African-American Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University
Sees Archaeology as Central to its Mission
 
The African American Studies Program at Virginia Commonwealth
University in Richmond is passing two important landmarks. This last
year marked the programs 25th anniversary, and this year will mark
the onset of an undergraduate degree major in AAS at VCU. Until now,
the program has offered only a minor, but state approval of the
proposed major is expected to have been received by the time you read
this.
 
As it enters its second quarter century, the program, under the
direction of Dr. Ann Creighton-Zollar, has taken on a new mission.
Its focus includes global, historical and archaeological
perspectives. According to the programs mission statement, this
diasporic approach is expected to yield critical scholarship which
contributes to delineating the cultural and structural connections
between the experiences of people of African ancestry whether in
Johannesburg, Kingston, Rio, or Richmond. The statement goes on to
say, in teaching, we will use the strengths of our location to
develop two major themes, African Americans in Museums and
Reconstructing African-American History Through Archaeology.
 
VCUs Archaeological Research Center has long had a focus on the
archaeology of African America in the work of Robin Ryder and Dan
Mouer. Partly as a result of the new AAS Program mission, Dan will be
moving from the Center into a full-time teaching position in the
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, which, itself, has strong
ties to AAS. While African-American sites have long been an important
part of VCUs research mission, beginning this summer, the primary
focus of VCUs Field Archaeology program will be on sites which aim to
illuminate the black experience in the New World. A critical goal
will be to increase the numbers of minority students enrolled in the
course. Dan will also begin regularly teaching a course on the
Archaeology of the African Diaspora. This summer, Dan has joined
forces with Dr. Bernard Moitt of VCUs History department to take 20
students to Barbados for two team-taught courses: Peoples and
Cultures of the Caribbean, and Carribean Perspectives on the African
Diaspora.
 
For more information on VCUs programs in African American Studies,
Anthropology, and Archaeology, contact Dan Mouer at (804) 828-7596.
Dan also invites you to visit his web site at http:
www.freedomnet.com/~dmouer/homepage.htm or to contact him by e-mail
at [log in to unmask]