March 29, 2022 4 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Virtual Faculty Talks Outside the Box Talk | Dr. Robert Cook, Professor of Anthropology This talk is free and open to the public.
The study of the past is rapidly changing. Archaeologists, historians and scholars from related disciplines have come to recognize that their work is deeply rooted in the same set of settler/colonial narratives and assumptions that have shaped Western society more broadly. In this "Faculty Talk Outside the Box," Dr. Robert Cook will discuss his work to “decolonize” archaeological and historical research practices. His presentation will focus on his involvement in an interdisciplinary study of a particular site in southwestern Ohio--Turpin--and its goal of helping mend severed attachments to ancestral homelands. Yet this project goes further and conducts a type of archaeology of archaeology itself, studying the process as it was first practiced in the late 1800s and remedying its deficiencies through modern field and lab methods in collaboration with descendant communities and other stakeholders. Ultimately, the goal of the project is to develop a model for a decolonized archaeological research centered on collaboration between archaeologists, historians descendant communities and the broader public.
- Department of Anthropology
- Miami Valley Recollections and Reconnections Facebook @MVRR.OhioArchaeology [external link]
- "Climate Change and Deer Consumption of Maize at the Turpin Site, ca. A.D. 700-1300"
- Robert A. Cook and Aaron R. Comstock. Ohio Archaeological Council, 2022.
- Continuity and Change in the Native American Village | Multicultural Origins and Descendants of the Fort Ancient Culture [external link]
- Cambridge University Press. 2017.