TADA Code of Conduct

Western Washington University (WWU) is committed to providing a welcoming, respectful, inclusive, and safe environment for the NEH Institute for Higher Education Faculty, Teaching Ancient in a Digital Age that is free from harassment, discrimination, and misconduct, one which complements its mission and guiding values. Through its virtual spaces and in-person meetings, the institute encourages open sharing of ideas, debate, and dialogue. All institute participants are expected to abide by the institute’s Code of Conduct and to adhere to the Principles of Civility for NEH Professional Development Programs. These principles and policies apply to all institute-related platforms, events, communications, and interactions, both online and offline. 

The institute, along with its parent institution WWU, maintains a non-discrimination policy. It will not tolerate discriminatory or disrespectful behavior or activities, including but not limited to intimidation, bullying, or harassment in any form. Harassment may include unacceptable behaviors such as threatening or stalking others, hostility, verbal or physical abuse, and sexual harassment such as sharing of sexually explicit language or images, unwelcome sexual advances, or verbal or physical contact of a sexual nature. The institute also is committed to fostering a professional environment that values and respects the dignity of each individual and prohibits any form of discrimination based on categories such as race, color, religion, disability, age, sex, gender (including real or perceived gender identity), sexual orientation, familial status (such as marital status or parental status including pregnancy), and national origin.

All participants must agree to refrain from such harmful, disrespectful, and unprofessional behaviors. Moreover, they shall not engage in these or other forms of intimidation, disruptive, or discriminatory or harassing behavior toward other attendees in person or online through other media such as taking unauthorized recordings or photography of others during or outside of meeting spaces, or persistent disruptions of events. Their attendance represents acceptance of obligations to follow these policies. Attendees should be aware that their behavior at the institute is also bound by codes of conduct at their home institutions and, as applicable, to federal provisions of Title IX. 

If any participant observes or is subject to behaviors that are inconsistent with the Code of Conduct outlined here, they are encouraged to report policy violations to the WWU Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance office (crtc@wwu.edu; (360) 650-3307). The compliance office, along with one of the institute directors, will investigate the reported behavior and may contact the person about whom the complaint was made. Anyone found to be in violation of the Code of Conduct may be subject to immediate actions such as being barred from further meetings and/or to have their participation in the institute rescinded depending on the extent and severity of the behavior. WWU may also report their conduct to their home institutions. Finally, the institute may take any of the above actions if it learns of past censures or ongoing investigations into reported violations made by a participation of a Code of Conduct at another institution.

TADA Participant Expectations

These guidelines outline expectations for participants in Teaching Ancient in a Digital Age, an NEH-funded Institute for Higher Education Faculty.

Communication

As you already know, apart from the in-person workshop during the summer, you will be engaging with this institute almost entirely online. This is going to require patience and flexibility on everyone’s part as we figure out what works best for our group.

Official communications will be shared by email, but we encourage everyone to use the institute’s Discord server for informal conversations and day-to-day communications. Although you are not required to join or use Discord, we hope that you will find it to be useful for facilitating networking as well as for information and expertise-sharing related to your projects. If you’re having trouble joining the Discord server, please contact Leigh (lalieberman@princeton.edu).

Engagement and Preparation

The institute requires participants to fully commit to the proposed schedule and outcomes. This means that we expect participants not only to attend, but also to actively and respectfully engage, in all virtual workshops and the in-person, two-week summer program. 

This also means working with members of the institute to define the priorities and goals for your project; making consistent progress towards those goals throughout the months we’ll be working together; sharing some aspect of your project at the end of the institute; and contributing special issue of Advances on Archaeological Practice (AAP) that we will be curating.

Engagement comes in many forms; being willing to contribute, willing to collaborate, and willing to learn from the rest of the TADA community will be especially important. Engagement is not about providing the fastest, correct answer or mastering every digital technique. Rather, engagement means asking questions when you have them, completing any preparatory work assigned before each workshop, and sharing the expertise you’ve developed in your given discipline with the rest of the TADA community.

The working schedule for our monthly virtual workshops can be found here. While the focus and goals of the proposed sessions may shift, we hope to be able to stick to the proposed schedule. But, obviously, life can sometimes get in the way of the best laid plans. Please let Leigh and Christine know as soon as you can about any conflicts, ideally in advance of any meeting. While we are eager to work with you to ensure that you can take full advantage of this program, please note that anything less than full commitment on your part may result in the loss of the stipend or a portion of the stipend. 

If your circumstances change and you become unable to participate before June 1, 2026, we kindly ask that you request to withdraw in a timely manner so that we may offer a spot in the program to another applicant.

Virtual Workshop Etiquette

There are many considerations that may prevent you from wanting to keep your camera on during our virtual workshops, including screen fatigue, internet speed or access, family responsibilities, personal discomfort, etc. That said, having your camera on can help us build a sense of community over the next few years. While we do want to encourage you to keep your camera on during our synchronous sessions, this is by no means mandatory. If you do feel comfortable keeping your camera on, please make sure that your background (real or virtual) is appropriate so that it won’t be distracting to others in the workshop.

During our virtual workshops, please make sure you are muted unless you are actively speaking or would like to offer a question or comment. This is to ensure that we give our focus to whoever is speaking and avoid being distracted by unexpected background noise (lawn mowers and a barking dog are really common in my house). You should definitely feel free to unmute to speak and grab attention during our sessions; but if you are more comfortable using the chat box or the raise hand function in the Participants section of the Zoom call, don’t hesitate to do that.

Our virtual workshops may be recorded for internal assessment purposes. Breakout rooms used during these sessions will not be recorded. Also note that any messages you send through the Zoom chat box, to everyone or privately, may be saved along with the recording. In limited cases, we may be able to share the recorded sessions with participants who are unable to attend; but, for privacy reasons, we cannot guarantee that this will be the case for every session (i.e., we want participants to feel like they can speak freely in our sessions together without the fear of the session being shared). 

Intellectual Property and Ethics Compliance

The institute expects all participants to follow the professional guidelines outlined by the WWU Research Integrity and Compliance Office on intellectual property, data management, and access, including permission to use the data that they bring to the institute. 

We expect participants to exercise appropriate ethical behavior and respect the integrity of the contributors, stakeholding communities, and content. How this applies will vary project to project and we will explore this in the coming months. 

Assessment and Publicity

Throughout the course of our institute, we will regularly ask you for (anonymous) feedback regarding specific sessions as well as about the program more generally. We greatly value your feedback, and we will use these assessments to shape the program moving forward. We may also share this information with institute faculty members and with representatives from the NEH.

We may post general updates about the scope and progress of the institute and its participants on various social media platforms. We may also have occasions to post details about your profile and your work; for these more specific posts, we will always request your permission before sharing.

Where to Turn for Support

If you are struggling to keep up with the institute’s workload, or if you have any concerns or questions throughout the curriculum, please don’t hesitate to reach out:

Christine Johnston, Institute Co-Director | christine.johnston@wwu.edu 

Leigh Anne Lieberman, Institute Co-Director | lalieberman@princeton.edu 

WWU Compliance Office | crtc@wwu.edu

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