Contemporary Issues in Archaeological Theory

Why does archaeology matter? Archaeology, the study of the human past through the analysis of material remains, has historically been entangled with various social or political agendas. Who "owns" the past? What is an “expert”? Theory allows us to clarify the lenses through which we view the past to account for subjectivity in our research as we work to answer such questions. In this course, we engage with multiple theoretical approaches, such as queer theory, phenomenology, agency, and post-colonialism, as a means for understanding archaeology’s impact across disciplines.