Jun Sunseri is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at UC Berkeley. Dr. Sunseri's archaeological research focuses on colonialism, foodways, landscapes, historical archaeology, preservation and heritage in the western US and northern South Africa. Jun Sunseri's research in community-accountable archaeological work is often focused on how the past is a living part of processes that have translated into racialized or other inequalities in the present and subsequent struggles by our Community Mentors for self-determination. Through partnered and Community-Mentored co-design and management of research process and products, reformulations of archaeological praxis inform work aligned more closely to the priorities of community partners. With mandates from those with the most to lose in the process of doing archaeology, community-accountable archaeological research is a powerful commitment to decolonizing how stories about the past are created and shared.

We are fortunate to be invited to work on projects that matter in the here and now, beyond the academy and shoulder-to-shoulder with those who so generously mentor us in their Ancestral Places and gift us with stories and meaning for our work. Our lab uses a diversity of methodologies to puruse these partnered research agendas, such as geophysics and modeling to not only better understand the past, but also better serve the research mandates of our community mentors, such as our role in intergenerational knowledge transfer. Our work includes a decade of effort on the petition for federal recognition for the Mono Lake Kootzaduka'a, land rematriation for the Chhé'ee Fókaa Band of Northeastern Pomo, and cultural fire and archaeology with the Flicker InterTribal fire crew.