I write books about social history that integrate information from artifacts, ruins, archives, oral histories, and historic landscapes.

Click the links below to explore my latest books:

• Invisible Founders: How two centuries of African American Families transformed a plantation into a college. Berghahn Press (2019).
• Virginia and the Great War (McFarland, 2018).
• Hidden History: African American Cemeteries in Central Virginia (University of Virginia Press, 2014).
• Sweet Briar College [a pictorial history] (Arcadia Press, 2015).
• Investigating Upper Mesopotamian Households using MicroArchaeological Techniques (BAR International Series, 2005).

To dive deeper into my scholarly research, check out these articles:

2018    Entries on “Cemeteries” and “Burial Practices and Funeral Customs” for the forthcoming. World of Jim Crow: Daily Life Encyclopedia. Edited by Steven Reich. Greenwood Press.

2018   “Teaching and Learning from World War I Gravestones,” Association Gravestone Studies Newsletter.

2018    “A Virginian Family’s Experience During the Great War: the Holladays of Richmond,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 126 (1): 22-43.

2016    “Memorials to the Fallen: World War I Monuments in Virginia,” Journal of American’s Military Past, vol. XLI (2): 51-62.

2015    “Learning from God’s Acre: locating and protecting historic African American Cemeteries,” Journal of the Afro-American Historical Genealogical Society, vol. 31 & 32: 18-30.

2015     “Memorials from the Great War: symbolism and meaning in gravestones and statues from WWI,” Markers, vol. XXXI: 6-29.

2015     “A Living Memorial: the role and power of the Meuse-Argonne cemetery in honoring sacrifice and service.” Bringing the War Back Home, an iBook for teachers. Link

2014    “Investigating Traces of Everyday Life in Ancient Households: some methodological considerations.” Chapter 1 in Household Studies in Complex Societies, 1-28. Chicago: Oriental Institute.

2014    “Six Degrees of Separation: Using Social Media and Digital Platforms to Enhance African American History Projects,” in Interpreting African American History and Culture at Museums & Historic Sites. Rowan & Littlefield.

2012     “Household Matters: Techniques for Understanding Assyrian Houses.” Chapter 6 in New Perspectives on Household Archaeology, Bradley Parker and Catherine Foster, eds., 139-64. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns.

2012    “Social Media Connections, ” Voice, Virginia Association for Museums Magazine, Summer 2012, pp. 5-6. Reprinted in the American Association of State & Local History newsletter.

2009    “Protecting our shared heritage in African-American cemeteries,” Journal of Field Archaeology, vol. 34 (2): 195-206.

2009    “Home at Last: mortuary commemoration in Virginian slave cemeteries.” Markers: Annual Journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies, vol. XXVI: 54-83.

2008    “Social Memory and Plantation Burial Grounds: a Virginian Example.” African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter, Spring 2008, 27 pages. Hosted on-line by the University of Illinois. Link

2007    “Micro-Archaeology at Ziyaret,” in “Excavations at Ziyaret Tepe, Turkey, 2006,” by T. Matney, et al., Anatolica vol. 33: 39-43, 67-68.

2006    “Locating the ‘People without History’ in Histories of the Ancient Near East.” Reviews in Anthropology, vol. 35: 1-22.

2005a  “Eighth Preliminary Report on Excavations at Ziyaret Tepe, 2004 Season,”  Kazi Sonuçlari Toplantisi, vol. 27. Co-authored with T. Matney.

2005b  “Archaeological Investigations at Ziyaret Tepe, 2003 and 2004,” Anatolica, vol. 31: 20-68. Co-edited with T. Matney.

2004a  “Seventh Preliminary Report on Excavations at Ziyaret Tepe, 2003 Season.” Kazi Sonuçlari Toplantisi, vol. 26: 63-74. Co-authored with T. Matney.

2004b    “African American History at the Sweet Briar Plantation,” Sweet Briar Alumnae Magazine Spring 2004: 7-10.

2003a  “Micro-Debris Analysis,” in “Excavations at Ziyaret Tepe, Turkey, 2002,” by T. Matney, et al., Anatolica, vol.29: 194-197, 218.

2003b  “Results from Micro-archaeology in 2001 and 2002,” in “Excavations at Tell Brak,  2001-2002,” by G. Emberling and H. McDonald. Iraq, vol. 64: 63-73.

2003c     “An Investigation of an Enslaved Community and Slave Cemetery at Mt. Fair, in Brown’s Cove, Virginia.” The Magazine of Albemarle County History, vol. 61:1-26. Winner of the Annual 2003 Rawlings Prize (sponsored by the Historic Society).

2001    “Micro-Debris based functional analyses of Late EBA Houses,” in “Research at Titris Höyük in Southeastern Turkey,” by G. Algaze, et al., Anatolica 27: 30-33 and 86-87.

2000    “Microdebris Analysis in Bronze Age Mesopotamian Households,” Antiquity 74: 284.

1999    “Hanover Deathscapes: Mortuary Variability in New Hampshire Cemeteries, A.D. 1770-1920,” Ethnohistory 43 (3): 541-97.