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Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past

Overview

  • Credit value: 30 credits at Level 5
  • Convenor: Dr Esther Breithoff
  • Assessment: a 500-word object analysis (20%), 500-word historiographical review (20%) and 2000-word research essay (60%)

Module description

What happens when we treat the world we live in today as archaeological?

In this module we explore how archaeological theory and practice can be used to investigate the material worlds of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from everyday objects and infrastructures to ruins, landscapes and ecologies. Rather than treating the contemporary as a fixed moment in time, we approach it as a dynamic and politically charged condition in which pasts, presents and futures are deeply entangled.

We will explore how archaeology can turn the familiar into the unfamiliar, revealing how the present has been shaped by historical processes and material events that make it open to critique and change. Drawing on global case studies of armed conflict, migration, homelessness, waste, protest camps and climate change, we examine the ethical, methodological and political challenges of using archaeology to understand, and intervene in, urgent issues facing the world today.

Indicative syllabus

  • What are archaeologies of the contemporary past?
  • Making the familiar unfamiliar
  • Methods and sources for contemporary archaeologies
  • Ephemeral histories and fleeting archaeologies
  • Power, inequality and marginalised lives
  • Conflict, violence and forensic archaeologies
  • Ruins, waste and the failure of modernity
  • The Anthropocene and environmental futures
  • Collecting, curating and exhibiting the contemporary world
  • Archaeologies of the present and future
  • Field trip: a contemporary urban site in London

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

  • understand key theories, methods and debates in the archaeology of the contemporary past
  • critically evaluate how archaeology can be used to engage with contemporary social, political, ethical and environmental issues
  • apply and compare interdisciplinary methods and sources to construct coherent, well-supported arguments about the contemporary world
  • communicate ideas effectively and ethically in written and/or oral forms, demonstrating reflexivity and independent research skills.