History 691AD - S-MaterialCulture/AfricanDiasp

Too often Western historical narratives consider Africans and African Diasporans as "People Without History." Such a notion also refers to people who possess few or no formally written histories. Employing historical archaeology, this class examines the material traces individuals and communities in the past left behind as important, alternative historical resources for interrogating the European colonial library, and re-writing the histories of slavery and the slave trade. Excavating the "hidden histories" of Africans and African diasporans, free and enslaved, our aim is to insert the voices of those formerly marginalized, silenced and erased.