CHAT @ TAG in Context Brent Fortenberry, Department of Archaeology, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Suite 347, Boston, MA 02215, USA E-mail: brfort@bu.edu Adrian Myers, Stanford Archaeology Center, Stanford University, P.O. Box 20446, Stanford, CA 94309, USA E-mail: adrianmyers@stanford.edu Each year, the Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory (CHAT) conference convenes to highlight archaeological research on the recent past. The annual gathering is a forum for critical discussion of his- torical archaeology and the archaeology of the contemporary world that seeks to expand the academic and political limits of archaeological think- ing. In short, CHAT provides an opportunity outside of the customary conference circuit for archaeologists to present new work in a progressive and socially affective, yet rigorous, scholarly atmosphere. CHAT has taken place in the British Isles since 2003, with past events held in Bristol, Leicester, Dublin, Sheffield, London, and Oxford. In May 2009, we undertook to bring this vital discussion to North America by hosting a CHAT-themed session at the Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference (TAG) at Stanford University. This volume comprises seven papers that were presented at that session and two papers commis- sioned after the conference. Though the contributions are diverse, each one is crafted in the spirit of CHAT in that they each explore the recent past, stretching and challenging political, theoretical, and methodological con- ventions. These nine papers, focusing on archaeology from the late 19th century onward, are followed by a concluding critical commentary by Bar- bara Voss. This volume aims to showcase variety and individuality, as well as tease out commonalities among the wide array of archaeological projects that fall under the shared endeavor of exploring the recent past. The development and current state of our subfield has been ably cov- ered by others (see Hicks and Beaudry 2006; Buchli 2007; Hall and Silli- man 2006; and Harrison and Schofield 2009), and articles, books, and journal volumes focused on our interest area are being released at an impressive rate (see Holtorf and Piccini 2009; Harrison and Schofield forthcoming; and McAtackney et al. 2007). In light of these significant publications, we view the articles presented in this volume not as definitive INTRODUCTION ARCHAEOLOGIES Volume 6 Number 1 April 2010 Ó 2010 World Archaeological Congress 1 Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress (Ó 2010) DOI 10.1007/s11759-010-9119-7