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The Shock of Colonialism: Archaeology in a New England Frontier

Zoom
Monday, · -

In this talk based on her recent book, The Shock of Colonialism in New England: Fragments from a Frontier, archaeologist Dr. Meghan C. L. Howey shares her research on the seventeenth-century colonial frontier of the Great Bay Estuary/P8bagok through the Great Bay Archaeological Survey (GBAS). Combining archaeological excavations, ‘forensic’ archival research, collaboration with contemporary Indigenous knowledge keepers, and community engagement, GBAS’s work has revealed this landscape holds forgotten stories of what it meant for everyday people to live through the global shock of colonialism. This includes unexpected diversity and dynamism among English colonists, multifaceted encounters with Indigenous peoples, and lasting environmental damage from labor-intensive extractive industries. There is a race against time to find more of these hidden stories as sea-level rise is, quite literally, washing the material evidence of them away.

About the speaker: Meghan C.L. Howey is an anthropological archaeologist specializing in landscape archaeology and interdisciplinary approaches to deep-time coupled human natural systems. She received her B.A. (2000) from the University of Delaware and her M.A. (2002) and Ph.D. (2006) from the University of Michigan. She has conducted research in North America, Europe, and East Africa. One of her major research projects has focused on Native American regional organization in the Northern Great Lakes region in the period preceding European Contact. She has explored how local communities construed and used ceremonial monument centers to facilitate economic, social and ideological interaction in this period. She also examines the critical role of food storage during this period as well. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis, ethnohistoric research and collaboration with local tribal communities enhance her research. Her theoretical and methodological interests include landscape theory, the Anthropocene, geospatial analysis, ritual practices, and early colonialism. Dr. Howey is currently the James H. Hayes and Claire Short Hayes Professor of the Humanities and her project is “A Deep Time, Multi-Archive Narrative of the Anthropocene in the Great Bay”. In this capacity, she is the Director of the Great Bay Archaeological Survey (GBAS), a community-engaged and interdisciplinary archaeology program.

This virtual event is part of a 2024-2025 series on "Forensics and Genocide" being offered by the Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College. The event is free and open to all; however, you must register in order to join.
Registration is available here.
Please email cohencenter@keene.edu with any questions!

This event is part of the Cohen Center calendar.

Contact:
Michele Kuiawa
mkuiawa@keene.edu
358-2490
Event Dates:

To request accommodations for a disability, please contact the coordinator at least two weeks prior to the event.

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