• January 8, 2026 | 8:00 AM - 10:30 AM
• Francescan A, Ballroom Level

1J: Opening Access to the Roman Provinces: RPAIG's Site Guide and Wikidata Project (Workshop)

Sponsored by:
Roman Provincial Archaeology Interest Group (RPAIG)

Organizers:
Colin Omilanowski, University of Arizona, and Anne Hunnell Chen, Bard College

Panelists:
Rob Collins, Newcastle University, Erin Peters, Appalachian State University, Sarah Craft, Florida State University, Alice Lynn McMichael, Barnard College, Blair Fowlkes Childs, Columbia University, Zoé Elise Thomas, University of Texas at Austin, and Michelle Heeman, Stanford University

Overview Statement:
This interactive workshop focuses on the Roman Provinces Project (RPP), a groundbreaking pedagogy initiative led by the Roman Provincial Archaeology Interest Group (RPAIG). Given the absence of textbooks on the Roman provinces, the group is creating an open-access digital resource to highlight archaeological sites that demonstrate the empire’s geographic breadth and cultural complexities. The workshop will combine (1) short presentations about what has been accomplished since the initiative launched in January 2024 and (2) a practicum where any attendee can contribute directly to the project.

In response to studies showing that syllabi for Roman archaeology courses over-rely on a few famous sites, the project began with an online survey asking Roman specialists which sites they would add to their teaching if given more resources. Building on these findings, approximately thirty contributors are currently writing up guides to geographically diverse archaeological sites. The guides adhere to an adaptable template for consistency and cover key facts, features, objects, online resources, and connecting themes. The guides currently exist as open access documents on RPP’s website and the Roman Provinces Wikiproject while a dynamic website is under development. Key bibliography from the site guides appears on the group’s public Zotero library. Key information from the site guides is also used to enrich Wikidata, which is different from Wikipedia in being an open-access platform with controlled, inherently multilingual vocabulary that makes data easy to search and to extract for cultural mapping projects and comprehensive websites. Ethically, RPP’s initiative aims to increase the diversity of sites studied in classrooms, while also confronting the inequities of early excavation practices, enduring knowledge silos, and persistent publication paywalls.