Teaching

Zooarchaeology demonstration, Sudan (image © L. Varadzin)

My teaching centers on making archaeology accessible and relevant to diverse student populations, recognizing that most students will apply archaeological thinking outside the discipline. By use deep-time perspectives to explore contemporary challenges (e.g., climate change, globalization, cultural identity), i demonstrate how understanding the past enables us to imagine more sustainable futures.

My pedagogy integrates diverse approaches including hands-on laboratory work, collaborative projects, and experiential activities to engage students with varied learning styles and backgrounds. By connecting archaeological evidence to modern debates, I help students develop critical thinking skills, data analysis capabilities, and spatial reasoning that will serve them across diverse career paths.

Teaching enriches my research by requiring clear communication of complex ideas to non-specialist audiences. This process of distilling archaeological concepts for diverse students pushes me to think creatively about my work, draw new connections between past and present, and develop collaborative relationships across disciplines. The classroom serves as a laboratory for testing how archaeological insights can address broader societal questions.

My courses consistently receive strong evaluations, and I was awarded the Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence at Washington University in St. Louis. At Cambridge, I look forward to contributing to undergraduate and graduate education while developing innovative curricula that demonstrate archaeology's relevance for contemporary global challenges.

Representative courses I have taught or designed include:

  • World Archaeology

    This course examines humanity's deep history across two million years, demonstrating how archaeological evidence provides crucial perspectives on contemporary global challenges. While written records span only 5,000 years, archaeological research reveals the long-term processes that shaped modern societies, offering essential baselines for understanding agricultural sustainability, global trade networks, and cultural heritage preservation.

    Through cutting-edge research from diverse global contexts, students explore:

    Human Origins and Migration: Early technological innovations and cultural adaptations

    Agricultural Revolutions: Development of food production systems worldwide

    Urban Civilizations: Rise of complex societies and trade networks

    Cultural Contact and Exchange: How societies adapted to interaction and change

    Students engage with hands-on analysis of artifacts, environmental data, and comparative case studies, developing skills in data interpretation, critical thinking, and cross-cultural analysis. The course emphasizes archaeology's contemporary relevance by connecting ancient innovations to modern sustainability challenges, examining how past societies successfully navigated environmental change and resource management.

    This approach demonstrates archaeology's unique contribution to understanding human adaptability and resilience, preparing students to apply deep-time thinking to challenges in environmental science, policy development, international relations, and cultural preservation.

  • Climate Change and People

    This course examines how human communities have responded to climate variability over millennia, providing crucial insights for understanding contemporary environmental challenges. While rising global temperatures and extreme weather events pose unprecedented challenges, archaeological evidence reveals how societies have successfully adapted to dramatic climate changes throughout prehistory.

    Through comparative analysis of human responses to climate change spanning 50,000 years, students explore:

    Ice Age Adaptations: How Paleolithic communities survived extreme environmental conditions

    Holocene Transitions: Agricultural development during post-glacial climate stabilization

    Collapse and Continuity: Why some societies failed while others thrived during crises

    Innovation and Sustainability: Archaeological evidence of successful resource management

    Students engage with environmental data analysis, cross-cultural comparison, and case studies from diverse global contexts. Laboratory components include paleoenvironmental reconstruction techniques and analysis of archaeological evidence for climate adaptation strategies.

    This interdisciplinary approach connects archaeological findings to modern climate debates, preparing students to apply long-term thinking to challenges in environmental science, policy design, urban planning, and international development while demonstrating archaeology's essential contribution to climate resilience planning.

  • Animals in the Human Past

    This course investigates humanity's diverse relationships with animals over the last ~2 million years, examining how these interactions have shaped human societies while providing insights for contemporary challenges. Through wide-ranging lectures and hands-on learning experiences, we explore fundamental questions about our place in the natural world: Are we responsible for keeping other animals alive? And what's the difference between eating a cow and eating a horse?

    The course combines theoretical frameworks with practical zooarchaeological training, covering:

    Deep Time Foundations: How animals made us human and shaped cultural evolution

    Domestication and Commensalism: From dogs as hangers-on to family members

    Symbolic Dimensions: Animals in ritual, religion, and food taboos

    Methodological Approaches: Reading animal bones and biomolecular analysis

    Students engage with hands-on laboratory sessions using world-class facilities, including species identification labs, experimental archaeology (flintknapping, bone burning), and museum visits. Advanced techniques include stable isotope analysis and ancient DNA methods, providing practical experience with cutting-edge archaeological science.

    This integrated approach demonstrates archaeology's contemporary relevance by connecting past human-animal relationships to modern debates about food security, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable resource management, preparing students for careers in environmental science, conservation, museum studies, and heritage management.