“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "“Historical Archaeology with Canon on the Side, Please”: In Honor of Mary C. Beaudry (1950-2020)," at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Mary C. Beaudry was a leading archaeologist, who worked creatively and diligently to “reinvent historical archaeology” and whose work has influenced our field on an international scale. During her career at Boston University, she also trained two generations of historical archaeologists who themselves are now transforming our practice. Embracing interpretive approaches to “ethnography in retrospect,” she modeled close and critical readings of diverse material culture and landscapes. Her fieldwork spanned the east coast of North America, the Caribbean, and the British Isles. Beaudry examined a remarkable range of topics, from colonialism and identity to agriculture and rural life, urbanization, and industrialization, and from households and health to mobility, poverty, and “shadow and intimate economies.” A persistent, outspoken advocate for ‘activating’ those voices silenced or ignored in the past and in the present, Beaudry spoke to the challenges facing archaeology and the ethics of our practice.