Department of Anthropology
University Museum 513
Bio
My work focuses on African American biohistory and social history, including: 1) skeletal biology; 2) Black feminist
critiques of science; 3) the ethical treatment of human remains; and 4) descendant community engagement. I began my
training in these areas at Howard University, studying the remains of people in the W. Montague Cobb anatomical
collection, and ancestral remains unearthed from the New York African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan. My research
also includes "applied" components geared toward supporting historic preservation and interpretation guided by
descendant communities. This work involves developing and implementing ethical processes for repatriation, reburial and
protecting cemeteries and other heritage sites
Education
2003 - Ph.D. in Anthropology – Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
1996 - M.A.A. in Applied Anthropology – Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park.
1994 - B.A. in Anthropology – Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Howard University, Washington, DC.
Research Interests
African American biohistory and social history, biocultural analyses of health and health disparities, histories of US
biological anthropology and documented skeletal collections, Black feminist critiques of science, the ethical treatment of
human remains; descendant community engagement, repatriation and protection of African descendant human remains
and artifacts
Selected Publications
2019 - “An Alter(ed)native Perspective on Historical Bioarchaeology.” Historical Archaeology 53: 17-33.
2021“[This] System Was Not Made for [You]: A Case for Decolonial Scientia.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology,75:
350-362.
“Ethical Futures in Biological Anthropology: Research, Teaching, Community Engagement, and Curation Involving Deceased
Individuals.“ Forthcoming in American Journal of Biological Anthropology (co-authored with De la Cova, Hoffman,
Magrogan, Marklein, Scholts, Zuckerman).
Affiliations
Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History