Archaeology Seminar –  From the Trowel to the Trenches: Archaeology as Social Activism

Guest Lecture: Dr Christopher P. Barton, Assistant Professor Department of History, Francis Marion University and Fulbright Visiting Scholar in the School of Geography and Archaeology for 2018.

Title: From the Trowel to the Trenches: Archaeology as Social Activism

Contemporary economic, environmental, political, and social injustices are modern manifestations of past practices; they are legacies of marginalization. It is from the study of the everyday that we can better understand both our past and present circumstances. Archaeology is in a unique position to provide invaluable discourse on both the recent past and its lasting effects today. The core methodologies and data of archaeology–the archaeological, ethnographic, and historical records–situate the field as an interdisciplinary research endeavor armed with a broad methodological and theoretical arsenal to use the craft in support of social activism.

Chris Barton PhD is a visiting US Fulbright Scholar from Francis Marion University in South Carolina. He is interested in the archaeology of Irish racialisation during the Irish Diaspora and Great Famine. Professor Barton’s work focuses on the confluence of race and class as intertwined social structures that were used to marginalize the rural Irish. Additionally, he is in the early stages of developing a community-based archaeological project that focuses on resistance, improvisation, and identity on the Great Blasket Island, County Kerry.