Zoë Crossland

Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University

 

 

 

The first Theoretical Archaeology Group meeting to be held in the US will take place over May 23rd to 25th 2008 at Columbia University

Registration information

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CURRENT RESEARCH

Missionary Archaeology

This project examines two radically different cultural landscapes, separated by nearly 6000 miles, but brought together by the activities of the London Missionary Society (LMS) in the early 19th century. In 1818 a party of Congregationalist missionaries left Wales for Madagascar. When they arrived they were immediately drawn into local politics as king Radama established them within his court in Antananarivo. The project focuses on the ways in which new social and religious formations were mediated through the ancestral landscapes of the central highlands in Madagascar.

Forensic Archaeology

I am also working on a book on archaeological theory and forensic archaeology which looks at the ways in which meaning is ascribed to excavated human remains. In particular I am interested in the ways in which people are created as 'evidence' through forensic archaeological practice, and the recursive effects of this discourse on the ways in which archaeological practice is carried out.

Previous Research

My PhD research involved systematic archaeological survey in the highlands of Madagascar. Together with a team of archaeologists from Madagascar and Britain we traced the history of the Andrantsay kingdom from the 13th century to the present day.

 

Leverhulme conference - Disturbing Bodies

Disturbing Bodies was an interdisciplinary workshop which explored the social relations of exhumation, with a particular focus on forensic excavation. Held on November 4th 2006, at the MacDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, UK, it was organized as part of the Leverhulme Changing Beliefs of the Human Body research program. Some of the papers given at the conference should be published soon. Watch this space!

 

 

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Selected Publications