The Contemporary Past: Archaeological Adventures in the Anthropocene
In this lecture Professor John Schofield (Head of Archaeology at the University of York, UK) will offer critical reflections on the present through his work as an archaeologist and heritage practitioner. With examples from Berlin, Malta, and the UK he promotes the idea of archaeology having a distinctive and significant role in understanding our supposedly familiar world, and the ways we think about and sometimes seek to manage our own legacies.
Additional to these diverse examples, he will start and conclude his talk with 'garbology', one of archaeology's first forays into the contemporary world in the 1970s and the subject of John's latest project where he is part of a multi-disciplinary team hoping to resolve the challenge of marine plastics in the Galapagos Marine Park, Ecuador, South America.