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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY

  1. Institution Name:
    University of California, Berkeley
  2. Department Title:
    Department of Anthropology
  3. Faculty in Historical Archaeology:
    1. Agarwal, Sabrina (PhD, Toronto; Prof) Bioarchaeology and gender, Roman and Historic Britain, Canada. Interests include understanding the biocultural sources of maternal bone loss.
    2. Habu, Junko (Ph.D., McGill; Prof.) hunter-gatherer subsistence and settlement, prehistoric Jomon hunter-gatherers in Japan, East Asian archaeology, ceramic analysis, historical archaeology in Japan.
    3. Joyce, Rosemary (PhD, Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Prof.) Prehispanic and Colonial Latin America, gender and sexuality, social theory, Mesoamerica, Central America, and the Caribbean.
    4. Lightfoot, Kent G. (Ph.D., Arizona St; Prof.) Native American-Russian contact and Colonial-period archaeology, culture change, multiethnic communities, coastal hunter-gatherers, California, southwestern and northeastern archaeology and ethnography, theoretical issues of coastal hunter-gatherers.
    5. Sunseri, Jun (PhD., UC Santa Cruz; Archaeology Graduate Student Adviser; Assoc. Prof) Community-based archaeology, colonialism, foodways, landscapes, historical archaeology, preservation and heritage, Western U.S. and northern South Africa
    6. White, William A. (Ph.D., Arizona; Assist. Prof) Community-based historical archaeology, African Diaspora, cultural resource management, historic preservation, heritage conservation and digital heritage, American West and U.S. Virgin Islands
    7. Wilkie, Laurie A. (Ph.D., UCLA; Prof.) historical archaeology, emphases on understanding constructions of social difference and inequality–particularly as related to race, sex, and gender; sociopolitics of archaeology. Specialties include African Diaspora (with emphasis on deep south and Caribbean), and American-period California. Chronological focus on late 18th to mid 20th centuries.
  4. General Statement:
    Historical archaeology has a long tradition of excellence at U.C. Berkeley. The strengths of the program include: the archaeology of culture contact and change in colonial and postcolonial settings; social identity; and the formation of multiethnic and Diasporic communities; household archaeology; and gender and family archaeology. The archaeology faculty at Berkeley is very active in field research, with projects in North America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Japan. Recent graduates and currently enrolled students have also conducted research at historic-period sites in California, Virginia, Hawaii, New York, Massachusetts, Louisiana, the Caribbean, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, and Australia. The archaeology graduate students are a close-knit community of around 35 students working in a broad range of theoretical, geographical, methodological and chronological arenas. The Archaeological Research Facility (ARF), an independent research unit, provides research support for students and faculty. During the academic year, ARF sponsors a weekly archaeological “bag lunch” series of talks, and distinguished guest lectures two to three times a year. The department offers the Ph.D.; the M.A. is awarded upon completion of first-year course work and written and oral exams. Normative completion time for the program is six years. Students are assigned two faculty advisors on admission and are offered five years of funding, from sources that include university and departmental fellowships and Graduate Student Instructor positions guiding lab and discussion sections of courses taught by faculty. Graduate Student Researcher positions with individual faculty or departments may also be available. Departmental resources relevant to historical archaeology include laboratories providing training in Archaeobotany, Skeletal Biology, Zooarchaeology, and Geoarchaeology, and laboratories for Historical Archaeology, California Archaeology, Central American Archaeology, and East Asian Archaeology. Additional laboratory facilities and equipment available to students through ARF include a wet-lab for processing materials, analyzing soil samples, and preparing thin sections, a microscopy lab, and a computer laboratory. The George and Mary Foster Anthropology Library adjacent to the department supports research and teaching, with the third-largest anthropology collection in the US. The Bancroft Library, world-renowned for its archival collections, particularly related to the American West, is also located on campus. The Hearst Museum curates national and international archaeological and ethnographic collections. Research grants are available from the Anthropology Department, ARF, and a variety of campus research centers. Please note that there are no faculty with expertise in underwater archaeology.
  5. For More Information Contact:
    Jun Sunseri, Archaeology Graduate Student Adviser, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA; phone: 510-643-0677; fax: 510-643-8557; email: jsunseri@berkeley.edu For applications and general information contact: Tabea Mastel, Graduate Student Affairs Officer, Department of Anthropology, 232 Kroeber Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA; phone: 510-642-3406; email: tmastel@berkeley.edu; page: https://anthropology.berkeley.edu/