Bioarchaeology, Activism and Social Justice

Sabrina C. Agarwal is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is engaged in the application of research in bone maintenance to dialogues of social identity, embodiment, developmental plasticity, and inequality in bioarchaeology. She has examined age- and growth-related changes in cortical bone microstructure, trabecular architecture, bone mineral density, and bone strength in several historic British and Italian archaeological populations, and has examined the long-term effect of growth and reproduction (parity and lactation) on the human and non-human primate maternal skeleton, and studying samples from prehistoric Turkey and Japan. Her current research is also invested in bioethics of skeletal biology/bioarchaeology, specifically the practice and ethics curation and repatriation of skeletal/ancestral remains. She has numerous peer-reviewed publications and co-edited volumes including Social Bioarchaeology and Exploring Sex and Gender in Bioarchaeology, and co-author of the best-selling textbook Laboratory Manual and Workbook for Biological Anthropology. She is co-founder of the Western Bioarchaeology Group (WeBiG), co-founder and former co-chair of the Bioarchaeology Interest Group in the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), is co-founding Editor-in-Chief of Bioarchaeology International, and currently serves on the Editorial Board of American Antiquity.

• Chapter 1. Introduction: Bioarchaeologists Should be Activists Too (Halcrow et al).- Part 1. Social Justice in Academia: Towards a More Inclusive and Equitable Discipline.- Chapter 2. Justice, Equality and Diversity within the Academy (Gowland and Daxini).- Chapter 3. Racial Equity, Ethics, and Sustainable Futures in Anatomical Sciences (Schug et al).- Chapter 4. Diversity, Representation, and Inclusion in Forensic Anthropology (Paz et al).- Chapter 5. Cripping, Queering, and Transforming Education in Biological Anthropology (Blatta et al).- Part 2. Structural Violence, Marginalization, and Systems of Colonialism.- Chapter 6. Institutionalization and Health in Past Populations: Social Justice Perspectives (Zuckerman and Willis).- Chapter 7. The Unborn in Bioarchaeology: Personhood, Care, and Pregnant Person-infant Health Through a Structural Violence Lens (Halcrow et al).- Chapter 8. Marginalization in Life and Death: Moving Towards Re-humanization of Archaeological Bodies (Sohler-Snoddy and Kendall).- Chapter 9. The Past, Present, and Future of Eating Animals (Agarwal).- Part 3. Community Bioarchaeology, Stakeholders, and Ethics.- Chapter 10. Engaging the Public: Anthropology's Power to Impact Communities (Alexander).- Chapter 11. Human Remains as ‘Conflict Antiquities’ and How Bioarchaeology and Forensic Anthropology Can Change the Narrative (Huffer et al).- Chapter 12. The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions: Queering Biotechnical Analysis of Sex Estimation (Geller).- Chapter 13. Ethics and Exhibition of Historical Human Body Casts: A Brief Case Study from Pompeii, Campania Region, Southern Italy with an Activist Lens (Arizza et al).- Chapter 14. Conclusions/Afterword: Towards Becoming an Activist Academic (Halcrow et al).