Forensic archeology as a high-impact practice

High-impact practices (HIPs) are educational modalities that focus on experiential and deep learning to affect student success in higher education, particularly among students matriculating from historically underserved communities. HIPs are designed to provide students with the intellectual and practical skills to succeed in an increasingly unstable global world beyond college. Utilizing a private-public partnership forensic archeological contract project, this paper examines how this venture employed a HIP-based contractor model that hired students as a professional archeological field crew and provided them with a living wage, transportation, and room and board. It also provided students without the means to participate in international fieldwork with the wherewithal to do so, supporting underserved students and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) initiatives. Utilizing this HIP-based contract model resulted in greater student investment and collaboration in a fieldwork situation more akin to the real world, where students learned to solve problems, communicate, and network in an international setting, resulting in new opportunities, such as professional jobs, and academic projects and publications. The paid contractor model ensured students with limited resources could participate, broadening the type of student who can receive this type of training, expanding diversity in forensic anthropology. These models are not limited to forensic archeological fieldwork; they can also be applied to forensic anthropology laboratory projects. Utilizing HIPs and employing a more equitable contractor model contributes to student professionalization, strengthens professional prospects beyond the university, and contributes to DEIB initiatives, all of which benefit forensic anthropology as a subdiscipline.