This is a speaker series hosted by the Department of Anthropology.

Working for Black Ancestors

My identity as a Black anthropologist both influences and strengthens my work as a bioarchaeologist, but I have faced many obstacles in developing my scholarship. My research focuses on the histories of African descended peoples whose bodies have been curated in anthropological skeletal collections. Such studies require understanding the ethical implications of working with human remains and descendant communities in ways that are rarely sufficiently addressed in anthropology.

I argue that the skeletal remains of Black people should only be studied in limited circumstances, including efforts to repatriate or lay Ancestors to rest, when burial sites are at risk, and when relevant questions posed by a descendant community can only be answered by considering the skeletal body. Therefore, I propose a liberatory bioarchaeological practice informed by Black feminism and critical race theory.