Contemporary (Temporal Keyword)
1-25 (44 Records)
The Undocumented Migration Project has recovered over 4,000 articles of clothing once worn by migrants crossing the MexicoArizona border. This often darkly colored apparel is intended to help people furtively move across the desert and avoid detection by Border Patrol. When recovered archaeologically, this clothing is often torn, faded, and stained with bodily fluids that reflect different forms of physical pain experienced en route. Here we employ the concept of "usewear" (i.e. modifications...
Archaeologies of Disinvestment and Displacement: Documenting Detroit’s Foreclosure Crisis (2018)
The City of Detroit boasts "the largest and most transparent" demolition program in the US, having demolished approximately 12,000 structures in under 3 years. While the city is best known for its decaying industrial sites, the majority of Detroit’s vacant structures are residential: recently occupied homes, schools, churches, and businesses.This presentation focuses on the production and destruction of these more ordinary ‘ruins,’ examining the political and historical processes that create...
An Archaeology of Care in the Bakken Oil Patch (North Dakota, USA) (2017)
The University of North Dakota Man Camp Project has used archaeology to engage seriously the issues of workforce housing and industrial landscapes in the Bakken. Our work proceeds with a focus not on the ebullience (or catastrophe) of the Bakken, but rather on the material culture of housing in a dynamic extractive landscape. We do not advocate, nor do we analyze or make policy recommendations. Our work in the field epitomizes, however, an archaeology of care for the communities in which we...
The Archaeology of Urban Blight (2016)
This presentation explores the reconfiguration of urban landscapes in postindustrial cities by discussing how materials removed from blighted neighborhoods in Detroit, Michigan, and Cleveland, Ohio, are reused and resold as tangible heritage (in the form of furniture or personal accessories), often in different parts of the same city. Mapping the transfer and reuse of building materials reveals patterns of urban change and (re)development over time and provides insight into regional...
Blood, Sweat and Queers: Roller Derby and Queer Heritage (2018)
Queer theory is a new and developing realm of heritage management; with the listing of historic places Stonewall National Monument and the Bayard Rustin Residence, queer heritage is attaining broader recognition. Investigations into the broader patterns of queer history will expose additional spaces and places with important associations to queer communities on multiple levels. Roller derby’s queer-normative environment has become a center of community-building in the last twenty years,...
Chemists to Cowboys: Labour Identity in Corporate Agriculture in the San Emigdio Hills, California (2016)
In California at the turn of the 20th Century, large companies formed through lands speculation as a result of the land grant system and the dissolution of mission properties. The Kern County Land Company, based in Kern County California, had over 1.1 million acres across the American West, utilizing a varied labour force with the primary agriculture product of cattle. The varied properties were interlinked and employed a plethora of workers from chemists to cowboys. This paper aims to...
"The city is my home": homelessness as resistance to institutionalisation (2013)
Archaeological analysis of successive ‘home’ spaces created by homeless people enables the documentation of increased privatisation and surveillance within the cities of Bristol and York and reveals the divisive effect they have on social interactions. Using maps, photographs and oral testimonies from homeless people, this paper examines how ‘home’ spaces are grilled off and monitored and asks what this means for the future of ‘public’ spaces. Through subtle negotiations with gatekeepers and...
Colonial Encounters Reflected by the Contemporary Material Culture – Or What Happened When Miss Finland Wore a Sámi Clothing (2017)
In the studies of colonial relations, historical archaeology usually concentrates on the early encounters between European settlers and indigenous peoples. Nevertheless, colonial relations are evident in the contemporary culture too, e.g. in the use of indigenous symbols in commercial connections and in tourism. Archaeology can study also this contemporary colonialism through material culture. In this paper, I first give some background on the topic of the session, comparative indigenism – a...
Crack Method: Community, Mutual Aid, and Appropriation in Washington D.C.’s Homeless Encampments (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’s Cracks" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Using a methodology developed within Capitalism’s cracks I weave together the past, present and future realties of Washington D.C.’s street homeless communities. The mutual aid developed within these communities has proven to reproduce alternative social relations. Appropriating, rather then consuming, the waste spaces and...
Curbed Boundaries: An Analysis of Home Front Material Culture within the Context of Individual vs. Municipal Investments in Contemporary Oakland, CA (2015)
This project investigates the material evidence of individual and City investment in the built landscapes of Oakland, California. Through virtual pedestrian survey, we have analyzed 1000 randomly selected home fronts, implementing a five-facet rating scale to document evidence of resident investment in diverse socio-economic areas. Results suggest that while residents throughout all areas of Oakland invest materially in their homes, they do so differently. Those in higher income areas invest in...
Decolonizing a Metropolis: the materialization of the late Portuguese empire through Lisbon’s commercial spaces (2013)
After the formal independence of the Portuguese African colonies between 1974 and 1975, massive numbers of Europeans and settlers of European descent moved to Portugal in one of the most rapid migrations of the century. This traumatic experience and the problems of redefining a national identity led to the continuous reproduction of an imperial imagination in the old metropolis, but this time without colonies. In this paper I will discuss how old and new urban spaces such as small shops, cafés...
Depicting the Slow Violence of Colonialism in Rural Yucatán, Mexico (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Reckoning with Violence" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Rob Nixon’s concept of slow violence helps to explain the impact of colonialism on rural livelihoods in Yucatán, Mexico. However, is a violence framework useful to those who face colonialism’s long-term consequences? This paper considers the resources and tools that residents of a Yucatecan town have at their disposal when advocating for their...
Developing Digital Identity and Student Opportunities in a Public Archaeology Degree Program (2018)
At the beginning of the Masters Program in Public Archaeology (MAPA) at Binghamton University, we worked with the Director to create a digital identity, write a social media strategy, and develop a student blogging group for the program. Student blog posts on contemporary political events and scholarly debates have garnered attention from the archaeological community for the two years since. In this paper, we evaluate the public response to the MAPA blog by analyzing social media posts that link...
Disrupting Pedagogies: Queer Theory in the Classroom, Field School, and Mentoring (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Gender Revolutions: Disrupting Heteronormative Practices and Epistemologies" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In this paper we discuss queer pedagogical methods. Through a review of our own experimental teaching practices, we aim to disrupt traditional pedagogical models. Over the course of our combined 16 years of teaching, we have implemented and tested a variety of exploratory techniques that embody the...
Do Archaeologist Make Terrible Parents? Reflections from Finnish Children Books and from Real Life (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In contemporary Finnish children books researchers, quite often archaeologists, are described as distant parents who travel constantly or are so absorbed by their work that they hardly notice their children. As archaeologists and parents, we wonder if an absent-minded researcher parent is just practical plot device for allowing the...
Dwelling While Crossing: Migrant Mobility, Material Memory, and Religious Place-Making in the Sonoran Desert (2018)
Migrant-erected shrine sites encountered throughout the Sonoran Desert draw attention to the significance of religious place-making in transient spaces, of dwelling while crossing. As migrant material cultures continue to be degraded as "trash," shrine sites made by migrants are likely to become central to the memory of undocumented migration across the US/Mexico Border. Claiming these sites as "monuments" of undocumented migration, however, may threaten to sanitize what is a violent social...
Ephemeral Urban Structures and the Archaeology of Homelessness (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Urban Erasures and Contested Memorial Assemblages" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. As urbanism emerged in the United States so too did contemporary forms of homelessness. Urban homelessness, a phenomenon defined by transience and ephemerality, is omnipresent within the modern urban landscape. Homelessness is an issue few politicians dare to address and a "social problem" that no one seems to be able to clearly...
From Alcatraz to Standing Rock: Archaeology and Contemporary Native American Protests (1969-Today) (2018)
Since the occupation of Alcatraz by the Indians of All Tribes (1969-1971), Native American and First Nation protests have been well-documented through a variety of media. Unfortunately, many Americans and Canadians lack the background necessary to understand the messages being conveyed. For example, after the National Park Service began including the Alcatraz occupation in their site interpretation, I witnessed visitors discussing how inappropriate it was to celebrate a prison riot. More...
Gendering the Post-Conflict City: Memory, Memorialisation and Commemoration in Belfast (2016)
Belfast has become synonymous with the study of insidious, civil conflict; especially how ethnic, political and religious divisions are materialized and reproduced in the contemporary city. The impact of focusing on segregation and sectarianism has dominated our understandings of the fractured city leaving the issue of gender sidelined. This paper aims to examine the contemporary city through the lens of competing placemaking strategies: the official implanting of contemporary art and the...
Genuinely Collaborative Archaeological Work Is ‘Slow’, Or It Is Nothing: Lessons From The ‘Migrant Materialities’ Project (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Slow Archaeology + Fast Capitalism: Hard Lessons and Future Strategies from Urban Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The challenge? To bring a team of 8-12 adult migrants to undertake participatory archaeological interpretation work on data recently recorded in four European locations. The opportunity? To welcome enthusiastic migrant colleagues from eight former European colonies into the heart of...
House and Household: The Archaeology of Domestic Life at Burning Man (2013)
House and household have been the primary focus of the archaeological study of Burning Man. Domestic space in Black Rock City, the location of the Burning Man festival in northwestern Nevada, takes many different forms. In this paper, the configurations of house, household, and the components of domestic space are investigated. Even in an experimental municipality, where the fantastic and inventive are elemental, the household is the basic building block of the city. As such it is not only a...
"I Don't Know Where I'm a-Gonna Go When the Volcano Blow": Resettlement, Diaspora, and the Landscapes of Montserrat’s Volcanic Exclusion Zone (2018)
On July 18th, 1995, after centuries of relative quiet, Montserrat's Soufrière Hills volcano suddenly and violently sprang to life. The months that followed saw a series of evacuations of the southern portions of the island due to the volcanic threat, rendering this landscape—including the capital town of Plymouth—an abandoned 'Exclusion Zone'. By 2000, the majority of the island's population had left more or less permanently, many for the United Kingdom. Those who stayed faced the challenge of...
Interpretaions of Slavery throughout the Middle Atlantic Region (2016)
This poster presents the findings of an evaluation of the ways in which museums interpret and present slavery throughout Maryland and Virginia to the public. By comparing the various themes amplified when presenting slavery in a museum setting today, aspects of slavery the public is able to understand after visiting are assessed. To gauge this, a survey was administered to visitors at each of the following sites: Mount Vernon, Colonial Williamsburg, Monticello, Montpellier, and Sotterley...
An Investigation of the Microbial Community Associated with the USS Arizona (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Understanding the microbial community associated with sunken metal ships helps provide insight into the role of bacteria in this environment. Our study of the USS Arizona bacterial community provides an insight into the importance of microbes in the deterioration of sunken ships. We evaluated this community in sediment samples collected from both interior and exterior sites and...
Islamic Law in a Quasi-State: Husbands and Jurists at the Fatwa Council in Iraqi Kurdistan (WGF - Post PhD Research Grant) (2019)
This resource is an application for the Post PhD Research Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. According to predominant norms among Muslims in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, sharia ("Islamic law") empowers a husband to divorce his wife by spoken repudiation. When husbands regret their repudiation, they often visit jurists at local Fatwa Councils seeking advice to restore their marriage. Having squandered the authority granted them by sharia, husbands try to restore that authority through...