IRES Track I: At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles

This project will provide immersive field and laboratory experiences to IRES students through the study of different cultural horizons on the Caribbean island of Barbuda (of the nation Antigua & Barbuda). This project will support 3 cohorts of 6 graduate students. The primary objective is to assess cultural heritage sites and gather base-line data for continued monitoring.

Barbuda cultural and environmental heritage sites had been relatively unspoiled but are now under threat from big weather and developers rushing in post disaster (in this case, Hurricane Irma) to claim property rights from communities in their most vulnerable socio economic state. In addition to producing primary research on archaeological sites in Barbuda, the project will develop methodologies for community-driven strategies for cultural heritage preservation in the face of tourism development and severe storm damage.

Additionally, this project will generate meaningful scholarship of interest to those working in cultural resource management, science education, and communicating research to public audiences. Beyond reporting findings to Barbudan stakeholders and policy makers affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, the project will train students in interdisciplinary methodologies, cross-cultural communication practices, their ethical role as researchers in a global economy, and how to develop and maintain collaborative work.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Caribbean, such as Barbuda, are vulnerable to the effects of climatic change. The damaging impacts of contemporary sea-level rise and changing big weather patterns of increasing hurricane activity have had a significant influence on the region’s physical, economic and socio-cultural landscapes. Students will explore the longue durée from a transdisciplinary viewpoint, from the first peopling of the Caribbean to the present day, so as they move into their chosen anthropological/archaeological subfields they are better prepared to address the unprecedented effects of the Anthropocene using a holistic perspective.

The proposed project will run for 36 months in the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, Lesser Antilles. There will be 3 cohorts of 6 graduate students collecting data for individually supervised research that will continue from the summer field season into the academic year. The students will be actively involved for four weeks in the field and four weeks of online cohort building activities and learning via zoom with US and international mentors.

Mentors will work with the students throughout their year of participation. Student researchers will be hosted for their four week field work at the Barbuda Research Complex (BRC), the first non-profit scientific research facility to be established in Barbuda. BRC is committed to preservation and conservation of heritage and the environment through collaborative research and educational initiatives by local stakeholders and international interdisciplinary scholars.

BRC bridges natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, arts, Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and citizen science in a dialogue of discovery and innovation striving to support Barbuda’s cultural and environmental integrity. BRC ensures ownership of research on Barbuda by hosting international researchers through a permit system. Dr.

Reg Murphy will head the international collaboration in Antigua and Barbuda. Prior to departure, students will participate in cohort building activities and workshops to prepare them for fieldwork. While in Barbuda, students will collect field data using a variety of methodologies from Bioarchaeology, Zooarchaeology, Geoarchaeology, Archaeomalacology, Historical Archaeology, Photogrammetry and Critical Museum Studies.

BRC researchers and PI/Co- PIs will act as mentors for students in the field with each student focusing on a specific project with their specializations/expertise in the named subfields. Once students have finished their fieldwork and returned to their home institutions, they will work with PI/Co-PIs to disseminate their research in academic and informal settings.

Ultimately, students will learn how archaeological research informs environmental and cultural heritage policy and its real world impacts and applications. The project will facilitate research partnerships between BRC and US institutions and collaborate with K-12 schools to demonstrate how research can support the actions of those seeking to address environmental challenges and social issues.

This project is jointly funded by the International Research Experience for Students program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.