Professor Whitney Battle-Baptiste (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

In the last chapter of my book, Black Feminist Archaeology, I used the words “moving mountains and liberating dialogues” to describe how I felt about writing a book with the words Black, Feminist, and Archaeology together. This venture took a great deal of strength, but seemed like the only way for me to have a conversation that mattered. My identity as a student of historical archaeology and the African Diaspora often put theory I was taught and the approach to community-based practice at odds. This dilemma, however, pushed me use my research as a vehicle for archaeological theory and practice to speak directly to the intersectional and complex relationships of the people and the things they left behind. The works and words of Black women describing our own experiences had always been the most reliable source for my developing a coherent theoretical language to interpret the material remains of women in captivity and beyond. Black Feminist Archaeology, therefore, demonstrates through an analysis of the material past, a method to positively enhance the texture and depth of how we understand the experiences of captive African peoples and further create an archaeology that can be directly linked to the larger quest for social and political justice. My presentation is about how my identity (as varied as it is) has led my research to reflect who I am and what I bring to the discipline of archaeology in general and how the relationship between African Diaspora archaeology and Black Feminist theory to create conversations that matter for generations to come. Free & Open to the Public