Archaeology, Education, and Gentrification: The View From San Francisco

Author(s): Kim Christensen

Year: 2017

Summary

San Francisco, and the Bay Area more broadly, is currently an epicenter of gentrification due largely to the tech economy.  Higher education is implicated in these processes too, though, as universities expand due to increased enrollment pressures.  This paper explores how these intersecting issues have played out during the first semester of teaching "Introduction to Archaeology" for the UC Berkeley/UC Extension San Francisco Fall Program for Freshmen as part of the American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) program.  In attempting to partner with community organizations fighting gentrification and homelessness, how can archaeology, as a discipline, help?  How can an engaged pedagogy contribute to both student learning and social justice?  While this is only the beginning of a longer-term research program, this paper appraises the benefits, pitfalls, and paths forward for engaging archaeological knowledge with higher education and pressing local contemporary issues.

Cite this Record

Archaeology, Education, and Gentrification: The View From San Francisco. Kim Christensen. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Fort Worth, TX. 2017 ( tDAR id: 435440)

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Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 411