Current Projects

Eroding Gods: Shifts in AfroChesapeake Place-Based Spirituality Due to Climate Change

In the evolving discourse around climate change, the focus has predominantly been on its environmental, economic, and geopolitical impacts. However, one critical dimension often overlooked is the cultural and spiritual crisis it generates, particularly for communities whose traditions are deeply tied to land. During this project, I will examine the intersections of climate change, ecological disruption, and place-based spirituality within AfroChesapeake folk belief, focusing on the lived experiences of African Americans living on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Program: THE CROSSROADS PROJECT Black Religious Histories, Communities, and Cultures

Institution: Princeton University

To Haunt With, Not Study: “Big Lizz” and the Ethics of Black EcoFeminist Invocation

In regional folklore, the figure of Big Lizz is framed as a haunting tied to a bridge and a swamp. What often goes unexamined is the cultural, ecological, and spiritual world that makes her presence possible. This project studies that world. Through fieldwork, ritual work, and ecological study, I trace how her presence lives in water, soil, and plant life.

Rather than resolve her legend, I use it to study how a landscape remembers and how a haunting can shape method. This approach treats Big Lizz as a guide into the deeper relationship between story, place, and the afterlives of violence on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Program: Afro-Chesapeake Fieldwork

Institution: Non Affiliated / Independent

African Ancestral Human Remains Project — Charles County (Chapel Point)

This project centers on the African ancestral individuals recovered from the Chapel Point area of Charles County, a landscape shaped by early African American presence, colonial systems, and complex patterns of community formation. My work here integrates archival research, land-history reconstruction, and heritage-based analysis with bioarchaeological and archaeological data generated by project partners.

Through probate records, land patents, estate inventories, parish files, and environmental histories, I map kinship networks, property regimes, and cultural geographies that can help reestablish narrative continuity for these ancestors. Descendant engagement and the inclusion of oral histories are central to informing this research in culturally informed interpretation, ensuring that their lives are not approached as anonymous remains, as they are/were persons embedded within broad social, cultural, and environmental systems.

The goal of this work is to restore visibility, dignity, and context to ancestors whose stories were historically cloaked. By synthesizing archival, archaeological, and anthropological evidence, the project supports potential descendant identification, informs ethical recommendations for reburial, and contributes to a more equitable interpretation of African American heritage in Maryland. This research aims to document the past and support responsible heritage stewardship, centering community collaboration, historically grounded analysis, and interdisciplinary rigor to better understand the lived worlds and enduring legacies of the Chapel Point individuals.

Program: African Ancestral Human Remains Project (AAHRP)

Institution(s):

• Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum

• Maryland Historical Trust

• Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory

• Maryland Commission on African American History & Culture

Recent Events

Hoodoo Healing, Sinners, and African American Traditions of Care - Keynote

Please join the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies on Friday, Nov 14th for a talk with Hess Love entitled, “Hoodoo Healing, Sinners, and African American Traditions of Care.” Hess Love is an expert in Hoodoo, an African American spiritual tradition of healing and memory. They will be speaking about their own archeological practices and cemetery work with the recovery and care of African American remains, and the recent portrayal of Hoodoo in the film Sinners. Hess will guide our understanding of what has been portrayed in the media and the reality and importance of the tradition today.

Dr. Patrick Bellegarde-Smith (AADS Professor Emeritus) will serve as talkback facilitator and discuss the differences and similarities between African American Hoodoo and Haitian Vodou.

Friday, Nov 14, 1:30-3pm (Lubar S151)

Co-sponsored by the UBUNTU Research & Evaluation, UWM Division of Community Empowerment & Institutional Inclusivity, Center for 21st Century Studies, Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, Latin American, Caribbean and US Latinx Studies, Black Student Cultural Center, and Sociocultural Programming

Institution: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee