Teaching and Mentorship

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 class lectures and assignments accessible to students with different backgrounds and learning styles. I also emphasize writing, peer-editing, and re-writing in a supportive environment as a critical method for helping students become independent thinkers and scholars. Finally, I am committed to mentoring and advancing the capacities of African students and researchers, who are underserved compared to their colleagues in the US and Europe.

Sample Courses

Cities, Past and Present

Society and the Environment

Landscape Archaeology

GIS and Remote Sensing in Archaeology

African Archaeology

The Archaeology of Slavery in Africa

World Prehistory

Archaeological Method and Theory

Teaching and Mentoring Experience

Instructor of Record

Department of Anthropology, New York University Undergraduate Course: Anth-UA 213, Topics in Archaeology, “Landscape Archaeology” (Fall 2024)

Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.
Undergraduate Course: R5B Freshman Writing Seminar, “Politics of African Archaeology and Heritage” (Spring 2022)

Teaching Assistant

Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley.
Undergraduate Course: ESPM 72 – Intro to Geographic Information Systems (Summer 2021)

Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.
Undergraduate Courses: Anth 2AC: Intro to Archaeology (Fall 2015, Fall 2018, Fall 2020)

Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
Undergraduate Courses: MES 15: Intro to Middle Eastern Art and Archaeology (Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018).

Mentorship and Undergraduate Training

Trained students from the US and from the State University of Zanzibar in archaeological field methods, remote sensing, and ceramic analysis (Summer 2019, Summer 2023, Summer 2024).

Supervised undergraduates in managing field data. PI: Lisa Maher (Fall 2020)

Supervised undergraduates in soil analysis of sediments from Zanzibar, Tanzania. PI: Lisa Maher (Spring 2018).

Supervised undergraduates doing structure-from-motion photogrammetry of Iron Age ceramics from Jordan. PI: Ben Porter (Fall 2016, Fall 2017).

Supervised undergraduates in a collaborative research project with the Musanda Royal Council of Tsimbupfe, South Africa. PI: Jun Sunseri (Spring 2015).

Wolfgang Alders, 2024