African Diaspora Archaeology Network

African Diaspora Archaeology Network
Name	African Diaspora Archaeology Network
Formation	2005
Type	Professional network
Headquarters	Boston, Massachusetts
Region served	Global
Fields	Archaeology, Heritage, Public History

African Diaspora Archaeology Network is an international professional network that promotes archaeological research on the African diaspora across the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds. The network connects scholars, curators, community activists, and students involved with sites, collections, and heritage related to African, Afro-Latin, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Indigenous histories. It operates through conferences, publications, training programs, and collaborative field projects that bridge academic institutions and community organizations.

History

The network emerged in the early twenty-first century amid renewed scholarly interest following projects such as Monticello, Jamestown Settlement, Fort Mose, Gorée Island, and St. Augustine (Florida), as well as institutional shifts at Smithsonian Institution, The British Museum, National Museum of African American History and Culture, University of the West Indies, and Howard University. Founders and early organizers drew on precedents established by researchers associated with Carnegie Corporation of New York, Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and regional initiatives in Brazil, Cuba, Ghana, and South Africa. Key early collaborations involved scholars with ties to Columbia University, University of York, Boston University, University of Florida, and University of Leicester, who responded to methodological conversations initiated by work on sites like Whitney Plantation, Elmina Castle, Cape Coast Castle, and Salvador, Bahia.

Mission and Objectives

The network's mission emphasizes inclusive, community-centered archaeology that foregrounds descendant communities connected to places such as Barbados, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Guyana, Belize, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, United States Virgin Islands, and Saint Lucia. Objectives include capacity building with partners like UNESCO, ICOMOS, UNDP, and African Union; promoting heritage preservation linked to sites including Elmina Castle, Cape Coast Castle, Goree Island', and San Basilio de Palenque; and advancing interpretive frameworks influenced by scholarship from Ira Berlin, Darlene Clark Hine, John Thornton, James Sweet, Sidney Mintz, Pamela Nadell, and Paul Gilroy.

Organizational Structure and Membership

Governance typically comprises an elected executive committee and advisory board drawn from institutions such as Yale University, Princeton University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Brown University, Duke University, University of Ghana, University of Cape Town, Universidade Federal da Bahia, and McGill University. Membership spans independent researchers, museum professionals at Museum of London, National Museums Liverpool, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of African Diaspora, and community leaders from organizations like The Roots Project, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, and local heritage trusts in Kingston, Jamaica and Bridgetown, Barbados. Training affiliates include centers at Boston African American National Historic Site, Historic New Orleans Collection, and university archaeology programs such as Florida State University and University of Florida.

Programs and Activities

The network organizes field schools, conservation workshops, and oral history initiatives modeled after programs at Montpelier, Drayton Hall, Historic St. Augustine, and James Madison's Montpelier. It runs capacity-building exchanges with archives like National Archives of Brazil, Archivo General de Indias, and museum labs at Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, supporting projects on plantation landscapes, maroon communities, and urban sites in Lisbon, Seville, Amsterdam, and Bordeaux. Community archaeology projects often partner with descendant groups associated with Fort Mose, Ribault Club, Freetown, and Christ Church (Barbados).

Conferences and Publications

Annual and biennial conferences have taken place in venues including Kingston (Jamaica), Accra, Salvador, Boston, London, and Cape Town, often co-hosted with organizations such as Society for Historical Archaeology, Society for American Archaeology, African Studies Association, and Latin American Studies Association. Proceedings and edited volumes are published in collaboration with presses and journals linked to Routledge, University of Florida Press, Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage, International Journal of Historical Archaeology, and university series at Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.

Impact and Notable Projects

Notable projects include archaeological and public-history work at Fort Mose, excavation and interpretation at Elmina Castle, conservation at Gorée Island, community-led landscape archaeology in São Luís (Maranhão), and townhouse and backyard archaeology in Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia. Impact extends to reinterpretation of museum collections at institutions like Smithsonian Institution, exhibition collaborations with Museum of the African Diaspora, and curricular innovations adopted by Howard University and University of the West Indies. The network has influenced policy discussions at UNESCO World Heritage Committee meetings and contributed to site nominations and management plans for places such as Cape Coast Castle and Gorée Island.

Partnerships and Collaborations

Collaborative partners include universities and museums—Yale Peabody Museum, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, British Museum, National Museum of Brazil—and community organizations such as Historic Charleston Foundation, St. Augustine Historical Society, and local heritage NGOs in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria. Funding and programmatic alliances have been formed with Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Prince Claus Fund, and regional cultural ministries in Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, and Jamaica.

Category:Archaeological organizations Category:African diaspora studies