Identity, Oppression, and Diversity in Archaeology: Career Arcs

Identity, Oppression, and Diversity in Archaeology documents how racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and ableism affect the demographics of archaeology and discusses how knowledge that archaeologists produce is shaped by the discipline’s demographic homogeneity.

Previous research has shown that, like many academic fields, archaeology is numerically dominated by straight white cisgender people, and those in positions of authority are predominantly men. This book examines how and why those demographic trends persist. It also elucidates how individual archaeologists’ social identities shape the research they conduct, and therefore, how our demographics affect and limit our knowledge production on a disciplinary scale. It explains how, through unflinching reflection, proactive policymaking, and sincere community-building, we can build a diverse and inclusive discipline.

This book will appeal to archaeologists who have an interest in diversity and inclusion within the discipline as well as scholars in other disciplines who are engaged in research on diversity in academia.

Laura E. Heath-Stout is an intersectional feminist archaeologist, a postdoctoral scholar at the Archaeology Center at Stanford University, and a member of the Leadership Team of the Disabled Archaeologists Network. She studies the effects of systemic oppression on the demographics and knowledge production of archaeology. Her next big project will be a community-driven disability justice archaeology project on a 20th century institution for people with intellectual disabilities.