Joan Gero

Joan Margaret Gero (26 May 1944 – 14 July 2016) was an American archaeologist and pioneer of feminist archaeology. Her research focused on gender and power issues in prehistory, particularly in the Andean regions of Argentina and Peru.

Biography Gero was born in New York City on 26 May 1944. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in English Literature in 1968, before receiving an M.Ed from Boston College in 1970. The next two years were spent teaching socioeconomically disadvantaged groups with the Teacher Corps. In 1998 Gero was appointed Assistant Professor at American University in Washington, D.C., where she taught courses in archaeology, anthropology and women's studies. Gero was also a research associate at the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution. At the time of her death she was a professor emerita.

Gero received funding from Fulbright, the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Heintz foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Throughout her career Gero was heavily involved in the World Archaeological Congress (WAC), serving as the senior North American representative from 1999–2008, organising WAC-5 in 2003, acting as Head Series Editor for the One World Book Series 2003-2008, and serving on the Standing Committee for Ethics from 2007. Gero's husband was archaeologist Stephen Loring.

Awards and recognition

Gero was awarded the Squeaky Wheel by the American Anthropological Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology in 2007.

Selected publications Gero, J. 2015. Yutopian: Archaeology, Ambiguity and the Production of Knowledge in Northwest Argentina. Austin: University of Texas Press. Gero, J. 2012. Femidoxy: a private challenge to orthodox field methodology. Labrys. Études feministes https://www.labrys.net.br/labrys22/archeo/gero.htm#uma Loring S. & J. Gero. 2012. The evolution of happiness. Archaeologies 8(3): 376-402. doi:10.1007/s11759-012-9208-x Gero, J. 2007. Honoring Ambiguity/Problematizing Certitude. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 14: 311–327. Gero, J. M. & M. C. Scattolin. 2002. Beyond complementarity and hierarchy: new definitions for archaeological gender relations, in S. Nelson & M. Rosen-Ayalon (ed.) In pursuit of gender: worldwide archaeological perspectives: 155-71. Walnut Creek (CA): Altamira Press. Gero, J.M. 1996. Archaeological practice and gendered encounters with field data, in R. Wright (ed.) Gender and archaeology: 251-80. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Gero, J.M. 1994. Excavation Bias and the Woman-at-Home Ideology. In Equity Issues for Women in Archaeology, edited by M. Nelson, S. Nelson and A. Wylie. American Anthropological Asso. Archaeological Papers No. 5., 1994 Gero, J. M. 1983. Gender bias in archaeology: a cross-cultural perspective, in J. M. Gero, D. M. Lacy & M. L. Blakey (ed.) The socio-politics of archaeology: 51-57. Amherst: Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts.