ARCH 0155  'People Without History': Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the Diaspora
Too often 'Western' historical narratives consider Africans and African Diasporans as 'People Without History'. Such a notion also refers to peoples who cultures do not, or possess few formally written histories. This class employs archaeological evidence in order to dismantle the colonial library, exploring local histories that have been erased, silenced and marginalized, investigating histories of imperialism, colonialism, genocide, slavery, resistance and black nationalism.

ARCH 0230  Myriad Mediterraneans: Archaeology, Representation and Decolonization
As debates rage about the Classical roots of Western society, the ancient Mediterranean itself is largely overlooked and continues to be seen in stereotypes. Because the ancient Mediterranean was not just white, male and colonizing, this course will explore the extensive archaeological evidence for cultural, gender, ethnic, economic and other forms of diversity during the first millennium BCE. Can archaeology contribute to current debates about decolonization? Conversely, can contemporary debates about indigenous ways of being shine a fresh light on ancient evidence? FYS.

ARCH 0317  Heritage in the Metropolis: Remembering and Preserving the Urban Past
Urban heritage – from archaeological sites and historic architecture to longstanding cultural practices – is increasingly threatened by the exponential growth of cities around the globe. Most critically, the complex histories and lived experiences of the diverse communities who have inhabited and shaped cities are often in danger of being erased and forgotten today. This course examines how we might remember and preserve this urban past – and the tangible sites and artifacts that attest to it – ­in light of the social and political dynamics of cities in the present.

ARCH 0372  Sex, Power, Goddess: Imagining the World of Ancient Iraq 
Ancient Mesopotamians feared and respected the warlike goddess Ishtar – but how did this translate into attitudes about gender, sexuality, and power in their culture, religion, politics, and daily lives? This class will introduce students to the venerated and significant remains of this lost world, such as the Code of Hammurabi and the Cyrus Cylinder. Through these archaeological finds, we will explore thousands of years of Iraq’s culture, power relations, religion, and science, and we will discuss how our own experiences color our understanding of their world. 

ARCH 0528  Living on the Edge: Communities of the Roman Frontier
The Roman Empire was surrounded by over 3,100 miles of frontier that marked the end of Roman territory. These regions are often discussed solely from a military standpoint, but soldiers were only a small part of a much larger frontier community that included women and children, locals and foreigners, and Romans and non-Romans. This course explores how these communities, often marked by asymmetrical power relationships between the Roman State and local communities, developed, investigating social structures, religion, art and architecture, and economies in order to understand what it was like to live on the edge of the Roman world.

ARCH 0676   Pirates of the Caribbean: Scalawags, Sailors, and Slaves
Avast ye maties! Study the legendary bandits, mischievous scalawags, and barbarous buccaneers that roved the high seas of the Caribbean from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Through archaeological and historical scholarship, we will explore pirates’ everyday belongings, the goods they plundered, the hideaways they called home, the havoc they caused, and the legends they left behind -- including Blackbeard, Captain Morgan, and even Captain Jack Sparrow. We will also investigate the economics behind the rise of piracy, with an emphasis on the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

ARCH 0680  Water, Culture, & Power
Water is the source of life. In the midst of global climate change, environmental crises over water resources, and increasingly ubiquitous political debates over water, we are beginning to recognize humans' complete dependence on water. This course investigates our long-term attachment and engagement with water using archaeology, environmental history, and visual, literary and historical sources. From sacred spaces around springs to ancient cities by the sea, we will explore the cultural and political aspects of water beginning with the Last Ice Age and ending with late antiquity.

ARCH 0750  Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Women represent half of humanity, but they have been greatly underrepresented in studies of past cultures. This course examines not only what women of the Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Rome actually did and did not do, but also how they were perceived in society. Focusing on material and visual cultures, but also incorporating historical and literary evidence, we will investigate the complexities of women’s lives in the ancient Mediterranean, as well as the roots of modern conceptions and perceptions of women.

ARCH 1170  Community Archaeology in Providence and Beyond
Modern archaeology is about far more than just digging in the dirt. During this seminar, we will discuss how archaeologists can engage with the public—including collaborations with indigenous and local communities, increased multivocality in interpretations, the mass media, museums, educational outreach programs, and the use and abuse of the past by governments and others in power. The second half of this course will involve a hands-on project in the Providence public school system. Enrollment limited to 15.

ARCH 1175  Archaeology Matters! Past Perspectives on Modern Problems
This is not the first era to face many of today’s global problems — rising temperatures, sea-level change, sustainability, pollution, fire, water scarcity, urban blight, social violence, and more. Archaeology is more than the understanding of peoples long ago and far away, but a discipline whose long-term perspective could offer potential solutions to current crises. Through case studies and discussion of key issues, this class asks how archaeology – and archaeologists – might just change the world. Enrollment limited to 15.

ARCH 1177  Occupy Archaeology! Interrogating Inequality, Past and Present
We are the 99%! Black Lives Matter! These rallying cries bring inequality to the front-and-center of western political and media discourses. Yet a social system dividing the haves and have-nots is hardly a modern phenomenon. This course considers injustice diachronically and on a global scale, examining ways in which the material world studied by archaeologists creates — and is created by — social divisions, and critiquing the ways that archaeology as a discipline is a part of the problem. Enrollment limited to 15.

ARCH 1178  Archaeology and Social Justice: Un-disciplining the Past, Changing the Present  
The contemporary world is at a breaking point. Deepening social inequality, environmental crises, and neo-colonialism exacerbate global injustices. The stories that archaeologists tell about the past, more often than not, contribute to these injustices. In this course, we will use global case studies to explore the possibilities for other, decolonial archaeologies which can liberate the material past from its colonial/racial disciplinary straightjacket, and at the same time provide essential tools for the necessary struggles for social justice today.

ARCH 1200H  Islamic Landscapes: Cities, Frontiers, and Monuments
This course will examine the built environments of the Islamic Period Middle East through the growing archaeological and historical record of its cities, frontiers, and monuments. How has the landscape of this region become transformed under by its relationship with a dynamic Islamic tradition? Key issues examined are the notion of the “Islamic city”, sacred space, and the spatiality of Muslim/non-Muslim relations. Enrollment limited. Written permission required.

ARCH 1494  Southeast Asia’s Entangled Pasts: Excavated, Curated, and Contested
Behind the caricature of Southeast Asia as an exoticized land of temples and tradition lies a conflicted past entangled with competing claims to power, identity, and territory. This course explores the history of that region (Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and the Philippines), examining how ancient ruins were used to justify postcolonial national states; how museums and monuments have bolstered authoritarian regimes and sparked democratic protests; and how circulation of artifacts and artworks sets off diplomatic disputes and connects diasporic communities. Students will also engage with relevant material cultures and artistic practices in the Providence area.

ARCH 1525   Struggle and Domination in the Prehistoric MediterraneanSex, Power, God(s)
Humans seek to survive, adapt, develop, and thrive. Yet our species is also prone to power struggles, violence, and domination. This strife can be seen in the findings of the latest archaeological and ethnographic research – which casts doubt on the peaceful, egalitarian societies sometimes imagined in the prehistoric past. This course will examine power and inequality in the prehistoric Mediterranean, considering such vectors as religion, human-nonhuman relationships, monument building, technological innovations, death, and sexuality.

ARCH 1537  Archaeological Heritage between Politics, Tourism and Local Identities in the Mediterranean and the Middle East
This course explores the developing fields of public archaeology, heritage studies and archaeological ethnographies with case studies drawn from the Mediterranean world and the Middle East. The tensions between archaeological sites and landscapes, their local communities, local governments and archaeological research teams will be studied while tourism and commercial endeavors to make archaeological heritage relevant to global and local audiences will be discussed.

ARCH 1538  Archaeology of Divided Places: From Conflict to Understanding, Memory, and Reconciliation
This course examines the intricate relationships between history and contemporary archaeology in divided places such as Cyprus, Jerusalem, Kosovo, and Belfast. Discussions will include the political and moral issues entangled in cultural heritage preservation, biases inherent in the archaeology of divided places, the use of archaeology to legitimize division, and ethics of archaeological research of places of conflict. How can we reconfigure imbalances resulting from decades of hiatus in archaeological research in divided places? How can archaeology contribute to fostering reconciliation?

ARCH 1540  Cultural Heritage: The Players and Politics of Protecting the Past
From Antarctica to Zimbabwe, cultural heritage encompasses the very old and the still in use, the man-made and the natural, the permanent and the ephemeral -- even the invisible and the edible. This course will explore issues of modern threats to cultural heritage such as tourism and development, questions of authenticity and identity, and archaeology's intersection with law, ethics, public policy, and economics.

ARCH 1670  The Beginning of the End? Neolithic "Revolutions" and the Shaping of the Modern World
How did the first farmers and settled human communities live their lives? How did they reshape the landscape, invent new forms of elaborate dwelling, and establish new relationships with plants and animals? And are the roots of some of our contemporary problems, including social inequality and patriarchy, to be found in the Neolithic? These are some of the questions we will be exploring in this course, using material from the European and Anatolian Neolithic and other, global, contexts.

ARCH 1680  Of Chiefs, Princesses and Warriors: Exploring Different Iron Ages
This course is about the Mediterranean Iron Age. It examines indigenous communities of the first millennium BC in order to assess critically conventional representations of Iron Age societies. Themes to be explored include the ever increasing social complexity of chiefdoms and states, princely burials and warriors, and urban settlements and monumental architecture that allegedly mark the transfer of 'civilization' from East to West.

ARCH 1780  Violence and Civilization: A Deep History of Social Violence
Why do we do violence to one another? This course will foster a sustained and critical reflection on social violence, history and humanity.  We will explore social orders through time, together with their practices and moral economies of permissible and impermissible violence.  Different conceptions of violence (‘symbolic’, ‘structural’, and ‘routine’) will be considered, in conjunction with their intersections with the many, ambivalent meanings of ‘civilization’.  No prerequisites required. 

ARCH 1792   The Archaeology of Slavery
No one would question that slavery leaves invisible and painful marks on all individuals and societies touched by it. But slavery leaves behind many physical, recoverable traces as well: plantations, slave forts, slaving wrecks, burial grounds. From such evidence, this course will explore four centuries of slavery in the Atlantic world, asking not only about how people coped in the past, but about the legacy of slavery in our world today.

ARCH 1810  Under the Tower of Babel: Archaeology, Politics, and Identity in the Modern Middle East
Present-day political ideologies profoundly impact our understanding of the past. Here we will explore the use and abuse of archaeological pasts in the modern nation states of the Middle East. What do pharaohs mean to modern Egyptians? Why did Saddam Hussein consider himself the last Babylonian king? This course will explore the role of imagined ancient pasts and cultural heritage in the making of collective identities and state ideologies.

ARCH 1821  (De)Constructing the Other: The Subjectivity of Objects
Archaeologists rely on interpretation of material remains to construct conceptions of humans in the past. This course explores this creation of archaeology’s subjects, with a critical eye toward the inherently political nature of this inventive process. Topics include the deconstruction of the “pots to people” analogy, racial and gendered disciplinary bias, and exposing the problems of unequal representation in the discipline. In connecting past, present, and future, this course seeks to develop strategies for building a more equitable and inclusive brand of archaeological method and thought.

ARCH 1867  Pastoralism and Power: Lush Lives of Arid Landscapes 
Deserts are often viewed as harsh, unwelcoming landscapes. However, human activity flourishes on these arid margins of civilization. Beginning with the physical landscape – the geology, geography, and hydrography – this class will then trace its influence on deserts’ social and political landscapes: communities, kinship and tribes, pastoral nomadism, trade, and territorial power struggles. Through case studies from the Negev, Sinai, and Arabian Deserts, we will explore how archaeology and archaeological science inform us about desert people, their world views and ideologies, and their strategies for thriving in arid landscapes. 

ARCH 1875  Sustainability Past and Present
Global warming and climate change are increasingly urgent realities in our daily lives. However, ours is not the first society that has struggled with issues of conservation, governance, infrastructure, and resilience. This course will introduce students to the social and ecological challenges of sustainability, past and present, through the lens of archaeology and the emerging discipline of political ecology -- including scientific, technological, and social strategies for sustainability. This includes asking the crucial question, "sustainable for whom?" -- who benefits from (or is most harmed by) environmental policies and transformations?

ARCH 1900  The Archaeology of College Hill
A training class in field and laboratory techniques.  Topics include the nature of field archaeology, excavation and survey methodologies, archaeological ethics, computer technologies (such as GIS), and site and artifact analysis and conservation.  Students will act as practicing archaeologists through the investigation of local historical and archaeological sites in the College Hill area  (e.g. the First Baptist Church of America and the John Brown House).

 

Cross-Listed DIAP Courses Offered by Other Programs at Brown University

ARCH 0156  Architecture and Urbanism of the African Diaspora (HIAA 0770)
Interested students must register for HIAA 0770.
This lecture course introduces the built environments in and of "Africa," from the earliest known examples to the contemporary moment. Through a consideration of texts and images, we will interrogate "Africa" as both a construct and concrete geographical entity characterized by diverse cultures, contexts, and histories. In addition to exploring the content of various architectural and urban traditions, we will approach our topic from the point of view of the theoretical paradigms that have governed the historiographical interpretation of particular periods, regions, and cultures. Readings will be arranged thematically and according to chronology and geography. Weekly one-hour section required. DPLL WRIT

ARCH 0201L  Who Owns the Classical Past? (CLAS 0210 L)
Interested students must register for CLAS 0210 L.
This course offers a forum for informed discussion of a variety of difficult questions about access to the classical past, and its modern-day ownership and presentation, seen primarily from the perspective of material culture (archaeology, art, museum displays, etc.). Enrollment limited to 20 first year students. FYS.

ARCH 0203  Who Owns the Past? (ANTH 0066D)
Interested students must register for ANTH 0066D.
Examines the role of the past in the present. Using examples from the U.S. and other parts of the world, we will look at how archaeological evidence is implicated in contemporary cultural and political issues. Students will learn that the past is not just the focus of archaeologists' interest and scientific inquiries, but is also a subject romanticized by antiquarians, mobilized in nation-building, marketed for profit, re-enacted as entertainment, consumed by tourists, and glorified in commemoration. Understanding these different and competing valuations, claims, and uses of the archaeological past will provide an introduction to why the past matters in the present and to the future. Enrollment limited to 20 first year students. FYS.

ARCH 0293  Postcolonial Matters: Material Culture between Colonialism and Globalization (ANTH 0066T)
Interested students must register for ANTH 0066T.
This course is about things - 'stuff' - as it is about people past and present and their entanglements in and through colonial situations. It explores colonialism past and present through the combined lenses of postcolonial theory and material culture - the emphasis is thus not so much on literary and figurative representations of colonial conflicts and engagements but rather on the material surroundings of people living those colonial worlds. In other words, this course is about what people did and about the things they used to construct their daily lives in colonial situations across the globe and through time. Enrollment limited to 20 first year students. FYS

ARCH 0307   Gold: The Culture of a “Barbarous Relic” (ANTH 0250)
Interested students must register for ANTH 0250.
An object of obsession for millennia, gold has recently witnessed a polarizing cultural politics. In congressional testimony former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke labeled it a “barbarous relic.” Meanwhile a growing minority clamor for a return to the gold standard. Whether among medieval alchemists or modern financial wizards, whether in the eyes of Egyptian Pharaohs or Indian peasants, gold’s special qualities have shaped cultural practice. This course explores the shiny yellow metal’s cultural history, from its emergence as an object of desire, to the contemporary rejection of its role as the store of wealth resulting in its demotion to just another commodity. DPLL LILE.

ARCH 0334   Introduction to South American Archaeology (ANTH 0505)
Interested students must register for ANTH 0505.
The course examines the development of human cultures in South America, from the first Ice Age settlers to the arrival of the Spanish. Drawing on archaeological and historical evidence, it covers the complex civilizations of the Andex, including the Moche and Tiwanaku polities and the expansionist Inca empire. It also explores the archaeology of foraging societies throughout the continent and of sedentary societies in the Amazon region and northern South America whose complexity has only recently begun to be understood. The course concludes with a study of the Spanish Conquest and the transformation of indigenous societies during the Colonial period. DPLL LILE

ARCH 0328  Visual Culture of Medieval Women (HIAA 0430)
Interested students must register for HIAA 0430.
The course considers the visual and material culture of women in the Middle Ages. We will examine women as the commissioners, creators and subjects of medieval art, architecture and popular culture. Case studies will be drawn from across medieval Europe, Byzantium, and Islam. Classes will consider: gendered and feminist perspectives in medieval history, art history and archaeology; the imaging of women in medieval art; archaeological approaches to gender and the analysis of gendered spaces; the art and architecture of female spirituality; and the representation of identity through the body and clothing.

ARCH 1056  Indigenous Archaeologies (ANTH 1125)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1125.
This course is an introduction to Indigenous archaeology, sometimes defined as archaeology "by, for and with Indigenous peoples." These approaches combine the study of the past with contemporary social justice concerns. However, they are more than this. In addition to seeking to make archaeology more inclusive of and responsible to Indigenous peoples, they seek to contribute a more accurate understanding of archaeological record. They thus do not reject science, but attempt to broaden it through a consideration of Indigenous epistemologies. This course covers topics as the history of anthropological archaeology, Indigenous knowledge and science, decolonizing methodologies, representational practices and NAGPRA.

ARCH 1057  Southwestern Archaeology (ANTH 1692)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1692.
This course is an introduction to the archaeology of the native peoples of the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. It discusses the history of the field and examines how it is currently re-engaging with contemporary native peoples. It emphasizes past and present cultural diversity and traces out long-term continuities in beliefs and practices. Special attention is given to comparing and contrasting three formative cultural systems - Chaco, Hohokam, and Paquimé - that linked the Southwest into a series of broad social, political, and ideological networks. Students will be introduced to the Southwestern collections of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology. DPLL

ARCH 1152  Bandits and Barbarians: Exploring Subaltern Resilience and State Power (ANTH 1145)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1145.
In the imaginations of ancient Greeks and Romans, the urban centers of ‘civilization’ were surrounded by wild lands where barbarians roamed. Even now, mountains, marshes, forests, and deserts are the realms of bandits, primitive tribes, warlords, and terrorists. From ‘shepherd-bandits’ in highland Sardinia and ‘red-faced Gauls’ in Roman France to ‘marginal tribes’ in the Kabyle mountains and the ‘wild people’ of the Ethiopian borderlands, this course explores peripheral lands through time and across the globe. We will critically examine such stereotypical representations, to understand how their inhabitants carved out their own spaces in the interstices of ancient and modern states.

ARCH 1168  Decolonization, History, Art, Museums and Curation (AFRI 1045)
Interested students must register for AFRI 1045
Over the past few years there have been calls for decolonization of art and museums. But what do these calls mean? There are now claims for reparations of art objects and in ethnographic museums human remains. The decolonization call has foregrounded the colonial origins of many of the world’s leading museums and called into question curatorial practices. It asks us to think about art and exhibition histories and the present narratives about the making of the modern museum. This course will examine these issues as well as attempts to reimagine museums. Issues of curatorial practices of historical and art exhibitions will be reviewed. Curators and artists from Africa, Europe and USA will deliver in class lectures and lead discussions. Undergraduate seminar. Graduate students are welcome.

ARCH 1209  The Visual Culture of Medieval Women (HIAA 1430A)
Interested students must register for HIAA 1430A.
Considers women as patrons and producers of medieval art and architecture, and examines the imaging of women in medieval works of art. Topics include: feminist perspectives in medieval history and art history, patronage by royal and aristocratic women, costume and textile production, and the art and architecture of female monastic communities. Optional FLAC French conference offered. Enrollment limited to 25.

ARCH 1235  Vertical Civilization: South American Archaeology from Monte Verde to the Inkas (ANTH 1505)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1505.
This course offers an introduction to the archaeology of indigenous south American Civilizations, from the peopling of the continent around 13,000 years ago, to the Spanish Invasion of the 16th Century C.E. Throughout, we seek to understand the often unique solutions that South America indigenous peoples developed to deal with risk and to make sense of the world around them. Course lectures and discussions focus on recent research and major debates. Weekly sections draw on viewings of artifacts and manuscripts from the Haffenreffer Museum and the John Carter Brown Library. DPLL LILE.

ARCH 1237  Pre-Columbian Art and Architecture: A World That Matters (ANTH 1030)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1030.
Survey of ancient art and building in ancient America, with a focus on Mexico, Central America, and the Andes. Underlying concepts include: meaning and method, cosmos and kingship, narrative and symbol, personality and authorship, empire and royal court. Rich collections of the Haffenreffer museum will form the focus of work in the class. DPLL LILE

ARCH 1239  1493: The Spanish Invasion and Its Indigenous Responses in the Americas (ANTH 1491)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1491.
Drawing on historical sources from the John Carter Brown Library and objects from the Haffenreffer Museum, this course re-examines the history of Ibero-American cultural encounters between 1492 and 1700 AD. Students learn to interpret the different perspectives offered by archaeological and historical evidence to create more nuanced accounts of indigenous social history before and after the Spanish invasion. Topics addressed include cultural (mis)communication, disease and ecological change, roles played by people of African descent, and the legacies of conquest in the present. Special emphasis is placed on the Taíno, Mexica, Inka, Maya and Pueblo cultures. DPLL LILE.

ARCH 1481  The Silk Roads, Past and Present (HIST 1974A)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1974A.
The Silk Road has historically been the crossroad of Eurasia; since the third-century BCE it has linked the societies of Asia—East, Central, and South—and Europe and the Middle East. The exchange of goods, ideas, and peoples that the Silk Road facilitated has significantly shaped the polities, economies, belief systems, and cultures of many modern nations: China, Russia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and India. This course explores the long history (and the mythologies or imaginations) of the Silk Road in order to understand how the long and complex pasts of the regions it touches are important in the age of globalization. P WRIT DPLL

ARCH 1518   Women and Families in the Ancient Mediterranean (HIAA 1302)
Interested students must register for HIAA 1302.
What was life like for the women of the ancient Mediterranean? What rights, roles, responsibilities, and expectations defined their lives? Why is the examination of art and architecture such an important source for answering these questions? This course will provide a comparative perspective exploring Greek, Etruscan, and Roman case studies. WRIT

ARCH 1536   Archaeological Ethnographies: Heritage and Community in the Mediterranean (ANTH 1126)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1126.
Archaeologists study objects and (socio-cultural) anthropologists investigate culture is how stereotype and conventions have long had it. As material culture studies have increasingly blurred these boundaries, the distinction is entirely meaningless when it comes to archaeological heritage. Taking its cue from material culture studies, this course explores how local communities experience the material remains from the past and (re)incorporate them into their contemporary lives. DPLL LILE

ARCH 1537  Archaeological Heritage between Politics, Tourism and Local Identities in the Mediterranean and the Middle East
This course explores the developing fields of public archaeology, heritage studies and archaeological ethnographies with case studies drawn from the Mediterranean world and the Middle East. The tensions between archaeological sites and landscapes, their local communities, local governments and archaeological research teams will be studied while tourism and commercial endeavors to make archaeological heritage relevant to global and local audiences will be discussed.

ARCH 1538  Archaeology of Divided Places: From Conflict to Understanding, Memory, and Reconciliation
This course examines the intricate relationships between history and contemporary archaeology in divided places such as Cyprus, Jerusalem, Kosovo, and Belfast. Discussions will include the political and moral issues entangled in cultural heritage preservation, biases inherent in the archaeology of divided places, the use of archaeology to legitimize division, and ethics of archaeological research of places of conflict. How can we reconfigure imbalances resulting from decades of hiatus in archaeological research in divided places? How can archaeology contribute to fostering reconciliation?

ARCH 1543  Decolonizing Classical Antiquity: White Nationalism, Colonialism, and Ancient Material Heritage (MGRK 1220)
Interested students must register for MGRK 1220.
Why do the material remnants of classical antiquity still attract public attention and exercise symbolic power? Why have such monuments been "used" by authorities and diverse social groups in the service of often totalitarian agendas? What are the cases where these monuments operate as weapons for resistance? How has colonial, racial, and national modernity shaped the way we understand and experience the materiality of the classical? Finally, how can we decolonise classical antiquity? We will use a diversity of global case studies, including modern Greece and Europe, and a variety of sources, from ethnographically derived performances to digital culture.

ARCH 1633  Black Pharaohs: Nubian Rule over Egypt in the 25th Dynasty (EGYT 1455)  
Interested students must register for EGYT 1455.
The course will cover Egypt's 25th Dynasty (728-657 BC), when rulers of Nubia, located in the region of modern Sudan, added Egypt to their territories. Using a wide range of textual and archaeological evidence, students will learn about the history of famous 'black pharaohs' such as Taharqa and study some of Africa's most impressive archaeological remains. This fascinating period is not well understood and has often been afflicted in the past by racist, colonialist scholarship; using primary sources and recent theory on ethnic identity, this class will re-examine the complex and changing relationship between Egypt and Nubia.

ARCH 1638  Ethnic Identity in Graeco-Roman Egypt (EGYT 1550)
Interested students must register for EGYT 1550.
Egypt under Greek and Roman rule was the original 'multicultural society', with communities of Egyptians, Greeks, Jews, Romans, Nubians, Arabs and even Indians. This course will explore the sometimes controversial subject of ethnic identity in Egypt 'after the Pharaohs', through a focus on the everyday lives of individual people and communities. Topics will include multilingualism; ethnic conflict and discrimination; and gender and intermarriage. Evidence will be drawn from ancient texts on papyrus as well as recent archaeological excavations.

ARCH 1791  Slavery, Materiality, and Memorialization (AFRI 1050X)
Interested students must register for AFRI 1050X.
The institution of slavery ended in the Americas in the 19th century, but its official conclusion says little about the ways in which its legacies are materially present and memorialized today. This course is designed to place the material aspects of slavery in conversation with less tangible dimensions of how slavery is or isn't remembered and publicly acknowledged. Students will be introduced to the social and economic dimensions of transatlantic slavery, conduct archival research, and visit sites in the Providence area in order to inspire critical dialogue about how the material realities of slavery affect our past, present, and future.

ARCH 1793  Slavery in the Ancient World (CLAS 1120E)
Interested students must register for CLAS 1120E.
Examines the institution of slavery in the ancient world, from Mesopotamia and the Near East to the great slave societies of classical Greece and (especially) imperial Rome; comparison of ancient and modern slave systems; modern views of ancient slavery from Adam Smith to Hume to Marx to M.I. Finley. Readings in English.

ARCH 1794  Questions of Remembrance: Archaeological Perspectives on Slavery in the New World (ANTH 1625)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1625.
Archaeology of slavery, and particularly that of enslaved African-American communities in what came to be the United States, has been one of the fastest growing areas of archaeological research in the last few decades. This course will look into both classic and current literature on the archaeology of Atlantic slavery in order to understand the development of this archaeological subfield, from an initial focus on the living conditions of slaves on plantation sites to later interests in the processes of consolidation of African-American ethnicities. What are current challenges faced by those investigating the material constitution of African Diaspora through time? DVPS LILE

ARCH 1795   Living and Material Landscapes of the African Diaspora (HIAA 1191)
Interested students must register for HIAA 1191.
Designed to be interdisciplinary, this course will incorporate historical, archaeological, architectural, and anthropological perspectives in order to critically investigate the living legacies of the sugar and slavery colonial system. Visits to historic and cultural sites around the island will challenge students to think about heritage practices, postcolonial development, and diasporic cultures. Through a partnership with the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, students will have the opportunity to visit heritage sites, analyze material culture from archaeological sites, and assess architectural preservation efforts with a critical eye towards the ways in which the afterlives of sugar and slavery make themselves present on the island landscape.

ARCH 1797  A Migration Crisis? Displacement, Materiality, and Experience (MGRK 1210)
Interested students must register for MGRK 1210.
In the past few years, we have all experienced, most of us through the media, what has been called a migration crisis. And yet, migration as a phenomenon did not appear in 2015; it is as old as humanity, and displacement and contemporary forced migration have also a long history. In this course, we will examine the historical, material and experiential dimensions of contemporary displacement and migration. Many of the examples will be from Greece but also other parts of Mediterranean and beyond, including from the Mexico-US border.

ARCH 1798  Deep Displacement: Migration, Resettlement, and Citizenship in Historical Perspective (HMAN 1973J)
Interested students must register for HMAN 1973J.
The number of migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people is greater now than at any previous point in world history, and migration lies at the heart of populist, humanitarian, and progressive political discourse. This course offers a critical examination of the current politics of migration by examining its terms and conditions in historical perspective. Drawing on interdisciplinary readings in political philosophy, cultural anthropology, history, and archaeology, we examine the relationship between sovereign power and mobility, scrutinize current discourses surrounding migration, and attempt to envision alternative futures.

ARCH 1878   Illustrating and Interpreting the Past: Visual Representation in Archaeology (ANTH 1470)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1470.
Archaeologists investigate culture using material artifacts as evidence about the past, but in order to communicate and compare that evidence, they must turn to technologies of reproduction and representation. This course traces the evolution of archaeological illustration, and its contributions to our knowledge of the past, in the context of technological and intellectual change over time. It explores the most up-to-date methods of archaeological illustration and their current place and future directions in the digital humanities. Working with objects from the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, students will acquire experience in traditional and cutting-edge illustration techniques. DPLL LILE

ARCH 1881  An Introduction to GIS and Spatial Analysis for Anthropologists and Archaeologists (ANTH 1201)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1201.
This course serves as an introduction to the concepts, techniques, and (to a lesser extent, the histories) that motivate geographic information systems and their employment in anthropological and archaeological scholarship. GIS brings together traditional cartographic principles, computer-assisted analytical cartography, relational database design, and digital image processing and analysis to enable people to develop geospatial databases, analyze those databases, and use maps and other visual representations as part of this analysis. No previous work in GIS or computer programming is necessary. Previous computer experience with MS Windows operating systems is helpful. DPLL LILE

ARCH 2158  Decolonial Matters: Thinking from the South (HMAN 2401M)
Interested students must register for HMAN 2401M.
This collaborative humanities seminar considers colonization as a material condition and focuses on decolonial practices from the ‘south’ that engage the matter and materiality of things, objects, artefacts, and landscapes, from archaeological remains to museum objects, works of art, and contemporary material traces of migration and border crossing. We will interrogate the material and racial basis of the 'south' and explore modes of thinking and practice (from indigenous perspectives to contemporary art) that can suture the relationship between objects and people. The seminar will also function as a workshop for student collaborations on decolonial experiments with material objects/sites.