Naor Ben-Yehoyada, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University

in conversation with 

Yannis Hamilakis, Joukowsky Family Professor of Archaeology and Professor of Modern Greek Studies, Brown University

It can be suggested that today we live in a new nomadic age, an age of global movement and migration. For the majority of people on earth, however, especially from the global south, crossing national borders and moving from the global south to the global north is risky, perilous, often lethal. Many are forced or compelled to migrate due to war, persecution, or the structural violence of poverty and deprivation. The phenomenon of forced and undocumented migration is one of the defining features of our era. And while the topic is at the center of attention and study in many scholarly fields, the materiality of the phenomenon and its sensorial and mnemonic dimensions are barely understood and analyzed. In this regard, contemporary archaeology can make an immense contribution.

The New Nomadic Age, edited by Yannis Hamilakis, is the first archaeological anthology on the topic. The book takes up the challenge and explores the diverse intellectual, methodological, ethical, and political frameworks for an archaeology of forced and undocumented migration in the present.