Instructor Spotlight: Sarah Bell
What inspired you to teach this course?
As an archaeologist who studies visitation to abandoned places through the lens of social trauma, it is, perhaps, natural that I would have an interest in teaching a class on the material remains of difficult histories. These fragments—the rubble of war, the ruins of prisons and asylums, the houses where the victims of serial killers met their deaths—are guardians of memories that cannot be contained as long as the material evidence that speaks for them remains. This evidence serves a dual role as both wound and witness…attracting our attention, demanding our action, and reminding us of just how vulnerable we really are, even when—perhaps especially when—we would rather forget. Dark heritage unsettles us, but we are also fascinated by it.
Why is it important to study?
Why? There are no easy answers to this question, nor to any of the others associated with if, when, and how we should preserve or erase a difficult past. The ethics are complicated, the meanings and motivations are not always clear, and the embedded narratives are often contested. It is this very ambiguity which makes dark heritage a critical topic for students in today’s world to confront. Through the study of this material, students learn to ask difficult questions about how we heal from tragedy, how we remember injustice, and how we move on from shame. They think critically about who owns the past, and who has the right to decide if and how it is remembered. Above all, they develop the abilities and skills that they need to serve as peacemakers and moderators in a world that is growing increasingly divisive in its approach to both the past and the present—empathy, emotional intelligence, the ability to have difficult discussions, and the willingness to listen to and understand opinions which they may not share. They learn to recognize that the history of human suffering is a material and an emotional legacy that we have all inherited, and that the prevention of human suffering is a responsibility that we all share.
Sarah Bell received her PhD in Archaeology from Brown University in 2025 and currently teaches in the Art History department at Providence College. Her scholarship is centered on the visitation of abandoned places associated with social trauma, both in the ancient and the contemporary world. Her current research in contemporary archaeology focuses on urban explorer interactions with abandoned mental asylums and on the materiality of mourning at school shooting sites.