Thread by @profdanhicks

Randy Mcguire introducing his brilliant session, organised with Erin Riggs, on Archaeologies of Immigration and Refugee Resettlement at #saa2019. Room 10 Anasazi. I’ll be tweeting the session on this thread.

Randy sets out the urgent archaeological contribution to refugee studies as bringing a much-needed awareness on the material, environmental and mnemonic dimensions of the experiences of forced migration, especially acts of resistance. #SAA2019

Randy sets this new work in refugee archaeology in the longer-term context of contemporary archaeology since the 80s. He asks: for whom is this work done? #SAA2019

The choice, Mcguire argues, is between scholarship on this topic for the scholar's own sake, and thus the objectication of refugees—or a politically-engaged and politically-active archaeology of migration that works in solidarity with displaced people. #SAA2019.

April Kamp-Whittaker of @ASUBeingHuman now speaking on an important field project on the historical archaeology of a 1940s incarceration centre for Japanese POWs in Colorado 1940s #SAA2019

Next up, Cameron Gokee and @jason_p_deleon on “Backpack Materialities”. They begin with a discussion of Susan Pollock’s account of archaeology and suffering. #SAA2019

For those not familiar with Pollock's paper, "The Subject of Suffering", is here anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/am…

The paper goes on to discuss plans for an exhibit of toe tags called @HostileTerrain planned for 2020, using material culture and absences to highlight human loss of life. #SAA2019

Backpack archaeology in the Sonoran Desert #SAA2019

The Gokee and De León paper concludes with a t-shirt from their field collections on permanent display at the @amhistorymuseum #SAA2019

Next up Erin Riggs on “resettlement” in Delhi after the Partition of India.

Riggs concludes: "As archaeologists our work on the past can serve to privilege the past, and thus to reinforce narratives of origins that distract from or erase the human present" #SAA2019

Kimberley Connor (Stanford) now speaking on “Immigrant Diets and the Making of Australia” #SAA2019

Ruth Van Dyke and Patricia Markert now speaking about “Migrants, Materials, and the South Texas Past”, exploring how Alastian migration is celebrated in Texas with a “weird disconnect” with attitudes to migration from Mexico today #SAA2019

My own talk, about the work of @LANDE_OX and the ongoing situation in Calais, is coming up later this afternoon #SAA2019

https://twitter.com/profdanhicks/status/1116437978656772096

Steve Brighton of @umdamth now speaking about the historical archaeology of Irish immigration in the US. #SAA2019

Sherene Baugher now speaking about Tutelo resettlement in Cayuga, New York #SAA2019

Now Koji Lau-Ozawa of @StanfordAnthro speaking about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WW2, including a camp where his family were held.

I knew nothing about these mass incarcerations of Japanese Americans until hearing these talks today #SAA2019

The archaeology of 1940s gardens made by Japanese Americans incarcerated at the Gila River Concentration Camp, Arizona #SAA2019

Next up is @yannishamilakis speaking about “Food and Eating Practices as affirmative bio-politics on the border”. #SAA2019

And now it’s @bananniedan of @UCBerkeleyAnth speaking about homelessness and home-making/‘homefulness’ at the Albany Bulb in the San Francisco Bay Area #saa2019

The paper explores how people make themselves at home when squatting on a former rubbish dump; the “landfillian aesthetic” of gardens, and the politics of what gets called garbage and what counts as archaeology—a theme running through the contemporary papers in this panel.

Maps of homes drawn on linen passed around the audience #saa2019

Lori Lee now speaking about “the materiality of migration” in the Virgin Islands #saa2019