Things, University of Tartu, Estonia (CECT IV Autumn Conference).  The research paper was submitted entitled, “Personhood, Spectral Traces, and Sites of Memory” and a poster presentation of the research was accepted for display at the conference. Contents to be shown on the website after the conference presentation in October. http://blogs.nyu.edu/projects/materialworld/2011/05/call_for_papers_iv_autumn.html

November 3 – November 5, 2011 – Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAP/ACA) Conference at the Radisson Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . The MAP/ACA conference hosts researchers from around the country to share compelling scholarship on numerous and diverse aspects of American and popular culture.  Has been accepted in the “War Area”.  The panel is entitled, “The American Civil War”.  Each year, the MAP/ACA conference hosts researchers from around the country to share compelling scholarship on numerous and diverse aspects of American and popular culture; we expect another provocative and interesting meeting this year. http://mapaca.net/confer/conferHome.html

Paper and Lecture:  “Acting Before a Dead Audience: Field Performance as Theatre/Archaeology”(Contents of paper  submitted and to be presented will be shown after the lecture in November 2011.)