Brian Boyd
Department of Anthropology
Director of Museum Anthropology
Faculty Profile
Courses:
Holy Lands, Unholy Histories: archaeology before the bible; Critical Perspectives on Human-Animal Relations; Neanderthal Alterities; Noise/Sound Archaeology: excursions into the aural past; Museum Anthropology
Brian Boyd is Senior Lecturer and Director of Museum Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology. Boyd has been carrying out archaeological research in Palestine/Israel for thirty years, and is currently co-director (with Dr. Hamed Salem, Birzeit University) of the collaborative Columbia/Birzeit project Building Community Anthropology Across the Jordan Valley in the West Bank village of Shuqba (partially supported by a Columbia University President’s Global Initiative Fund award). His publications focus on the prehistoric archaeology of the Middle East, the politics of archaeology in Israel/Palestine, critical human-animal studies, and sound/music studies. In 2023-25, his articles have appeared in the journals Jerusalem Quarterly and American Anthropologist, and in the Berghan volume Alterity and Human Evolution. He is currently co-writing a book with colleagues Mazen Iwaisi and Jamal Barghouth entitled From Memory to Place: An Archaeology of the Nakba. Brian is Co-Chair of the Columbia University Seminar on Human-Animal Studies, and Chair Emeritus of the New York Academy of Sciences Anthropology Division.
