Teaching Writing

My first writing seminar at Boston University was titled "Goddesses, Concubines, and Midwives: What Archaeology Can Teach us about Gender and Sexuality."  I taught this course in Fall 2015, Spring 2016, and Fall 2016. The class explored a variety of case studies of feminist archaeology, including:

• scholarly and popular interpretations of Paleolithic and Neolithic "goddess" figurines
• the productive and reproductive roles of enslaved African women in the Americas
• Aztec views of femininity, childhood, and reproductive practices
• case studies studies chosen by students

In Spring 2017, I taught a new seminar called "Identity, Oppression, and Politics in Archaeological Heritage." In this course, each student picked an archaeological site or artifact and researched both its significance to archaeologists and the ways it matters to a wide variety of modern stakeholders. They wrote both research papers and "public intellectual essays" about their research subjects. Here are their essays!

In 2020–2021, I taught three sections per semester of Expository Writing, on the theme of "The Politics of Archaeological Heritage." Each student wrote a personal essay on an object or building that is at least a century old and holds meaning for them, their family, or their community. Then, they each chose an archaeological site and researched modern heritage issues, writing first an academic research paper and then a Twitter thread about their topic. You can read their Twitter threads at the hashtag #emoryheritagetc.

The Venus of Willendorf, a Paleolithic "goddess" figurine