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Teaching
, , 1900
Posts
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portfolio
Outreach and Community Engagement
I am committed to broadening engagement with archaeology in East Africa, the United States, and globally. African communities remain sidelined by traditional archaeological practice. Regular community meetings in the field allow our team to carry out ethical archaeological research that incorporates local perspectives and meets community needs. Our field team has developed several long-standing relationships with community members around different sites in Zanzibar. My collaborators and I have also developed Swahili-language archaeology vocabulary to communicate effectively during local community meetings, and we translate and disseminate reports of our findings in Swahili.
In the US, I am committed to dispelling outdated notions about Africa. During my graduate studies, I partnered with the ORIAS Speaker’s Bureau at the University of California, Berkeley to give public talks about African archaeology at local Bay Area middle schools and high schools.
Community Engagement and Public Talks
2023 GIS and GNSS for Archaeology and Heritage Management. Talk and workshop provided for the Department of Museums and Antiquities in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
2022 Public talk at the Kokoci Arkansas Archaeological Survey: “The Archaeology of Social Transformation in Zanzibar, Tanzania”.
2019-2020 Swahili Translation Project, with Jackson Kimambo
2017-2018 ORIAS Speaker Bureau, “The Archaeology of the Swahili Coast: East Africa and the Indian Ocean”. Center for African Studies, UC Berkeley. Speaker for 5th-12th grades; multiple talks across different schools.
2016 GIS technician, SaveNubia Project, Contra Costa College
2016 Madera Elementary School Archaeological Outreach Day visit, Oakland CA
2015 Madera Elementary School Archaeological Outreach Day visit, Oakland CA
2015 “Archaeology, Anthropology, Race and Colonialism in Africa”, a talk presented to upper-level high school students in the African-American History class at Bishop O’Dowd High School, Oakland, CA
2014 Tshimbupfe, South Africa community engagement. PI: Jun Sunseri.
2014 Museum Chat, “Roman Coins from the Franklin Wright Collection”. With Elisabeth Campbell and Sheri Leonard. Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum. Johns Hopkins University
Online Presentations and Blogs
2022 Moderator for the panel “Abdulrazak Gurna’s Nobel Prize in Literature: Implications in the African Language Classroom”. Department of African and African American Studies, UC Berkeley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3C0rx72X8Y
2020 Presenter, “Long-Term Inland Settlement and Agricultural Change in Zanzibar, Tanzania”. Department of Anthropology, UC Berkeley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvpBzCwJfGM
2015-2016 - Swahili Archaeology and Poetry Blog: https://swahiliarchaeologypoetry.wordpress.com/
Wolfgang Alders, 2024
publications
Publications
Published in , 1900
Journal Articles
In review Alders, W. Evaluating forced displacement on the eastern African Swahili Coast, 500–1900 CE. In review for the edited volume Archaeologies of Forced Displacement: Methods, Case Studies, and Prospects, eds. Aaron Burke and Li Min. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press.
In review Dumitru, I. A., Alders, W., Kristiansen, S. M., Lupien, R., Raja, R., Sindbæk, S. M., Olsen, J. Climate migrants and the origins of Swahili society in eastern Africa. In review with PNAS. Preprint
2026 Alders, W., Juma, K., Manzi, Z., Muhammed, H., Musa, H., Suleiman, H., Ubwa, A., Vuai, A., Ali, A. Persistence on a perilous coast: Swahili responses to raiding, instability, and colonial violence in eastern Africa. Current Anthropology 67(4). https://doi.org/10.1086/742009
2026 Alders, W. Townlands of the Swahili Coast: A framework for compact, high-density tropical urbanism on eastern Africa’s Indian Ocean rim. Journal of Archaeological Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-025-09218-9
2025 Alders, W.; Lim, J.; Brunner, L. Detecting baobab trees (Adansonia digitata) in drone imagery and evaluating their anthropogenic legacy in eastern Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2025.106280
2025 Haji, F.; Haji, K. S.; Ally, A.; Alders, W.; Othman, B.; Mussa, M.; Kasala, A.; Hamad, H. F.; Khamis, A. A. Archaeological investigations at Pungume, a small island off the coast of southern Unguja in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Nyame Akuma 102, 76–84.
2024 Alders, W. Rural settlement dynamics in a rapidly urbanizing landscape: insights from satellite remote sensing and archaeological field surveys in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Journal of Field Archaeology 49(8), 634–652. https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2024.2402962
2024 Alders, W., Davis, D.; Haines, J. Archaeology in the fourth dimension: studying landscapes with multitemporal PlanetScope satellite data. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 31: 1588–1621. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-024-09644-x
2024 Alders, W. Clientage, debt, and the integrative orientation of non-elites on the East African Swahili coast. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2023.101553
2023 Alders, W. Open-access archaeological predictive modeling using zonal statistics: a case study from Zanzibar, Tanzania. Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology 6(1): 117–142. https://doi.org/10.5334/jcaa.107
2023 Alders, W. The archaeology of social transformation in rural Zanzibar, Tanzania, eleventh to nineteenth centuries CE. African Archaeological Review 40: 741–760. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-023-09523-y
2020 Alders, W. Preliminary results of a 2019 survey in inland Zanzibar, Tanzania. Nyame Akuma 94: 38–45.
2016 Alders, W. Archaeological survey and landscape history at Gede, Kenya. Nyame Akuma 85: 33–43.
Manuscripts in Progress
In prep. Alders, W., Dumitru, I., Mjema, E. Coral harbors of Africa’s Indian Ocean Coast: Evaluating site selection factors for ancient Swahili settlements. In preparation for Archaeological Prospection.
In prep. Alders, W. Becoming Zanzibar: An Archaeology of Socioecological Transformation, Globalization, and Colonialism in the Indian Ocean World from AD 800–1900. A monograph in preparation for British Archaeological Reports.
Public-Facing Writing
Accepted Alders, W. Baobabs, monsoons, and tsunamis: Exploring the hidden landscapes of the Swahili Coast with geospatial data and technologies. Backdirt: Annual Review of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.
2025 Alders, W. Zanzibar’s baobab trees used to be a valued part of society – drone images help prove it. The Conversation. Read online
2024 Alders, W. Researcher at CAST uses satellite imagery to investigate ancient urbanism in eastern Africa. University of Arkansas Newsletter. Read online
Dissertation
2022 Alders, W. Uneven Ground: The Archaeology of Social Transformation in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Department of Anthropology Dissertation, UC Berkeley. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3n46k1w9
talks
Presentations
Conference Presentations
2024 Alders, W. “Modeling Socioecological Transformation in Coastal East Africa: A Case Study from Unguja Island, Zanzibar, Tanzania.” Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting. In the session “Islands Around Africa: State of the Art and Future Directions.” Chair: Krish Seetah.
2024 Dumitru, I.; Alders, W. “Dynamic Coasts and Landscapes of Resilience: Archaeological and Environmental Hotspot Modeling on the Swahili Coast (Sixth–Nineteenth Century CE).” Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting. In the session “Environmental Archaeology in Africa.” Chair: Asia Alsgaard.
2023 Alders, W. “Heterarchy, Anti-Colonial Infrastructures, and the Busaid State in 19th Century Zanzibar”. Society of Africanist Archaeologists Biennial Meeting. In 25 Years Beyond Chiefdoms: Susan McIntosh’s Pathways to Complexity Influence on African Archaeology. Co-Chairs: Carla Klehm and Wolfgang Alders.
2023 Alders, W., Haines, J. “Landscapes of Stone in Mauritius and Zanzibar.” Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting. In the session “Adventures in Spatial Archaeometry: A Survey of Recent High-Resolution Survey and Measurement Application”. Chairs: Sarah Watson and Elizabeth Clay.
2021 Alders, W. “Long-Term Settlement in Plantation Regions of Unguja, Zanzibar.” Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting. In the session, “Uses of Survey in Worldwide Contemporary Archaeology”. Session organizer: Wolfgang Alders, University of California, Berkeley.
2021 Alders, W. “Settlement and Environment on Zanzibar in the Context of the Western Indian Ocean”. Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting. Discussant in the lightning round panel “An Ocean of connections: tangible and intangible exchanges in the IOW”. Organizers: Stefania Manfio and Alessandra Cianciosi.
2017 Alders, W., Khamis Ali, A. “Preliminary Results of Geoarchaeological Sampling and Survey to Investigate Landscape History in Northern Unguja, Zanzibar.” Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting. In the panel, “Advances in Geoarchaeological Research Methods”. Session organizer: Michael Wilson, Simon Fraser University.
Other Presentations
2024 Early Globalization and Ancient Connectivity on the Eastern African Swahili Coast: A View from Pangani Bay in Northern Tanzania. Invited talk, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University.
2024 “Zanzibar resembles a city with a hostile army encamped in its neighborhood”: Coastal Raiding and the Archaeology of Refuge on the Swahili Coast”. Invited talk, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Advanced Seminar, Archaeologies of Forced Migration: Approaches, Case Studies and Prospects. Organized by Li Min and Aaron Burke, UCLA
2023 Integration and Autonomy in the Island Hinterland of Zanzibar Stone Town, 8th-19th centuries CE. The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA
2022 Exploring Swahili Urban Transformations. Anthropology Brown Bag, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
2022 Uneven Ground: The Archaeology of Settlement Reorganization in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Archaeological Research Facility, UC Berkeley
2020 Land Use, Labor, and Long-Term History in Rural Zanzibar, Tanzania. African Archaeology Research Day. University of Leicester
2020 Long-Term Inland Settlement and Agricultural Change in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Archaeological Research Facility, UC Berkeley
2016 Cultivating Cosmopolitanism: Long-Term Archaeological Histories, Agriculture and Poetry in Zanzibar. In Symposium on Early Modern Identities. UC Berkeley
2016 Becoming Zanzibar: Comparative Archaeological and Ecological Histories of Unguja and Pemba. Archaeological Research Facility, UC Berkeley
Wolfgang Alders, 2024
teaching
Teaching
, , 1900
Teaching Philosophy
Broadening access to archaeology and higher education for students from diverse walks of life is imperative. In my teaching, I draw on universal design for learning (UDL) approaches to make lectures and assignments accessible to students with different backgrounds and learning styles. I emphasize writing, peer-editing, and re-writing in a supportive environment as a critical method for helping students become independent thinkers and scholars. I am also committed to mentoring African students and researchers, to build archaeological capacity in African institutions.
Courses Taught (Instructor of Record)
2025 GIS for Archaeology and Cultural Resource Management (Anthro C117). Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.
2024 Landscape Archaeology (Anth-UA 213). Department of Anthropology, New York University.
2022 Politics of African Archaeology and Heritage (R5B Freshman Writing Seminar). Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.
Other Courses I Can Teach
Cities, Past and Present · The Archaeology of Rivers · Society and the Environment · Landscape Archaeology · The Anthropocene · GIS and Remote Sensing in Archaeology · African Archaeology · The Archaeology of the Indian Ocean · World Prehistory · Archaeological Method and Theory
Courses as a Teaching Assistant
2021 Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (ESPM 72). Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley.
2015–2020 Introduction to Archaeology (Anth 2AC). Department of Anthropology, UC Berkeley (Fall 2015, 2018, 2020).
2016–2018 Introduction to Near Eastern Art and Archaeology (MES 15). Department of Middle Eastern Studies, UC Berkeley (Spring 2016, 2017, 2018).
Workshops, Training, and Mentorship
2025 Created QGIS for Archaeology modules for community-engaged research in Cambodia (UCLA, for Dr. Stephen Acabado).
2025 Workshop: “Detecting Archaeologically Significant Trees in Drone Imagery with Automated Methods.” Automated Methods in Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, New York University.
2024 Trained two MA students, two undergraduates, and two heritage officers in survey methods, GNSS, GIS, and ceramic analysis in Pangani and Zanzibar, Tanzania.
2024 Workshop: “Archaeology in the Fourth Dimension: CORONA, HEXAGON, and Other Multitemporal Satellite Imagery.” Archaeology of China graduate seminar, Cotsen Institute, UCLA.
2023 Workshop: “GIS and GNSS for Archaeology.” Department of Museums and Antiquities, Zanzibar, Tanzania.
2023 Trained two PhD and three undergraduate students in survey methods, GNSS, GIS, and ceramic analysis during fieldwork in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
2020 Supervised undergraduates in managing field data. PI: Lisa Maher (Fall 2020).
2019 Trained five students from the State University of Zanzibar in archaeological field methods, remote sensing, and ceramic analysis.
2018 Supervised undergraduates in soil analysis of sediments from Zanzibar, Tanzania. PI: Lisa Maher (Spring 2018).
2016-17 Supervised undergraduates doing structure-from-motion photogrammetry of Iron Age ceramics from Jordan. PI: Ben Porter (Fall 2016, 2017).
2015 Supervised undergraduates in a collaborative research project with the Musanda Royal Council of Tsimbupfe, South Africa. PI: Jun Sunseri (Spring 2015).