Stephen Silliman
Area of Expertise
Historical archaeology, colonialism, identity, labor, collaborative methods with indigenous communities, North American archaeology.
Degrees
PhD University of California Berkeley
Additional Information
Professor Silliman received his PhD. from UC-Berkeley with specialties in archaeological theory and the archaeology of Native North America. His interests include theories of identity, labor, material culture, and postcolonialism; collaborative indigenous archaeology; and the impact of post-Columbian colonialism on Native Americans. In addition, he studies the politics of heritage and Indigenous issues in the contemporary world. He has conducted field research in Massachusetts, California, Oregon, Texas, and Japan, but his current geographic focus is on southern New England. He works regularly with the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation in Connecticut on issues relating to historic preservation and archaeological research, much of which has been conducted as part of his regular summer field school that has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Dr. Silliman has published three books: Lost Laborers in Colonial California: Native Americans and the Archaeology of Rancho Petaluma (2004, University of Arizona Press), Historical Archaeology (co-edited with Martin Hall, 2006, Blackwell Publishing), and Collaborating at the Trowel's Edge: Teaching and Learning in Indigenous Archaeology (editor, 2008, University of Arizona Press). He has contributions in several edited volumes on the archaeology of colonialism and North America, and he has also published in a variety of leading anthropological journals including American Antiquity, American Anthropologist, Journal of Social Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, plus others.
Courses Taught
UNDERGRADUATE
- Introduction to Archaeology
- Archaeological Method and Theory
- Archaeological Myth and Mystery
- The Archaeology of Colonialism
- Ancient North America
- Contemporary Issues in Anthropology: Dirty Histories, Popular Pasts, and Political Presents
- Field School in Archaeology
GRADUATE
- Graduate Seminar in Archaeology: History and Theory
- Culture Contact and Colonialism in the Americas
- Archaeological Methods and Analysis
- Seminar in the Prehistory of the Americas
- Cultural Theory in Anthropology