Faculty Directory

Summary of Expertise

Zooarchaeology, vertebrate osteology, Holocene East African archaeology, pastoralists, gender in archaeology, interpretive theory in archaeology.

Research Interests

Zooarchaeology, African archaeology, pastoralism, Holocene Monterey Bay historical ecology, interpretive theory, visual anthropology, emergence of pastoralism in East Africa; foodways as cultural practices in colonial encounters.

Biography, Education and Training

Diane Gifford-Gonzalez is an archaeologist. She received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. She has done fieldwork in California, Nevada, and New Mexico, the Netherlands, Kenya, Tanzania.

She has served as President of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists, on governing boards of that society, of the International Conference of Archaeozoology (ICAZ), the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), the Archaeology Division of the American Anthropological Association and on the Academic Advisory Council of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the Long-Range Planning Committee of the American Anthropological Association. She is President-elect of the Society for American Archaeology. She serves on the editorial boards of Journal of African Archaeology andRoutledge Arican Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Series.

Honors, Awards and Grants

2020 Distinguished Social Sciences Emeriti Faculty Award, U. of California, Santa Cruz

2019-2020 E. A. Dickson Emeritus Professor, U. of California, Santa Cruz

2018 Fred Wendorf Memorial Lecture, Southern Methodist U., Dallas, November 30

2018 Keynote Speaker, European Association of Archaeologists, Barcelona, September 6

2017 Distinguished Lecture, Department of Archaeology, Institute for Science in Human History, Max Planck Institute, Jena, October 25

2015-2016 Fellow, Centre for Advanced Study, Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, Oslo.

2014 Martin M. Chemers Award for Outstanding Research. Division of Social Sciences, U. of California, Santa Cruz

2013 Committee of Honor, International Conference of Archaeozoology (ICAZ)

2013 Presidential Recognition Award, Society for American Archaeology

2007-2011 Fulbright Senior Specialist (Zooarchaeology)

2006-2008 Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer

2003 Distinguished Teaching Award, University of California Santa Cruz Alumni Association

2000 Excellence in Teaching Award, Academic Senate Committee on Teaching, University of California, Santa Cruz

1995 Presidential Recognition Award, Society for American Archaeology

1983 Citation, Board of Supervisors, Santa Cruz County

1983 Merit Citation, Society for California Archaeology

2012-2014 (Gary A. Haynes Co-PI) National Science Foundation Biological Anthropology BCS-1145777 “Preparation of Two Taphonomic Reference Collections for Deposit in the National Taphonomic Reference Collection, Smithsonian,” ($45,761)
2012-2013 PI National Science Foundation Archaeology BCS-1240332 Dissertation Improvement Grant, “Mobility and Herd Management Strategies of Early Pastoralists in the Central Rift Valley and Athi Plains, Kenya, 3000-1200 BP.” ($24,406).
2012-2013 Subawardee, Moore Foundation “The Interaction of Climatic Change, Fire Regimes, and Human Landscape Management Practices on the Central Coast of California,” Rosemary Gillespie, Kent Lightfoot, David Ackerly PIs ($376,750)
2010-2011 PI National Science Foundation Archaeology BCS-1042704 Dissertation Improvement Grant, Cristie M. Boone, “Humans and the Marine Environment: Fishing through Time in Monterey Bay, California.” ($18,750)
2009-2012 Subawardee ($18,118), National Science Foundation Archaeology Research Grant BCS-0320168 “The Study of Indigenous Pyrodiversity Management Practices in Central California: An Eco-Archaeological Approach,” Kent G. Lightfoot PI ($211,844)
2008-2009 PI National Science Foundation Archaeology Dissertation Improvement Grant BCS-0840356, Charlotte K. Sunseri, “Prehistoric Economic Landscapes of the Greater Monterey Bay Area, California” ($11,837.00)

Selected Publications

• 2018 An Introduction to Zooarchaeology. Springer Verlag, Zurich.

• 2017 Gifford-Gonzalez, D. “Animal disease challenges” fifteen years later: the hypothesis in light of new data. Quaternary International 436:283-293.

  2014 Constructing Community through Refuse Disposal. African Archaeological Review 31(2):339-382.
• 2013 Gifford-Gonzalez, D. (Editor) African Domestic Animal Genetics and Archaeology. Special issue African Archaeological Review 30(1).
• 2012 Gifford-Gonzalez, D. and Anna Agbe-Davies. SAA’s Historically Underrepresented Groups Scholarships Fund: A new opportunity and challenge. The Society for American Archaeology Archaeological Record November 2012: 11-16.
• 2011 D. Gifford-Gonzalez and Olivier Hanotte Domesticating animals in Africa: implications of genetic and archaeological findings. Journal of World Prehistory 24(1): 1-23.
• 2011 Gifford-Gonzalez, D. Holocene Monterey Bay Fur Seals: Distribution, Dates, and Ecological Implications, In Torbin Rick and Todd Braje, editors, Human and Marine Ecosystems: Archaeology and Historical Ecology of Northeastern Pacific Seals, Sea Lions, and Sea Otters, University of California Press, Berkeley. Pp. 221-242.
• 2008 Gifford-Gonzalez, D. (General Editor) Clark, J. D., D. C. Crader, E. A. A. Garcea, D. Gifford-Gonzalez, A. B. Smith, M. A. J. Williamson, Adrar Bous: The Archaeology of a Granitic Ring Complex in Central Sahara, Niger. Annales in Archaeology, Royal Africa Museum, Tervuren.
• 2008 Gifford-Gonzalez, D. Thoughts on a method for the study of daily life. In Sandra Montón Subías and Margarita Sánchez-Romero, editors, Engendering Social Dynamics: The Archaeology of Maintenance Activities. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford. Pp.15-24.
• 2007 Newsome, S. D., M. A. Etnier, D. Gifford-Gonzalez, D. L. Phillips, M. van Tuinen, E. A. Hadly, D. P. Costa, T. P. Guilderson, and P. L. Koch "The Shifting Baseline of Northern Fur Seal Ecology in the Northeast Pacific Ocean." Proceedings of the National Academy of Science: 104: 9709-9714.
• 2007 Gifford-Gonzalez, D. "On beasts in breasts: another reading of women, wildness, and danger at Çatalhöyük." Dialogues in Archaeology 14(1):91-111.
• 2007 Gifford-Gonzalez, D. and J. U. Sunseri "Foodways on the frontier: animal exploitation and identity at an early colonial pueblo in New Mexico." In Archaeology, Food, and Identity, Katheryn Twiss, Editor. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale. Pp. 260-287.
• 2005 "Pastoralism and its consequences." In African Archaeology: A Critical Introduction. Ann Brower Stahl, editor. Blackwell Publishing, London.
• 2003 Gifford-Gonzalez, D. "Persistence of foragers into the later Holocene of arid north Kenya: the Ele Bor fauna." African Archaeological Review 20(2):81-119.
• 2000 Gifford-Gonzalez, D. "Animal disease challenges to the emergence of pastoralism in Sub-Saharan Africa." African Archaeological Review, 17(3):95-139.
• 1993 Gifford-Gonzalez, D. "You can hide, but you can't run: representation of women's work in illustrations of palaeolithic life." Visual Anthropology Review 9:3-21.
• 1991 Gifford-Gonzalez, D. Bones are not enough: analogues, knowledge, and interpretive strategies in zooarchaeology. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 10:215-254.

Teaching Interests

Origins of farming and herding, Holocene African archaeology, writing in the anthropological sciences.

Gifford-Gonzalez has taught graduate courses at the University of Nairobi, University of Tromsø, la Universidad del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the Academia Sinica, Beijing, China.