Justin Dunnavant
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Joan Silsbee Chair of African Cultural Archaeology
Education
B.A., Howard University (2009); M.A. and Ph.D., University of Florida (2017)
Areas of Interest
Historical Archaeology of Africa and the African Diaspora, Atlantic and Indian Ocean Slave Trade, Oral History, Community-Based Archaeology, Maritime Archaeology, Black Geographies
Profile
Dr. Justin Dunnavant holds the Joan Silsbee Chair of African Cultural Archaeology and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at UCLA. His first book, Colonialism, Ecology and Slavery, under contract with Princeton University Press, investigates the relationship between ecology and enslavement in the former Danish West Indies. In addition to his archaeological research, Justin is co-founder of the Society of Black Archaeologists and an AAUS Scientific SCUBA Diver. In 2021, he was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and inducted into The Explorers Club as one of “Fifty People Changing the World that You Need to Know About.” In 2022, he was awarded the Stafford Ellison Wright Black Alumni Scholar-in-Residence at Occidental College. His research has been featured on Netflix's "Explained," Hulu's "Your Attention Please" and in print in American Archaeology, Science Magazine, and National Geographic Magazine. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Aquatic Futures Foundation.
Publications
Flewellen, Ayana O., Alicia Odewale, Justin Dunnavant, Alexandra Jones, and William A. White III. 2021. Creating Community and Engaging Community: The Foundations of the Estate Little Princess Archaeology Project. International Journal of Historical Archaeology. 1-30. Available here.
Dunnavant, Justin, Delande Justinvil, and Chip Colwell. 2021. Craft an African American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Nature. May 20. Vol. 593: 337-340. Available here.
Flewellen, Ayana O., Justin Dunnavant, Alicia Odewale, Alexandra Jones, Tsione Wolde-Michael, Zoë Crossland, and Maria Franklin. 2021. The Future of Archaeology is Anti-Racist: Archaeology in the Time of Black Lives Matter. American Antiquity. 86(2): 224-243. Available here.
Dunnavant, Justin. 2021. Have Confidence in the Sea: Maritime Maroons and Fugitive Geographies. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography 53(3): 884-905. Available here.
Maria Franklin, Justin Dunnavant, Ayana Omilade Flewellen, and Alicia Odewale. 2020. “The Future is Now: Archaeology and the Eradication of Anti-Blackness.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 24(4): 753-766. Available here.
Dunnavant, Justin, Ayana Flewellen, Alexandra Jones, Alicia Odewale, and William White III. 2018. Assessing Heritage Resources in St. Croix Post-Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Transforming Anthropology 26(2): 157-172. Available here.
Dunnavant, Justin. 2017. Access Denied: African Americans and Access to End-of-Life Care in Nineteenth Century Washington, D.C. Historical Archaeology 51(1): 1-17. Available here.
Awards
National Geographic Society’s 2021 Emerging Explorer
Vanderbilt Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow, 2019-2021
University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, 2017-2019
Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, 2014-2017
Fulbright US Scholars Program, 2009-2010