American University Professor, Daniel Sayers to deliver Spring 2017 African Diaspora Lecture
On Thursday, March 30, at 7 pm, Dr. Daniel Swan will deliver the Spring 2017 African Diaspora Lecture. The lecture, also part of the Stone Center’s Writer’s Discussion series, will focus on the subject of Sayer’s book, A Desolate Place for a Defiant People: The Archeology of Maroons, Indigenous Americans, and Enslaved Laborers in the Great Dismal Swamp. Sayers is an Associate Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Anthropology at American University in Washington, D.C.
Trained in philosophy, anthropology, history, and archaeology, Dr. Sayers is a Historical Archaeologist who works in the United States. Currently, his Great Dismal Swamp Landscape Study is exploring the social and economic history and world of resistance communities that thrived in the swamp interior from 1607 up through the Civil War. The project includes several scholars from around the U.S. Dr. Sayers is also working to develop an archaeological project centered on transient laborers and hobos in 1920–1950 America. Additionally, Dr. Sayers is developing a novel animal emancipation agenda for historical archaeology, he is elaborating original marronage theories and perspectives, he is engaged in the politics of the "Underground Railroad," and, he continues his work the 19th-century transition to agrarian capitalism in the Midwest and beyond. Dr. Sayers works with many undergraduate and graduate students in all of these projects and research areas.
Sayers received his PhD in Historical Archaeology from the College of William & Mary, his MA in Anthropology from Western Michigan University, and BA in Philosophy and Anthropology from Western Michigan University.
The March 30th lecture is free and open to the public and will take place in the Hitchcock Room of the Stone Center.