Dear colleagues and friends,

Mark Agostini (Brown) and I are organizing a session on the theorization of
ethnicity in archaeology. The SHAs in New Orleans will be a great place for
this discussion, central as the city is to so much relevant historical
archaeological work and interpretation. The session abstract is below and
is also available to view on the SHA submission website.

Do get in touch with me at <[log in to unmask]> or Mark at <
[log in to unmask]> if you'd like to participate. We're hoping for
broad geographic, temporal, and methodological representation in the
session.

Warmly,
Valerie Bondura & Mark Agostini

*Abstract*: Ethnicity has proven a durable concept in archaeologies of
identity. As an analytic, it has transformed over time in response to
currents in the discipline, as well as to broader sociopolitical contexts.
“Seeing” ethnicity in the archaeological record was as critical to early
archaeology’s concerns over Social Darwinism and colonialism as it is now
in archaeologies of agency and resistance. Concepts such as creolization,
hybridity, and ethnogenesis have become synonymous with historical
archaeology.

Papers in this session will debate the enduring relevance of theories of
ethnicity in archaeology at a site that has been so generative for the
topic, the city of New Orleans. What do recent theoretical
influences—postcolonial theory, critical race theory, ontology, amongst
others— mean for theoretical and pragmatic approaches to an archaeology of
ethnicity?

Papers from any region or specialization are welcome, and we especially
encourage submissions from archaeologists working across (or against) the
"prehistoric"/'historic" divide.