Siobhan Hart, Chair

Associate Professor of Anthropology

Office: Bolton 353
Tel. (518) 580-5417
E-mail:  shart1@skidmore.edu
Office hours: Wednesdays noon-2 p.m. and by appointment

Siobhan Hart's research examines heritage practice, the politics of community recognition, and collaborative research. As an anthropological archaeologist, she is interested in what we know about the past, how we know it, and how it matters to people today. Her research is unified by a concern with using archaeology, material culture, and community collaboration to address inequities in the world today. Engaging with contemporary communities about past lives and experiences through heritage work provides a focal point for dialogue and action that can improve quality of life, increase sociopolitical power, and contribute to dismantling structural inequalities. She has three current projects that research colonialism, community, and heritage in different ways: (1) an archaeological investigation of an 18th century Native American village site known as “Queen Esther’s Town” in northern Pennsylvania; (2) an examination of New England's Native American heritage landscapes, community recognition, and political power; and (3) a study of heritage and sustainability and digital storytelling in Rust Belt urban settings including Binghamton, New York.

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., Department of Anthropology University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA., 2009. Dissertation: High Stakes: A Poly-Communal Archaeology of the Pocumtuck Fort, Deerfield, Massachusetts.
• Master of Arts, Department of Anthropology University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA. 2004
• Bachelor of Arts, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY. Concentration: Sociology and Anthropology. Minor:  Native American Studies. 1999

REGIONAL FOCUS: Northeastern North America

RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS

• Heritage, Indigenous archaeologies, community-based archaeology, repatriation, colonialism, archaeology of Northeastern North America.

COURSES

• Archaeological Collections and Curation
• Archaeological Field Methods
• Heritage and Communities
• North American Archaeology (AN 207)

PUBLICATIONS

Selected Peer Reviewed Publications

• 2019  Colonialism, Community, and Heritage in Native New England. University Press of Florida.
• 2019  Entangled Things and Deposits in Early Colonial Native New England. Co-author with Kathryn Dillon. Historical Archaeology 53(2):265-279.
• 2015   Digging and Destruction: Artifact Looting as Meaningful Social Practice. Co-author with Elizabeth Chilton. International Journal of Heritage Studies 21(4):318-335.
• 2014   Indigenous Archaeologies Section Entries. Co-editor (invited) with Ndukuyakhe Ndlovu and Sean Ulm. Encyclopedia of Global Archaeologies. Springer.
• 2012   Materiality and Autonomy in the Pocumtuck Homeland. Co-author with Margaret Bruchac. Archaeologies 8(3):293-312.
• 2012   Decolonizing Indigenous Histories at the "Prehistoric/Colonial" Intersection in Archaeology. Co-editor with Maxine Oland and Liam Frink. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
• 2012   Decolonizing through Heritage Work in the Pocumtuck Homeland of Northeastern North America. In Decolonizing Indigenous Histories at the "Prehistoric/Colonial" Intersection in Archaeology, ed. M. Oland, S. Hart, and L. Frink, pp. 86-109. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
• 2011   Heritage, Neighborhoods and Cosmopolitan Sensibilities: Poly-Communal Archaeology in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Present Pasts 3:26-34.
• 2010   Indigenous Archaeologies: A Reader on Decolonization. Co-editor with Margaret Bruchac and H. Martin Wobst. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.
• 2009   Crafting Collaborative Archaeologies: Two Case Studies from New England. Co-author with Elizabeth Chilton. Collaborative Anthropologies 2:87-107.

Selected Grants & Fellowships

• 2015    Sustainable Communities Transdisciplinary Areas of Excellence Seed Grant, Binghamton University. For Neighborhood Heritage and Sustainability Project (co-PI with George Homsy).
• 2015    Engaged Faculty Fellow for Teaching Excellence, Center for Civic Engagement, Binghamton University.
• 2013    Center for Learning and Teaching Mini-Grant, Institute for Student Centered Learning, Binghamton University.
• 2006-2008 University of Massachusetts Graduate School Fellowship, annual fellowship to promote the retention of academically excellent students.  
• 2005    W.B.H. Dowse Fellowship from the Massachusetts Historical Society, two annual fellowships to support scholars studying colonial New England.