Barbara Voss is a historical archaeologist whose research investigates the dynamics and outcomes of transnational cultural encounters in colonial and early industrial North America. Her recently published book, The Archaeology of Ethnogenesis: Race and Sexuality in Colonial San Francisco (University of California Press, 2008) analyzes landscape, architecture, foodways, material culture, and dress to trace the transformation of social identities in 18th century Spanish California.

Since 1992, she has conducted field and laboratory research at the Presidio of San Francisco at the site of the 18th-century Spanish-colonial military settlement; the most current phase of this project involves excavation of archaeological deposits from a nearby civilian neighborhood. Dr. Voss is also the Principal Investigator of the Market Street Chinatown Archaeology Project, a laboratory study of a collection of artifacts from San Jose’s earliest historic Chinese community.


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