Ayana Flewellen

(Assistant Professor, Stanford University)

Friday, February 21, 6:10 PM

963 Schermerhorn Extension

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The event will be live-streamed on Zoom. Please make sure to register for Zoom access

We are excited to announced Ayana Flewellen as our 2024-25 student-nominated speaker, co-sponsored with the Westchester Society of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Abstract

Author bio

Ayana Omilade Flewellen (they/she) is a Black Feminist, an archaeologist, a artist scholar and a storyteller. As a scholar of anthropology and African and African Diaspora Studies, Flewellen’s intellectual genealogy is shaped by critical theory rooted in Black feminist epistemology and pedagogy. This epistemological backdrop not only constructs the way they design, conduct and produce their scholarship but acts as foundational to how she advocates for greater diversity within the field of archaeology and within the broader scope of academia. Flewellen is the co-founder and current Board Chair of the Society of Black Archaeologists and sits on the Board of Diving With A Purpose.  They are an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University. Her research and teaching interests address Black Feminist Theory, historical archaeology, memory, maritime heritage conservation, public and community-engaged archaeology, processes of identity formations, and representations of slavery and its afterlives. Flewellen has been featured in National Geographic, Science Magazine, PBS and CNN; and regularly presents her work at institutions including The National Museum for Women in the Arts.

Dr. Kelly M. Britt

(Assistant Professor of Anthropology,
CUNY-Brooklyn College)

Activism and Archaeology: Present Realities and Future Possibilities

Friday, April 18, 5:10 PM – 7:00 PM

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Abstract

Archaeologists have a history of being agents of change, particularly in advocating for the protection and preservation of historical resources. The passage of many historic preservation laws and the development of the field of Cultural Resources Management in the mid-20^th century enabled archaeological groups, individual archaeologists, and those working with historic sites to be diligent advocates for heritage, particularly in urban centers as the fast-paced nature of urbanization threatened historical resources and a sense of place. Today, as more social issues, such as climate change, inequality, neoliberal development, and contestation of historical memory, intersect with archaeology and historical sites, we see archaeologists and others continuing to advocate not only for historic resources but also for the larger social justice challenges that threaten the communities in which these resources reside. This talk will be a conversation between the intersection of archaeology and activism and what it means to conduct activist archaeology. The many challenges that this work may entail will be highlighted, including the physical and ethical lines between activist and archaeologist and where we, as a discipline, can collectively imagine what a future activist archaeology may look like.