Digging Deeper: Black Archeological & Burial Sites

Thursday, April 23, 6:30 pm
The Brick
518 N. Western Avenue
Free

The Lost Cause thrives in the absence of a complete and diverse historical record. Gaps, absences, and omissions due, in part, to intentional lack of collection, material culture deemed worthy of preserving, relegating to “Black” history rather than holistic history). Renowned anthropologists specializing in the study and preservation of slave ship wrecks, Black cemeteries, and maroon communities discuss the challenges and opportunities in their field.

Dr. Justin Dunnavant is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at UCLA. His first book, Colonialism, Ecology and Slavery, under contract with Princeton University Press, investigates the relationship between ecology and enslavement in the former Danish West Indies. In addition to his archaeological research, Justin is co-founder of the Society of Black Archaeologists and an AAUS Scientific SCUBA Diver. In 2021, he was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and inducted into The Explorers Club as one of “Fifty People Changing the World that You Need to Know About.” In 2022, he was awarded the Stafford Ellison Wright Black Alumni Scholar-in-Residence at Occidental College. His research has been featured on Netflix's "Explained," Hulu's "Your Attention Please" and in print in American Archaeology, Science Magazine, and National Geographic Magazine.

Antoinette Jackson is Professor and Chair of the department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida and Director of the USF Living Heritage Institute.

Her research focuses on identity and representation at public sites of history and heritage in the US and in the Caribbean. Dr. Jackson’s work on heritage has been published widely. Her most recent book, Heritage, Tourism, and Race—the Other Side of Leisure was published by Routledge in 2020. 

Dr. Jackson and her team launched the Black Cemetery Network on June 15, 2021 as a call to action to raise awareness about the national issue of Black cemetery erasure and impact and implications for building a comprehensive knowledge of American history.

Daniel O. Sayers is an Historical Archaeologist and Anthropologist whose research on the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina and Virginia, USA, is internationally recognized. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at American University in Washington, D.C. He earned his PhD from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. In addition to his academic writings on the Dismal Swamp he has published on many subjects, including: the Underground Railroad; Animal Rights and archaeology; Depression-era hobos and transient workers; 19th Century farmsteads in the American Midwest; Public archaeology; archaeology theory; and (coming soon) the archaeology of the Homeless and the Home. Sayers has also published newspaper opinion pieces, essays, and even a fictional short story entitled, "The Omphalos of Pritchard McCovey". He has appeared as an archaeologist and expert in many different media, including CNN, NPR, PBS, Mysteries of the Museum (The Learning Channel), in Smithsonian and Archaeology magazines, in many newspaper articles, and in the film "Escape to the Great Dismal Swamp" on the Smithsonian Channel.

This program is presented in conjunction with MONUMENTS, an exhibition co-organized and co-presented by The Brick and The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA).