Research Agenda
I like questions about how we experience, document, interpret, and communicate human action in the world. This includes an interest in engaged anthropology, visual methods, anthropological approaches to race, and current discussions about subjective, objective, and symbolic forms of violence.
Please, have a look at some of my past and ongoing research below.
The Virtual Rosewood Research Site - the web page accompanying my PhD work at the University of Florida. The site explores the use of anthropology, historical methods, and new media in creating spaces of diaglogue about the history of race relations in our country. It also includes some preliminary information on my growing work with the redress movement and reparations activism. As I am currently completing my PhD, I have only submitted short articles and write-ups. This includes a 2010 contribution to the field notes section of Anthropology News, and a short 2010 article in the SAA Record. I am in the process of writing and submitting other articles at present.Pirate Philosophy, Counter-Mapping, and Post-Racial Protest - a project began in 2007 about the use of new media technologies to document and promote anti-war protests, as part of a growing interest in engaging academically and personally with social movements. I presented preliminary results at the 2009 AAA meetings as an invited participant in one of two sessions organized by the Association of Senior Anthropologists. This experience has motivated me to begin engaging with anthropological literautre on social movements as outlined in my 2009 contribution to the Society for the Anthropology of Work (SAW) section in Anthropology News.
Lawrence Chinese Camp, NZ - I first became aware of this site while on a Fulbright scholarship from the University of Arkansas in 2002-2003. I spent another month in 2006 and another six months in 2008 working with the local community and archaeologists from the University of Otago. At present, a discussion of this site represents the largest of three case studies I explore in an upcoming (2012) International Journal of Historical Archaeology publication. I also discuss this site in my 2009 Historical Archaeology article.
Chinese Diaspora Emigrant Areas Locator (CDEAL) GIS - an ongoing project began as an undergraduate in 2003 drawing on a variety of historical sources to aid in creating a diasporic archaeology of Chinese communities worldwide. The central position of this project is the assertion that diasporic projects require multi-sited approaches. My first publication from this research was a book chapter for a Hirosaki University Press book, my chapter is オタゴ に 置ける 中国人 の歴史 (Otago ni okeru chuugokujin no rekishi – The History of the Chinese in Otago). This also forms the core methodological contribution in my upcoming (2012) International Journal of Historical Archaeology article.
Kingsley Plantation & GIS - web version of a poster my wife Diana and I presented at the 2008 SHA meetings. It explores standard and emerging uses of GIS to manage, analyze, and publish archaeological data in a reflexive manner. At present, we are expanding this into an article by discussing recent forms of collaboration which have arisen through various groups and their interest in the 3D model. This includes large-format renders created as the backdrop for a local play exploring the life of Anta Kingsley, the young African women brought to the plantation as Zephiniah Kingsley's wife in the 1800s.
GIS and Arctic Archaeology - the web version of my masters thesis from Michigan Technological University. This project explores new geodatabase formats for meeting the ethical obligations of archaeologists towards their datasets. I used the lessons learned to return to my previous work in New Zealand, which became the basis for a 2009 Historical Archaeology article.
GPS & GIS in New Zealand Historical Archaeology - the web version of my undergraduate thesis examing the growing role of information technologies and 3D modeling in public archaeology. Thus far, my ongoing interest in New Zealand has resulted in one 2004 Archaeology in New Zealand article, a 2007 contribution to the Technical Briefs in Historical Archaeology, and after further research a 2009 Historical Archaeology article.
Manuals & Tutorials
Practical Guide to GPS - an online version of a step-by-step GPS guide for commonly used Trimble products and GIS. Updated and currently in use by the US Department of Transportation.
ArcGIS and Archaeology - the online product of my research in the arctic; it is a collection of information about geographic information systems (GIS) as well as tutorials for archaeological uses of GIS not covered elsewhere.
