The I DIG UCI project seeks to document and share the archaeological record of the UCI campus, with a focus on the period since the establishment of UCI in the early 1960s. This research examines the forms of stewardship, occupation, and development of the land currently under the jurisdiction of the UC Regents that comprises the official main campus located in Irvine. I DIG UCI aims to provide a holistic understanding of how the modern university implements and manages the cultural and natural processes that shape its archaeological record through practices of accumulation, preservation, concealment, deposition, removal, and destruction.
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Origins
Origins
I DIG UCI began as a field methods training course for undergraduate students. In addition to the pedagogical goals of building students' expertise with survey, excavation, and collection management, it has pursued the following:
Providing an account of the land's transformation that can be shared with those indigenous communities that have been displaced by colonialism and development
Recovery and maintainence of the multiplicity of stories that emerge from the material culture that has entered UCI's archaeological record
Encouraging students to use archaeology to explore their university, its culture, and their own place within its history and the future of its development
NEXT STEPS
The program is currently expanding its reach by building a broader curriculum and set of research initiatives that envision the whole of campus as an archaeological classroom and site for exploration and training. It offers innovative approaches to tracking and analyzing the dynamic nature of the archaeological record that results from the activities and development of a large and relatively young public university.
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