Justin Dunnavant
Biographic Data
| ID | 748244 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Justin Dunnavant |
| GIVEN NAMES | Justin |
| FAMILY NAME | Dunnavant |
| SIGNATURE | DUNNAVANT J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Vanderbilt University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5640-7251 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 251 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
An Archaeology of Redress
Black studies critical theorizations have much to offer the field of archaeology both in theory and in practice. For Saidiya Hartman, redress entails confronting formations of epistemic violence that undergird the archival record; it is a praxis that is always incomplete. This article maps Hartman’s theory of redress onto the practice of community archaeology to explore the opportunities and challenges that arise when archaeologists center youth …
Archaeology of the Plantation Complex in the Caribbean
This chapter covers the recent history of plantation archaeology in the Caribbean as it intersects with the discourse of race, ethnicity, and capitalism. Analysis of the artifacts and landscapes in relation to the Caribbean plantation complex allows for renewed questions about the development of race and capital in places where the written record is insufficient. Particularly as it pertains to studies of race, ethnicity, and capital, plantation a…
Modeling Marronage
On the Caribbean island of St. Croix, archival documents reference settlements of runaway enslaved Africans in the mountainous range known as Maroon Ridge. These settlements provide an important record of Afro-Atlantic resistance to enslavement. However, as both intentionally secluded and ephemeral places of refuge, these maroon settlements are difficult to locate in the archaeological record. Geospatial modeling provides one avenue for understan…
Counter-Mapping Maroon Cartographies
Formal spatial modeling and analytical approaches to maroon settlement, fugitivity, and warfare in the colonial-era Caribbean have tended to mine historical cartographic sources instrumentally to analyze the distributions and simulate processes driving marronage in St. Croix (Dunnavant 2021b; Ejstrud 2008; Norton and Espenshade, 2007). Through close-in analysis, we compare two Danish maps of St. Croix produced in 1750 and 1799 in relation to mode…
Chasing Impact Through Community - with Justin Dunnavant, Ph.D
Craft an African American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Creating Community and Engaging Community
This article discusses how Co-Principal Investigators that designed and executed the Estate Little Princess Archaeology Project (ELPAP) came together as a community, to demonstrate how such a formation within the discipline, with all its ups and downs, facilitates the skills needed to conduct community archaeology. By using the ELPAP as a case study, this article provides a multiscale examination of the ELPAP, expanding the discourse on community…
In the Wake of Maritime Marronage
This article delves into the experiences of maritime maroons to critically fabulate the life of Mattadore, an eighteenth-century enslaved fisherman who fled captivity in St. Croix. Drawing from Christina Sharpe’s framework of analyzing Black life ‘in the wake’, this article envisions Black sociality from the wake of maritime marronage. Through the process of flight, maritime maroons produced alternative geographies on the sea where they refused t…
The Future of Archaeology Is Antiracist
This forum builds on the discussion stimulated during an online salon in which the authors participated on June 25, 2020, entitled 'Archaeology in the Time of Black Lives Matter,' and which was cosponsored by the Society of Black Archaeologists (SBA), the North American Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG), and the Columbia Center for Archaeology. The online salon reflected on the social unrest that gripped the United States in the spring of 2020,…
Have Confidence in the Sea
Since the birth of the Transatlantic slave trade, enslaved Africans have exploited their geographic circumstances to obtain liberation, effectively transforming them into maroons. However, geographies of marronage have disproportionately investigated terrestrial landscapes to understand how self‐liberated Africans made life in the Atlantic world. Turning our attention to the sea, I use geospatial analyses to map ocean currents and explore routes …
The Future is Now
Building a new anti-racist archaeology will require an unprecedented level of structural changes in the practices, demographics, and power relations of archaeology. This article considers why this iteration of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement is proving to be unique in terms of its potential to transform the field. We discuss how anti-racist archaeologists arrived at this juncture prepared to meet the challenges now before us, and how member…
Archaeology for the Next Generation
Assessing Heritage Resources in St. Croix Post-Hurricanes Irma and Maria
In the summer of 2017, we, as members of the Society of Black Archaeologists (SBA), initiated a sustainable archaeological project on the island of St. Croix in collaboration with several local and international partners. Only a few months later, Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated much of the US Virgin Islands causing substantial loss in life and property, widespread displacement, damage to infrastructure, and negative impacts to important hist…
Access Denied
The Future of Archaeology Is Antiracist
This forum builds on the discussion stimulated during an online salon in which the authors participated on June 25, 2020, entitled 'Archaeology in the Time of Black Lives Matter,' and which was cosponsored by the Society of Black Archaeologists (SBA), the North American Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG), and the Columbia Center for Archaeology. The online salon reflected on the social unrest that gripped the United States in the spring of 2020,…
The Future is Now
Building a new anti-racist archaeology will require an unprecedented level of structural changes in the practices, demographics, and power relations of archaeology. This article considers why this iteration of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement is proving to be unique in terms of its potential to transform the field. We discuss how anti-racist archaeologists arrived at this juncture prepared to meet the challenges now before us, and how member…
Have Confidence in the Sea
Since the birth of the Transatlantic slave trade, enslaved Africans have exploited their geographic circumstances to obtain liberation, effectively transforming them into maroons. However, geographies of marronage have disproportionately investigated terrestrial landscapes to understand how self‐liberated Africans made life in the Atlantic world. Turning our attention to the sea, I use geospatial analyses to map ocean currents and explore routes …
Creating Community and Engaging Community
This article discusses how Co-Principal Investigators that designed and executed the Estate Little Princess Archaeology Project (ELPAP) came together as a community, to demonstrate how such a formation within the discipline, with all its ups and downs, facilitates the skills needed to conduct community archaeology. By using the ELPAP as a case study, this article provides a multiscale examination of the ELPAP, expanding the discourse on community…
Access Denied
Archaeology for the Next Generation
In the Wake of Maritime Marronage
This article delves into the experiences of maritime maroons to critically fabulate the life of Mattadore, an eighteenth-century enslaved fisherman who fled captivity in St. Croix. Drawing from Christina Sharpe’s framework of analyzing Black life ‘in the wake’, this article envisions Black sociality from the wake of maritime marronage. Through the process of flight, maritime maroons produced alternative geographies on the sea where they refused t…
Assessing Heritage Resources in St. Croix Post-Hurricanes Irma and Maria
In the summer of 2017, we, as members of the Society of Black Archaeologists (SBA), initiated a sustainable archaeological project on the island of St. Croix in collaboration with several local and international partners. Only a few months later, Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated much of the US Virgin Islands causing substantial loss in life and property, widespread displacement, damage to infrastructure, and negative impacts to important hist…
Counter-Mapping Maroon Cartographies
Formal spatial modeling and analytical approaches to maroon settlement, fugitivity, and warfare in the colonial-era Caribbean have tended to mine historical cartographic sources instrumentally to analyze the distributions and simulate processes driving marronage in St. Croix (Dunnavant 2021b; Ejstrud 2008; Norton and Espenshade, 2007). Through close-in analysis, we compare two Danish maps of St. Croix produced in 1750 and 1799 in relation to mode…
Access Denied
Archaeology for the Next Generation
Assessing Heritage Resources in St. Croix Post-Hurricanes Irma and Maria
In the summer of 2017, we, as members of the Society of Black Archaeologists (SBA), initiated a sustainable archaeological project on the island of St. Croix in collaboration with several local and international partners. Only a few months later, Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated much of the US Virgin Islands causing substantial loss in life and property, widespread displacement, damage to infrastructure, and negative impacts to important hist…
Have Confidence in the Sea
Since the birth of the Transatlantic slave trade, enslaved Africans have exploited their geographic circumstances to obtain liberation, effectively transforming them into maroons. However, geographies of marronage have disproportionately investigated terrestrial landscapes to understand how self‐liberated Africans made life in the Atlantic world. Turning our attention to the sea, I use geospatial analyses to map ocean currents and explore routes …
The Future is Now
Building a new anti-racist archaeology will require an unprecedented level of structural changes in the practices, demographics, and power relations of archaeology. This article considers why this iteration of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement is proving to be unique in terms of its potential to transform the field. We discuss how anti-racist archaeologists arrived at this juncture prepared to meet the challenges now before us, and how member…
Craft an African American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Creating Community and Engaging Community
This article discusses how Co-Principal Investigators that designed and executed the Estate Little Princess Archaeology Project (ELPAP) came together as a community, to demonstrate how such a formation within the discipline, with all its ups and downs, facilitates the skills needed to conduct community archaeology. By using the ELPAP as a case study, this article provides a multiscale examination of the ELPAP, expanding the discourse on community…
In the Wake of Maritime Marronage
This article delves into the experiences of maritime maroons to critically fabulate the life of Mattadore, an eighteenth-century enslaved fisherman who fled captivity in St. Croix. Drawing from Christina Sharpe’s framework of analyzing Black life ‘in the wake’, this article envisions Black sociality from the wake of maritime marronage. Through the process of flight, maritime maroons produced alternative geographies on the sea where they refused t…
The Future of Archaeology Is Antiracist
This forum builds on the discussion stimulated during an online salon in which the authors participated on June 25, 2020, entitled 'Archaeology in the Time of Black Lives Matter,' and which was cosponsored by the Society of Black Archaeologists (SBA), the North American Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG), and the Columbia Center for Archaeology. The online salon reflected on the social unrest that gripped the United States in the spring of 2020,…
Chasing Impact Through Community - with Justin Dunnavant, Ph.D
Counter-Mapping Maroon Cartographies
Formal spatial modeling and analytical approaches to maroon settlement, fugitivity, and warfare in the colonial-era Caribbean have tended to mine historical cartographic sources instrumentally to analyze the distributions and simulate processes driving marronage in St. Croix (Dunnavant 2021b; Ejstrud 2008; Norton and Espenshade, 2007). Through close-in analysis, we compare two Danish maps of St. Croix produced in 1750 and 1799 in relation to mode…
Modeling Marronage
On the Caribbean island of St. Croix, archival documents reference settlements of runaway enslaved Africans in the mountainous range known as Maroon Ridge. These settlements provide an important record of Afro-Atlantic resistance to enslavement. However, as both intentionally secluded and ephemeral places of refuge, these maroon settlements are difficult to locate in the archaeological record. Geospatial modeling provides one avenue for understan…
An Archaeology of Redress
Black studies critical theorizations have much to offer the field of archaeology both in theory and in practice. For Saidiya Hartman, redress entails confronting formations of epistemic violence that undergird the archival record; it is a praxis that is always incomplete. This article maps Hartman’s theory of redress onto the practice of community archaeology to explore the opportunities and challenges that arise when archaeologists center youth …
Archaeology of the Plantation Complex in the Caribbean
This chapter covers the recent history of plantation archaeology in the Caribbean as it intersects with the discourse of race, ethnicity, and capitalism. Analysis of the artifacts and landscapes in relation to the Caribbean plantation complex allows for renewed questions about the development of race and capital in places where the written record is insufficient. Particularly as it pertains to studies of race, ethnicity, and capital, plantation a…
History (10 works) · Archaeology (9 works) · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies (9 works) · History (7 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (5 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Law (4 works)