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St Hugh’s Fellow appointed President of the South African Archaeological Society

Congratulations to St Hugh’s Tutorial Fellow in Archaeology, Professor Peter Mitchell, who has been appointed as the new President of the South African Archaeological Society. At its meeting last month, the Council of the South African Archaeological Society (https://www.archaeology.org.za) elected Prof. Peter Mitchell as the Society’s new President to serve for a two-year term from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2026.

The Arch Soc, as it is commonly known, is the oldest such organisation on the African continent and was founded in 1944. It supports academic fieldwork throughout southern Africa, organises field trips and fieldwork opportunities for its members, and publishes the South African Archaeological Bulletin, an internationally renowned journal covering all aspects of southern African archaeology.

Professor Mitchell has been a member of the Society since 1985 and most recently published in it with former St Hugh’s undergraduate Jakub Seneši in 2022 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/27200583). Over the course of his term, he will be visiting all its constituent branches in South Africa, speaking at the 2025 and 2026 Annual General Meetings in Cape Town and Johannesburg, and endeavouring to further increase both the Society’s membership and its profile.