TheTheoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (TRAC) is an academic organisation and conference for the discussion ofarchaeological theory inRoman archaeology.
The first Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference was organised byEleanor Scott and was hosted by the Department of Archaeology at theUniversity of Newcastle in March 1991.[1][2] The conference had been created by Scott to address the shortcomings of traditionalRoman archaeology through critical, theory-driven discussions inspired by theTheoretical Archaeology Group conferences.[3] The conference was a success and, due to interest, became an annual conference hosted by different archaeology departments annually across theUK,Europe andNorth America.[4]
Since 1995, the Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference have partnered with the Roman Archaeology Conference (RAC), which is organised by theRoman Society. The collaboration began atUniversity of Reading, establishing a biannual arrangement where the RAC played a role in helping to organise TRAC.[5]
TRAC initially concentrated on Romanisation debates, especially in the 1990s. Since the early 2000s, however, discussions have increasingly shifted to post-imperial and post-colonial perspectives of the Roman world.[6] Since the 2010s, TRAC has attempted to expand its outreach and appeal internationally.[7]
Many TRAC participants areearly career researchers or postgraduates who present their own original research.Andrew Gardner highlighted a gender imbalance at TRAC in 2005,[8] butEleanor Scott later noted that TRAC provided equal opportunities to female archaeologists.[9]
TRAC was initially published as conference proceedings[10] but became an onlineopen access journal, theTheoretical Roman Archaeology Journal, under theOpen Library of Humanities from 2017 onwards.[11][12]
The Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conferences and joint Roman Archaeology Conferences (RAC) have been held or planned at the following institutions or cities:[4]
^Millet, Martin (2016). "Roman Britain since Haverfield". In Millett, Martin; Revell, Louise; Moore, Alison (eds.).The Oxford Handbook of Roman Britain. Oxford University Press. pp. 22–42.
