Moving Mountains and Liberating Dialogues: Creating a Black Feminist Archaeology

In Black Feminist Archaeology, Whitney Battle-Baptiste, describes her process of combining Black feminism and archaeology, which often appeared and were, in fact, at odds, as a process of “moving mountains and liberating dialogues.” Her book outlines the key tenets of Black feminist thought and research for archaeologists through an analysis of the material past of captive African peoples that enhances the texture and depth of conventional conceptions of these histories.

In the annual Natalie Boymel Kampen Memorial Lecture in Feminist Criticism and History, Battle-Baptiste discusses how she approached this work, combining inquiries into her own identity and relationship to the field of archaeology, and an intersectional approach to African Diaspora archaeology through a Black feminist theoretical lens. Battle-Baptiste discusses how these intersectional approaches are vital to improving contemporary historical archaeology, and developing it as a practice linked to broader quests for social and political justice.

Recorded on March 11, 2019 at Barnard College.