Jodi Barnes
jb5270a@american.edu

I am a doctoral student in Anthropology with a concentration in Race, Gender and Social Justice. I have a BA in Anthropology and a Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies from the University of South Carolina, Columbia. As a feminist archaeologist, I am interested in examining the past through lenses of gender and critical whiteness in order to reconceptualize the way we practice archaeology. My dissertation research at Brown Mountain Creek, an integrated rural farming community, located along the Appalachian Trail in Amherst County, Virginia is two fold. It focuses upon community-based archaeology that involves contemporary communities in the study, interpretation and conservation of archaeological remains, while examining the rural historical landscape with a focus on small farms and how they have changed over time through slavery, emancipation, tenant farming, industrialization and the creation of National Forests and Parks.

I am interested in issues of power in archaeological practices -- who gets to participate and why. In my research, I am using the WWW as an open, democratic, relevant and multivocal way to talk about archaeology as I work to incorporate my research interests with those of contemporary communities. I see the website (www.atahp.org) as a tool for involving people in archaeology as well as a research tool with surveys and a blog.

In June 2005, I co-taught an archaeological field school at Brown Mountain Creek. Since the site is located on the Appalachian Trail, we enjoyed the experience of hiking a portion of the Trail and the beauty of the surrounding National Forest. Students camped near the site, learned about Leave No Trace ethics and other outdoor skills as well as about archaeological field methods, African American archaeology and collaborative approaches to archaeology. Currently, I am continuing my research and I will teach another archaeological field school in the summer of 2006.