Historical Archaeology of Race and Class in the Americas

The history of race in the Americas is one intimately tied to the formation of typologies of human bodies at work and the political, economic, and health disparities made manifest from imposed difference. This seminar is divided into three themes: How have historical archaeologists approached the issues of inequality, racialization, and class in the Americas? How do we as archaeological professionals recognize the legacies of racial and class inequities within our own disciplinary praxis? And, how can we mobilize public and activist archaeologies to solve real-world problems? Rooted in an examination of traditional scholarship and emergent themes, such as the production of whiteness, biopolitics, and indigenous archaeologies, this seminar explores the idea that archaeology can develop tools to address inequities in the Americas. This course also has a built-in quarter-long digital public archaeology lab, making use of local assemblages from the Stanford Archaeology Collection.