I am an historical archaeologist and Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I currently serve as the Director of the Archaeological Research Center at UCSC, and Editor in Chief for African Archaeological Review. I have over 30 years of field experience, having participated on archaeological field projects in Armenia, Belize, Bénin, Haiti, Israel, Sudan, the UK, and the United States. I am particularly interested in the Archaeology of West Africa and the African Diaspora. My current research examines landscape transformations and the architecture of political sovereignty in West Africa and the Diaspora in the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. I am currently conducting longterm field research in the Republic of Bénin and in Haiti on these themes.
My research in West Africa explores the political economy of landscape and the built environment and the nature of urban transformation during the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This research has focused on the Kingdom of Dahomey in the Republic of Bénin, a primary exemplar of state formation in West Africa and major participant in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
I also lead a comparative project on the materiality of power and political sovereignty in post-revolutionary Haiti. this project is excavating the royal palace of Sans-Souci and neighboring sites to understand the materiality of sovereignty Kingdom of Hayti, a short-lived experiment in political order in the wake of the Haitian revolution.
I am currently completing a new book project, The Archaeology of Cities in West Africa: Town and Countryside from the Savannah to the Sea. This project explores how historical ruptures, such as the trans-Saharan Trade and the trans-Atlantic trade, intersected with longue durée environmental and demographic forces in shaping the urban fabric of communities across West Africa.
Building on 20 years of EXCAVATION in and around Royal PALACE SITES IN BENIN, I AM ALSO RESEARCHING THE MATERIAL TRACES OF THE AGODJIE IN DAHOMEY. RECENTLY DEPICTED IN THE HOLLYWOOD FILM “THE WOMAN KING”, WE KNOW SUrPRISINGLY LITTLE ABOUT THE EVERYDAY LIVES OF THESE WOMEN. MY RESEARCH EXPLORES THE Political and Gender ROLES AND IDENTITIES OF PALACE WOMEN, AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSEHOLDS BEHIND PALACE WALLS.
Power and Landscape in Atlantic West Africa
This volume examines the archaeology of precolonial West African societies in the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Using historical and archaeological perspectives on landscape, this collection of essays sheds light on how involvement in the commercial revolutions of the early modern period dramatically reshaped the regional contours of political organization across West Africa.
The Precolonial State in West Africa: Building Power in Dahomey
This volume incorporates historical, ethnographic, art historical, and archaeological sources to examine the relationship between the production of space and political order in the West African Kingdom of Dahomey during the tumultuous Atlantic Era. Dahomey, situated in the modern Republic of Bénin, emerged in this period as one of the principal agents in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and an exemplar of West African state formation. A Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2015.
Public Lectures
J. Cameron Monroe 