Errors of Fact and Errors of Representation: Response to Shepherd and Haber's Critique of the World Archaeological Congress

This paper is a personal response by the President of the World Archaeological Congress (WAC) to critiques of WAC by Nick Shepherd and Alejandro Haber in their article ‘What’s up with WAC? Archaeology and “Engagement” in a Globalized World’, published in Public Archaeology in May 2011. This paper rectifies factual errors in Shepherd and Haber’s paper in order to correct the public record. It also argues that, factual errors aside, Shepherd and Haber’s paper raises substantive issues about the direction WAC could, or should, take and highlights issues that should be deliberated by all scholars in a global world. Do we aim for WAC to make changes in our world, or the world? Perhaps this is at the heart of the decision that needs to be made by WAC at the next election of officers. This paper urges WAC members, in particular, to engage in this debate.