Neha Gupta

(She, Her, Hers)

Associate Professor

Anthropology, Community, Culture and Global Studies

Other Titles: Director, DARE | Digital Archaeology Research Environment
Office: ART 259
Email: neha.gupta@ubc.ca

Research Summary

Geospatial and digital methods; postcolonial, decolonial, anti-colonial and Indigenous studies of archaeology and cultural heritage; archaeology in India and Canada; data governance and community governance of heritage; anti-racism; anti-casteism. I welcome interest from prospective students for research supervision on topics related to these areas. Accepting graduate students.

Courses & Teaching

My teaching focus is in digital methodologies, archaeology and cultural heritage. I have desined and offered the following courses; ANTH 103 Introduction to World Archaeology, ANTH 210 Archaeological Inquiry and Practice, ANTH 311 Digital Methods in Archaeology and Heritage, ANTH 319 Archaeology of Complex Societies, ANTH 409 Applied Anthropology (digital anthropology; reclaiming; AI and heritage), IGS 502 Seminar in Digital Arts and Humanities.

Biography

I am Associate Professor in Anthropology at The University of British Columbia. My research programme examines and addresses geospatial and digital methods in anti-colonial and Indigenous studies of archaeology and cultural heritage. My research interests are geovisualization and GIS, place-based heritage, data practice, community governance of cultural heritage, anti-racism and archaeology in India and Canada. I cultivate these interests in the DARE| Digital Archaeology Research Environment, a Canada Foundation for Innovation funded laboratory at UBC Okanagan (dare-lab.github.io).

Websites

Neha Gupta’s Website: http://dngupta.github.io

Degrees

PhD, McGill University
MSc, University College London, UK
BSc (Honours), University of Toronto

Research Interests & Projects

Current research projects:

I am Principal Investigator on Towards a Principled Practice of Archaeology: Building a new ethical framework for digital data in archaeology through the FAIR, CARE and GREENER Principles, which is a collaboration with Dr Holly Wright, Archaeology Data Service, University of York, United Kingdom. The aim of the SSHRC-funded project is to develop a partnership with colleagues in the UK and European Union on the implementation of these data governance principles in archaeology and cultural heritage.

In the Arc of Justice: opening space for anti-racist and anti-casteist narratives with, and alongside South Asian communities in the Okanagan and Lower Mainland, I work with Anita Lal, Poetic Justice Foundation and Dr Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra, Belonging Matters, on organizing events on anti-caste in the Canadian context for students and the broader community in the Okanagan.

I am a Co-Applicant on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Archaeology Centre, a large research infrastructure project that focuses on supporting Indigenous Data Sovereignty in the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm Nation. Co-designed with xʷməθkʷəy̓əm Nation and a team at UBC Vancouver, I contribute to the digital infrastructure and data governance of archaeology and cultural heritage.

I am a Co-Applicant on Reconstructive Preservation: Designing Resilient Digital Heritage for the Far Future, a project led by the University of Calgary. We examine and develop ways to communicate cultural protocols for digital cultural heritage, especially 3D heritage, over long periods of time.

Selected Publications & Presentations

Selected Publications

Gupta, N. Decolonizing Archaeology through Digital Means. (in press) In Elton Barker, Olympia Bobou and Rubina Raja (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Digital Classical Studies. New York, US: Oxford University Press, expected Dec 2026.

Bourgeois, R., K. Supernant, and N. Gupta. (2025). Re-conceptualizing Repatriation as the Power to Decide. Museum Anthropology, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/muan.70012

Gupta, N., Abhayan G. S., S. Chatterjee, and Rajesh S.V. (2024). Digital Methods in the Collection, Management, Reuse, Sharing and Circulation of Indian Heritage Data. In Maya Dodd and Nirmala Menon (Eds.), Practices of Digital Humanities in India: Learning by Doing (pp. 145-163). New Delhi, India: Routledge. doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003325239-12 ; http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90910

Gupta, N., E. Yasui, L. Small, A. Wijesinghe, and T. Ng. (2024). In Our Voices: Experiences and Perspectives of Black and Racialized Archaeologists in the Canadian Context. Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 48(2): 196-225 doi: https://canadianarchaeology.com/publications/canadian-journal-archaeology/48/2-1 ; http://hdl.handle.net/2429/94731

Gupta, N., A. Martindale, K. Supernant, and M. Elvidge. (2023). The CARE Principles, and the Reuse, Sharing and Curation of Indigenous Data in Canadian Archaeology. Advances in Archaeological Practice, 11(1), 76-89. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2022.33

Nicholson, C., S. Kansa, N. Gupta, and R. Fernandez. (2023). Will it Ever Be FAIR? Making Archaeological Data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. Advances in Archaeological Practice, 11(1), 63-75. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2022.40

Gupta, N. and R. Nicholas. (2022). Being Seen, Being Heard: Ownership in Archaeology and Digital Heritage (Guest Editorial). Archaeologies, 18(3), 495-509. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-022-09465-y ; http://hdl.handle.net/2429/83171

Gupta, N., N. Bonneau, and M. Elvidge. (2022). Connecting Past to Present: Enacting Indigenous Data Governance Principles in Westbank First Nation’s Archaeology and Digital Heritage. Archaeologies, 18(3), 623-650. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-022-09466-x ; http://hdl.handle.net/2429/83410

*Bavi, A., and N. Gupta. (2022). Gamification of Digital Heritage as An Approach to Improving Museum and Art Gallery Engagement for Blind and Partially Sighted Visitors. Archaeologies, 18(3), 585-622. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-022-09461-2

Gupta, N., R. Nicholas, and S. Blair. (2022). Postcolonial and Indigenous Perspectives in Digital Archaeology. In Ethan Watrall and Lynne Goldstein (Eds.), Digital Heritage and Archaeology in Practice (pp. 241-274). University Press Florida. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/82213

Gupta, N., S. Blair and R. Nicholas. (2020). What We See, What We Don’t See: Data Governance, Archaeological Spatial Databases and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in an Age of Big Data. Journal of Field Archaeology, 45, S39-S50.  doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2020.1713969

Gupta, N. (2020). Preparing Archaeological Data for Spatial Analysis. In Mark Gillings, Piraye Haciguzeller and Gary Lock (Eds.), Archaeological Spatial Analysis: A Methodological Guide (1 ed.) (pp. 17-40). London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351243858-2 ; http://hdl.handle.net/2429/73588

Gupta, N., and R. Devillers. (2017). Geographic Visualization in Archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 24(3), 852–885. doi: http://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-016-9298-7 ; http://research.library.mun.ca/12144/

Textbook and Toolkits

Eber, A., D. Evering, A. Gallant, N. Hooman, I. Pratt, S. Al-Saqqar, K. Caspary, L. Costanzo, M. Cuthill, O. Ghosh, N. Gupta, L. Horton, B. Hu, K. Mukunda, M. Narlock, C. Paton, T. Sallaway, and S. Sivajothy. (2025). Community Research Data Toolkit. url: https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/communitydatatoolkit/

Graham, S., N. Gupta, J. Smith, A. Angourakis, A. Reinhard, L. Richardson, K. Ellenberger, Z. Batist, J. Rivard, B. Marwick, M. Carter, B. Compton, & R. Blades. (2019). The Open Digital Archaeology Textbook Environment. url: https://o-date.github.io/draft/book/

Public Scholarship

Bonneau, N. and N. Gupta (2023). Preserving and sharing syilx digital heritage: Westbank First Nation and UBCO collaborate on interactive web map, UBC Community Engagement, April 2023, https://communityengagement.ubc.ca/news/westbank-first-nation-and-ubco-collaborate-on-interactive-web-map/