Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, Associate Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology shares her research titled  “Slave Traders in the Family: Autoarchaeology at Christiansborg Castle (Ghana)” as part of the Faculty Seminar Series on Tuesday, 28 February, 2023 (03:00 pm GST) at The Africa Institute Library (Click here for map).

Abstract

In this talk, Professor Engmann will introduce ‘autoarchaeology’, an experiential, work-in-progress approach to heritage work. Autoarchaeology is a conceptual framework where the subject positions of researcher, practitioner, and direct descendant are held by the same person. It foregrounds the Self.

Prioritizing direct descendants’ narratives, as well as the histories they reconstruct, she argues, constitutes a new epistemological direction by privileging direct descendants of slave traders as knowledge producers, impacting and providing nuance to understandings of key historical moments and legacies. Professor Engmann also argues, it stands committed to the politics of inclusion and recognition, as well as active community engagement with the past, and in so doing, comprises a more ethical, democratic, inclusive, and social justice means to decolonizing the study of the material past. She illustrates this point referencing an autoarchaeology of Christiansborg Castle in Ghana, a UNESCO World Heritage site, the former seat of Danish and British colonial government and Office of the President of the Republic of Ghana – since (we) as researchers and direct descendants of Eurafrican slave traders unearth the histories and legacies of the Danish transatlantic slave trade.

Speaker

Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann is an Associate Professor at the Africa Institute in Sharjah, UAE and Director of the Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project in Ghana. She is a critical heritage scholar and practitioner. She is the first female Ghanaian archaeologist. She has a long-standing academic and professional involvement in Ghana’s heritage. She has a BA, two MA’s and a PhD from Columbia and Stanford Universities respectively. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University. She is the only archaeologist to graduate from Stanford University Business School’s Innovation and Social Enterprise Program where she used archaeology and heritage for African education and development.

Engmann’s research includes West African Islam, the transatlantic slave trade and slavery, colonialism, and critical heritage studies. She has worked in Ghana since 2001. Since 2004, she has worked on many heritage and development projects in Ghana and other African countries, including working for UNESCO (Paris & Accra). She has received multiple interdisciplinary fellowships, grants and prizes from the United States, European and African countries, including governmental, international foundations and research institutes. She is currently on the African scholars’ advisory board for UNESCO’s African World Heritage Sites, Palgrave Macmillan’s Heritage Studies in the Muslim World, Brepol’s Studies in the Archaeology of the Islamic World, 100 Histories of 100 Worlds, and Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites.

She has several published book chapters and two forthcoming books, on architecture, slavery and heritage and West African manuscript heritage. She also has three forthcoming books for a popular audience on Ghanaian heritage. Her publications include articles that have appeared in a number of journals including African Art, African Archaeological Review, Review of Middle East Studies, African Studies Review, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage, Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, Journal of Architectural Historians, and the UNESCO Annual Report among others.

Moderator 

The seminar will be moderated by John Thabiti Willis, Associate Professor of African History, The Africa Institute.

 

Through these lectures and workshops, The Africa Institute reaffirms its mission as a center for the study and research of Africa and its diaspora, and its commitment to the training of a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African Diaspora studies.

The seminar will be in English.

The session is free and open to the public. Registration is mandatory, Click here to book your place.

Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, Associate Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology shares her research titled  “Slave Traders in the Family: Autoarchaeology at Christiansborg Castle (Ghana)” as part of the Faculty Seminar Series on Tuesday, 28 February, 2023 (03:00 pm GST) at The Africa Institute Library (Click here for map).

Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, Associate Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology shares her research titled  “Slave Traders in the Family: Autoarchaeology at Christiansborg Castle (Ghana)” as part of the Faculty Seminar Series on Tuesday, 28 February, 2023 (03:00 pm GST) at The Africa Institute Library (Click here for map).

Abstract

In this talk, Professor Engmann will introduce ‘autoarchaeology’, an experiential, work-in-progress approach to heritage work. Autoarchaeology is a conceptual framework where the subject positions of researcher, practitioner, and direct descendant are held by the same person. It foregrounds the Self.

Prioritizing direct descendants’ narratives, as well as the histories they reconstruct, she argues, constitutes a new epistemological direction by privileging direct descendants of slave traders as knowledge producers, impacting and providing nuance to understandings of key historical moments and legacies. Professor Engmann also argues, it stands committed to the politics of inclusion and recognition, as well as active community engagement with the past, and in so doing, comprises a more ethical, democratic, inclusive, and social justice means to decolonizing the study of the material past. She illustrates this point referencing an autoarchaeology of Christiansborg Castle in Ghana, a UNESCO World Heritage site, the former seat of Danish and British colonial government and Office of the President of the Republic of Ghana – since (we) as researchers and direct descendants of Eurafrican slave traders unearth the histories and legacies of the Danish transatlantic slave trade.

Speaker

Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann is an Associate Professor at the Africa Institute in Sharjah, UAE and Director of the Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project in Ghana. She is a critical heritage scholar and practitioner. She is the first female Ghanaian archaeologist. She has a long-standing academic and professional involvement in Ghana’s heritage. She has a BA, two MA’s and a PhD from Columbia and Stanford Universities respectively. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University. She is the only archaeologist to graduate from Stanford University Business School’s Innovation and Social Enterprise Program where she used archaeology and heritage for African education and development.

Engmann’s research includes West African Islam, the transatlantic slave trade and slavery, colonialism, and critical heritage studies. She has worked in Ghana since 2001. Since 2004, she has worked on many heritage and development projects in Ghana and other African countries, including working for UNESCO (Paris & Accra). She has received multiple interdisciplinary fellowships, grants and prizes from the United States, European and African countries, including governmental, international foundations and research institutes. She is currently on the African scholars’ advisory board for UNESCO’s African World Heritage Sites, Palgrave Macmillan’s Heritage Studies in the Muslim World, Brepol’s Studies in the Archaeology of the Islamic World, 100 Histories of 100 Worlds, and Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites.

She has several published book chapters and two forthcoming books, on architecture, slavery and heritage and West African manuscript heritage. She also has three forthcoming books for a popular audience on Ghanaian heritage. Her publications include articles that have appeared in a number of journals including African Art, African Archaeological Review, Review of Middle East Studies, African Studies Review, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage, Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, Journal of Architectural Historians, and the UNESCO Annual Report among others.

Moderator 

The seminar will be moderated by John Thabiti Willis, Associate Professor of African History, The Africa Institute.

 

Through these lectures and workshops, The Africa Institute reaffirms its mission as a center for the study and research of Africa and its diaspora, and its commitment to the training of a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African Diaspora studies.

The seminar will be in English.

The session is free and open to the public. Registration is mandatory, Click here to book your place.

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