The Archaeology Centers Coalition and RadioCIAMS present “SAPIENS Talk Back”: Eight conversations with students and scholars that expand upon the insights of Season 4 of the SAPIENS podcast, “Our Past is the Future”. In extended discussions, we explore new perspectives on how Black and Indigenous voices are changing how archaeology tells its stories, and just as importantly, who tells them.
SAPIENS Talk Back was developed in collaboration with the Indigenous Archaeology Collective and the Society of Black Archaeologists, with special help from Dr. Sara Gonzalez, Justin Dunnavant, and Ayana Flewellen. Special thanks also to Chip Colwell and the production team at SAPIENS, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and House of Pod. Our theme music was composed by Charlotte Mandy and performed by Maia Dedrick and Russell Dedrick. This special RadioCIAMS project was produced at Cornell University by Adam T. Smith, with Rebecca Gerdes as our production assistant.
RadioCIAMS is a member of the American Anthropological Association’s podcast library.
SAPIENS Podcast S4 Trailer: Our Past is the Future
SAPIENS Talk Back is the companion series to “Our Past is the Future.” Listen to what it’s all about and find the full season below.
SAPIENS Podcast S4E1: Guided by the Past
SAPIENS Talk Back E1: Changing Archaeology’s Stories, and Who Tells Them
In this episode, we welcome Yoli Ngandali, one of the hosts of the SAPIENS series and a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington, for a conversation on how we can achieve real and lasting change in the stories archaeology tells and, just as importantly, who gets to tell them.
This episode was made possible by financial support from the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Hosts Alma Cortez Alvarez and Liam McDonald from the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies join panelists Jarre Hamilton (University of California, Berkeley), Iman Nagy (University of California, Los Angeles), and Javier García Colón (University of California, San Diego) for a conversation on how to reshape the discipline.
SAPIENS Podcast S4E2: Redrawing the Boundaries
SAPIENS Talk Back E2: Breaking Archaeology’s Boundaries
In this episode, we welcome the featured guests of Episode 2 of SAPIENS Season 4, both co-founders of the Society of Black Archaeologists: Justin Dunnavant, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at UCLA, and Ayana Flewellen, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside. They are joined by Gabrielle Miller, a PhD student studying African Diaspora Archaeology at the University of Tulsa.
This episode was made possible by financial support from the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology at the University of California, San Diego. Our panelists for this episode are Jordan Griffin and Loren Clark from the University of California, San Diego. Our hosts are Hirsch Postdoctoral Associate Maia Dedrick and Ayesha Matthan from the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies. The episode was engineered by Anna Whittemore, a Ph.D. student in Anthropology at Cornell University.
SAPIENS Podcast S4E3: At the Heart of it All
SAPIENS Talk Back E3: Archaeology and Social Justice
In this episode, we welcome the featured guests of Episode 3 of SAPIENS Season 4: Kisha Supernant, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta and Director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology, and Lenora McQueen, an activist who has worked tirelessly to preserve the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground in Richmond.
This episode was made possible by financial support of the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. We want to thank our panelists for leading our conversation today: Elspeth Geiger (University of Michigan), Mariela Declet Pérez (University of California, San Diego), and Dan Plekhov (Brown University). This episode was hosted by CIAMS graduate students Rafael Cruz Gil and Carol Anne Barsody, and the sound engineer was Alex Symons.
SAPIENS Podcast S4E4: Curating as Caretaking
SAPIENS Talk Back E4: Decolonizing Heritage and Curation
In this episode, we discuss the pressing issues raised by Episode 4 of SAPIENS Season 4. We are joined by Tiffany Fryer, the Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Princeton University Society of Fellows and a lecturer in Princeton’s Department of Anthropology and Sven Haakanson, Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington and Curator of Native American Anthropology at the Burke Museum.
This episode was made possible by financial support of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology at Brown University and Columbia University’s Center for Archaeology. We want to thank our panelists for leading our conversation today: Erynn Bentley and Ana González San Martín from Brown University. This episode was hosted by CIAMS graduate students Olivia Graves and Henry Ziegler. Our sound engineer was Sam Disotell.
SAPIENS Podcast S4E5: More Than a Mountain
SAPIENS Talk Back E5: Studying (& Not Studying) Sacred Sites
In this episode, we continue the discussion that began in episode 5 of season 4 of the SAPIENS podcast, a conversation that examines how archaeologists study sacred sites… and when they don’t. We are joined by Ora Marek-Martinez, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Northern Arizona University and Prof. Nicholas Laluk, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.
This episode was made possible by financial support from the Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts Boston. We want to thank our panelists for leading our conversation: Gabby Omoni Hartemann, Eric Mazariegos, and Maryan Ragheb. This episode was hosted by CIAMS graduate students Anna Whittemore and Alex Symons, and our sound engineer was Olivia Graves.
SAPIENS Podcast S4E6: Slavery, Sustenance, and Resistance
SAPIENS Talk Back E6: Setting the Table
In this episode, we continue the discussion that began in episode 6 of season 4 of the SAPIENS podcast, a conversation that examines examines “Slavery, Sustenance, and Resistance”, or what we might think of as “Setting the Table for an Archaeology of Resistance”. We are joined by Dr. Peggy Brunache, the Director of the Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies at the University of Glasgow, and Dr. Kelley Fanto Deetz, Director of Collections and Visitor Engagement at Stratford Hall Plantation.
This episode was made possible by financial support from the Archaeological Research Facility at the University of California at Berkeley. We want to thank our panelists for leading our conversation: Sara Ann Knutson, Jess Johnson, José Julián Garay Vázquez, and Helen Wong. This episode was hosted by CIAMS graduate students Sam Disotell and Rebecca Gerdes, and our sound engineer was Ruth Portes.
SAPIENS Podcast S4E7: Repatriation is Our Future
SAPIENS Talk Back E7: Repatriation & Archaeology
In this episode, we continue the discussion that began in episode 7 of season 4 of the SAPIENS podcast, a conversation that examines “repatriation” and what it means for archaeology. We are joined by Prof. Rachel Watkins, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at American University, and Dr. Dorothy Lippert, an expert in repatriation and a tribal liaison for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
This episode was made possible by financial support from the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. We want to thank our panelists for leading our conversation: Dr. Wendy Teeter, Mina Nikolovieni, and Amanda Althoff. This episode was hosted by CIAMS graduate students Claire Challancin and Ruth Portes, and our sound engineer was Rafael Cruz Gil.
SAPIENS Talk Back E8: Looking Forward/Looking Back
In the eighth and concluding episode of SAPIENS Talk Back, we talk with representatives from three new professional organizations that are pushing the discipline in consequential new directions. Prof. Ayana Omilade Flewellen is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside and a co-founder and current president of the Society of Black Archaeologists. Prof. Sara Gonzalez, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington and Curator of Archaeology at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture is a co-founder of the Indigenous Archaeology Collective. Prof. Lewis Borck, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice at New Mexico Highlands University is also a founding member of the Black Trowel Collective.
This episode was made possible by financial support from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Denver and the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies. We want to thank our panelists for leading our conversation: Ashleigh Thompson, Elliot Helmer, and Yoli Ngandali. This episode was hosted by CIAMS graduate students Sophia Taborski and Alice Wolf, and our sound engineer was Liam McDonald.
Making SAPIENS Podcast Season 4 & SAPIENS Talk Back: A Conversation
It’s a Podcast Party from Wenner-Gren Foundation on Vimeo.
