Department of Anthropology Featured Lecture: Dr. Aja Lans, Johns Hopkins University, Fugitive (Bio)Archaeology.

Abstract:

Some histories of archaeology and bioarchaeology in the United States claim that the first American archaeologist was Founding Father and third president, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), who excavated, or more accurately desecrated, Indigenous burials. Sometimes these histories acknowledge the genocide of Native Americans, but they fail to address Jefferson as a racialist and slave owner. In Jefferson’s only book, Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), he speculated on the deficiency and degeneracy of African descended peoples. This book served as a founding text for Black scientific discourse in the United States. In response, Black scientists undertook alternative knowledge production, challenging biocentric and positivist science in the pursuit of freedom, a tradition scholar Brit Russert calls “fugitive science.” A fugitive approach considers Blackness outside of how it has been defined, portrayed, constrained, and erased by colonialism and white supremacy. In the challenge to Jefferson’s paternity at hand, I consider more closely Jefferson as a slave owner and interrogate his perspectives on Black people and Blackness. I revisit classic mortuary archaeology while paying special attention to violence against Black women, and argue that claiming Jefferson as an intellectual ancestor has normalized the exploitation of Black bodies and heritage in American archaeology and bioarchaeology. 

Bio: Aja Lans is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and Center for Africana Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She completed her PhD in anthropology and cultural heritage preservation at Syracuse University. Her research integrates Black feminist and critical race theory into bioarchaeological investigations. Also of interest are the ethics of museum collections, the objectification of human remains, and the history of race. Outside of the academy, she consults on cultural resource management projects in New York City.