Archaeology is publicly imagined as the discovery of ancient civilizations. However, a range of disciplines, from anthropology and history, through genetics and ecology, acknowledge archaeology’s key contribution to tracing the human career on the planet. The UC Santa Cruz Archaeological Research Center (ARC) provides a space for interdisciplinary conversation and methodological synergy across a variety of academic fields charged with exploring the human past. UC Santa Cruz ARC research spans the earth. Indeed, ARC faculty, postdocs, and graduate students lead research projects in the Andes, the Caribbean, Europe, the Mediterranean, Mesoamerica, sub-Saharan Africa, and Western North America, contributing a truly global vantage point from which to understand our collective past.