Date: February 27-28, 2009
South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology
University of South Carolina, Columbia

The South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology and the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Carolina will hold their first annual Post-Doctoral Fellows Archaeology Conference in February 2009. The Archaeology of the Recent African American Past is a two-day conference to be held at the University of South Carolina in Columbia on Friday, February 27 (9 AM - 5 PM) and Saturday February 28 (9 AM to 4 PM). The central theme is the plurality of the post-emancipation experiences in the United States and how the archaeological record can provide insight into how African peoples experienced freedom in places such as James Island, South Carolina, Nicodemus, Kansas or New Philadelphia, Illinois. The presentations will focus on the painful histories of Reconstruction and Jim Crow and the more hopeful histories of the Civil Rights Movement and the building of Black communities, neighborhoods and universities.

Theresa Singleton, an historical archaeologist and foundational scholar in African diaspora archaeology, and faculty member at Syracuse University, New York, is the plenary speaker. The plenary will be held on Saturday afternoon at the Carriage House of the Robert Mills House & Park (a Historic Columbia Foundation property) with a reception to follow.

In addition, there will be a museum exhibit and reception at the McKissick Museum on the University of South Carolina campus on Friday night. A tour of African American Heritage sites in Columbia will also be available.

Presentations at the conference include:

Reaching for Freedom, Seizing Responsibility: Archaeology at the Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls, Chicago
Anna S. Agbe-Davies, DePaul University

Archaeology of Jim Crow Era African American Life on Louisiana’s Sugar Plantations
David Palmer, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Black History as Property: A Horizon of African American Memorialization
Proposal for The Archaeology of the Recent African American Past
Christopher N. Matthews, Hofstra University

The Cemetery as Focus of Community Identity and Resistance in the Past and Remembering and Reclaiming the Past in the Present
John P. McCarthy, S&ME, Inc.

Race, Displacement, and 20th Century University Landscapes: An Archaeology of Renewal and Urban Universities
Paul R. Mullins, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis and Lewis C. Jones, Indiana University

What Means Gottes Acker?: The 20th Century Obliteration and Revival of an African-American Story
Leland Ferguson, University of South Carolina

Gibson Grove AME Zion Church Project
Alexandra Jones, University of California, Berkeley

Nicodemus, An Inspiration Beneath the Poppy Mallows
Flordeliz T. Bugarin, Howard University

Archaeological Perspectives on Structural Racism in the Jim Crow Era of the American Midwest
Christopher C. Fennell, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Life and Death on James Island: Exploration and Protection of the Dill Sanctuary
Ronald Anthony, Eugene Frazier, Martha Zierden, The Charleston Museum

Constructing Black "Childhood" in Reconstruction Era Dallas: Victorian Ideals and the Evolving Realities of an Engendered African-America
Megan Teague and James Davidson, University of Florida

An Archaeology of Urban Infrastructure and African-American Achievement in Annapolis, Maryland during the 20th Century
Matthew M. Palus, Columbia University, New York

From Slave to Citizen on James Island: The Archaeology of Freedom at Fort Johnson
Carl Steen, Diachronic Research

White Privilege and Archaeology
Jennifer Babiarz, University of Texas, Austin

Challenges and Limitations in African-American Cemetery Studies: An Archaeological Perspective from the Carolinas
Christina Brooks, Winthrop University

Studies of Commodities in Archaeologies of African American Pasts
Jakob D. Crockett, University of South Carolina

Excavating Inspiration: Archaeology at the Harriet Tubman Home, Auburn, New York
Douglas Armstrong, Syracuse University

BaKongo Cosmograms, Christian Crosses, Or None Of The Above: An Archaeology of African American Spiritual Adaptations into the 1920s
Kenneth L. Brown, University of Houston


To register or for additional information, check out the conference website at: www.cas.sc.edu/SCIAA/postdoc_conf.html or contact Jodi Barnes at JBarnes@mailbox.sc.edu.