Excavating the University

In this course, we will explore the university campus as a material and political space, drawing on research from historical archaeology and allied disciplines. We will examine the unequal and unjust histories of U.S. university campuses, including how they have been implicated in historical colonialism and slavery, how they continue to be enmeshed in a variety of forms of social inequality, and how they can be spaces of transformative social change. We will also get glimpses into Stanford's past with a campus archaeologist and the archaeology collections curator. This course will be introductory level/general education, with no prerequisites.