The Department of Anthropology and the African and African American Studies Program at the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences will present a lecture by Whitney Battle-Baptiste, associate professor of Anthropology and Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Center at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, tonight.

Battle-Baptiste's lecture is entitled, "Moving Mountains and Liberating Dialogues: My Journey Toward Creating a Black Feminist Archaeology," and will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 11, in Gearhart Auditorium (GEAR 26). The event is free and open to the public.

Battle-Baptiste is an internationally recognized scholar researching the historical archeology of the African Diaspora. Her work focuses primarily on the intersection of race, class and gender in the shaping of cultural landscapes across the African Diaspora. Her theoretical interests include Black feminist theory, African-American material and expressive culture, and critical heritage studies. 

Her work spans a variety of historic sites in the Northern and Southern United States, including the home of Andrew Jackson in Nashville, Tennessee; Rich Neck Plantation in Williamsburg, Virginia; the Abiel Smith School in Boston, Massachusetts; and the W. E. B. Du Bois Homesite in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Her latest research is a community-based archaeology project at the Millars Plantation site on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas.

Battle-Baptiste is the author of Black Feminist Archaeology (2011) and numerous articles and book chapters about gender and race in the archaeological record. She is currently working on a second book with the working title Rules of Engagement: Community-based Archaeology as a Tool for Social Justice.

The lecture is a part of the Robert L. Stigler Lecture in Anthropology and Archeology series. The series is supported through a trust established by Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Stigler of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in their son's memory. Its purpose is to bring distinguished scholars to address the university community and the public on diverse archeological topics. The Stiglers' generous endowment of this lecture series is an especially fitting memorial to their son, who enjoyed a wide-ranging professional career in archeology, and provides opportunities for all to share in the knowledge of past peoples and cultures.

For more information, email anthro@uark.edu or call (479) 575-2508.