The tools and techniques of archaeology were designed for the study of past people and societies, but for more than a century a growing number of archaeologists have turned these same tools to the study of the modern world. This book offers an overview of these pioneering practices through a specifically pedagogical lens, fostering an appreciation of the diversity and distinctiveness of contemporary archaeology and providing an evidence base for course proposals and curriculum design.
Although research in the field is well established and vibrant, making critical contributions to wider debates around issues such as homelessness, migration and the refugee crisis, and legacies of war and conflict, the teaching of contemporary archaeology in universities has until recently been relatively limited in comparison. This selection of carefully curated case studies from as far afield as Orkney, Iran and the USA is intended as a resource and an inspiration for both teachers and students, presenting a set of tools and practices to borrow, modify and apply in new contexts. It demonstrates how interdisciplinarity, practical work and radical pedagogies are of value not only for archaeology, but also for fields such as history, geography and anthropology, and suggests new ways in which we can examine our 20th- and 21st-century existence and shape our collective future.
Edited by:
Dr Gabriel Moshenska (University College London UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781350335639
ISBN 10: 1350335630
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 07 March 2024
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Figures List of Contributors Introduction: Pedagogy in Contemporary Archaeology (Gabriel Moshenska, University College London, UK) I. Course and Curriculum Development 1. Contemporary Art and Archaeology: Interdisciplinary Pedagogy and Practice in the Digital University (Antonia Thomas, University of the Highlands and Islands, UK) 2. Documenting Wesley College: A Mildly Anarchist Teaching Encounter (William Caraher, University of North Dakota, USA) 3. Teaching Contemporary Archaeology: The Durham Experience (David Petts, Durham University, UK) II. Pedagogical Practices 4. The Henge with a Postcode: The Benefits of Contemporary Archaeology Fieldtrips (Kenneth Brophy, University of Glasgow, UK) 5. Draw your Phone: The Cellphone as an Intimate, Everyday Artefact (Colleen Morgan, University of York, UK) 6. Walking and Talking Around the Bombsites of Bloomsbury (Gabriel Moshenska, University College London, UK) III. Working with Communities 7. Over, Under, and In Between: Collaborative Learning from Landscapes using Contemporary Archaeology (April M. Beisaw, Vassar College, USA) 8. Teaching and Learning Difficult Pasts of the Twentieth Century through Community Archaeology (Tiina Äikäs, Oula Seitsonen, Tuuli Matila, and Vesa-Pekka Herva, University of Oulu, Finland) 9. Beyond Zinjanthropus: Historical Archaeology Pedagogy in Tanzania (Nancy Rushohora, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) IV. The Personal and the Political 10. ‘We Want School!’ Teaching and Learning Contemporary Archaeology with Displaced People in Anarchist-Adjacent Spaces in Athens, Greece (Rachael Kiddey, University of Cambridge, UK) 11. Education is Life: Collective Experiences of Practicing the Archaeology of the Contemporary Past in a Conservative Atmosphere (Maryam Dezhamkhooy, Heidelberg University, Germany and Leila Papoli-Yazdi, Malmö University, Sweden) 12. Archaeologies of the Contemporary World – A Chancy Business? (Greg Bailey, Independent Researcher, UK) Index
Gabriel Moshenska is an Associate Professor in Public Archaeology at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK.
Reviews for Teaching and Learning the Archaeology of the Contemporary Era
Teaching and Learning the Archaeology of the Contemporary Era is a timely and important contribution to the ever-evolving field of contemporary archaeology. The volume does an excellent job of highlighting the diversity and creativity of approaches used by educators and practitioners, showcasing how teaching contemporary archaeology can both strengthen existing archaeological education and offer avenues for reconceptualising the field entirely. -- Miriam Rothenberg, Junior Research Fellow, University of Oxford, UK
