Barbara L. Voss

Biography

Dr. Barbara L. Voss is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University, where she is also affiliated with the Stanford Archaeology Center, the Center for Comparative Studies of Race and Ethnicity, the Program on Asian American Studies, the Program on Urban Studies, and the Program on Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Research Interest

My research program is centered on two primary interests: historical archaeology and sexuality studies. Within historical archaeology, my research focuses on the dynamics and outcomes of transnational cultural encounters in the Americas. This research includes ongoing investigations of the Spanish colonization of the Americas, including (since 1992) field and laboratory research at the Presidio of San Francisco. In the past decade, I have expanded this work on cultural encounters into the archaeology of overseas Chinese communities in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In this capacity I serve as Principal Investigator of the Market Street Chinatown Archaeology Project, a community-based research program developed to study and interpret the history and archaeology of San Jose's first Chinese community. The second focus of my research is sexuality studies in archaeology. I strive to generate a productive dialogue between queer studies and archaeology, and to develop rigorous methodologies that support the study of sexuality and gender through archaeological evidence. Most recently I have been exploring the relationship between queer theory and postcolonial theory in archaeology, the subject of my recent book The Archaeology of Colonialism: Intimate Encounters and Sexual Effects, co-edited with El Casella. Throughout I am guided by a deep commitment to public archaeology and collaborative research.