Research :: ARCHAEOLOGY LABORATORY :: Current Research :: Charles Orser

Charles Orser, Ph.D. - Curator of Historical Archaeology
I am an anthropologically trained historical archaeologist who works in post-Columbian history, what I term “modern-world archaeology.” My primary research interests lie in social theory, the archaeological analysis of social inequality, and the material conditions of modernity. My research activities concentrate on the dispossessed and overlooked in history, and to date I have investigated Native American (American Plains and Midwest) African (American South and Brazil), and Irish material conditions (Republic of Ireland).

Educational Background
B.S., History and Geology, Eastern Michigan University, 1972
M.A., Anthropology, Wayne State University, 1975
Ph.D., Anthropology, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1980

Colonial Life in the Hudson Valley:
Investigations of Dutch and British colonial life in the Hudson Valley—from New York City to Albany—during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Modern-World Archaeology:
Archaeology of the post-Columbian world that plays special attention to large social forces such as colonialism, Eurocentrism, commodification, class, racialization, and modernity.