Carol McDavid’s research while affiliated with Rice University and other places

This paper will describe the development of public archaeology from the mid-1970s to the present (late 2013), noting some key ethical benchmarks which occurred throughout this period with respect to public archaeology. This discussion will note some of the evolving relationships between archaeology as a public practice and archaeology as a profession. We will next propose a definition for public archaeology that is able to subsume what has become an extremely large and varied area of archaeological praxis. Finally, we will provide a broad description of the scope of contemporary practice, especially with respect to the dominant themes in the most recent work—collaboration, community, and one of the most recent venues for public archaeology practice, new social media.

This paper examines the interplay between historic preservation, archaeology, mass media, and competing historical narratives, focusing on one urban community in Texas. After its founding by emancipated African Americans, Freedmen's Town became the "Mother Ward" for Houston's growing black professional class. By the late 20th century, due to demographic shifts, a lack of zoning, and weak historic preservation ordinances, it had become one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city (despite being listed on the National Register of Historic Places). The remaining historical structures are now being drowned in a gentrification-driven sea of townhomes and lofts. Some new residents embrace the neighborhood's history, but others use media and politics to reject it actively, as they enact traditional stereotypes about race, poverty, and class. Within this context, those of us involved with the Community Archaeology Research Institute, Inc., have been attempting to do community-based (not "placed") archaeology and encourage local-history and public-policy communities to avoid "writing off" the neighborhood as "lost.".

Cornel West has said that the role of the intellectual is to try to turn easy answers into critical questions and then put those questions to people with power. To whom do public archaeologists address these questions? I am currently involved in an ongoing experiment to use typically nonarchaeologi-cal venues to engage with multiple publics about "history matters." This includes participation in historical societies, commissions, and committees which may have stated aims to discuss, celebrate, and preserve history, but which frequently (sometimes unconsciously) perpetuate and reproduce traditional race/class inequities and power imbalances. My archaeological focus on inner-city African American neighborhoods in Houston, Texas, means that both my research and this larger project take place in settings where insensitive gentrification is impeding grassroots efforts to maintain and reclaim control of historical landscapes and narratives. This article will examine and critique this work, owning mistakes made and (usually small) victories achieved.

First I will offer a view of public archaeology which differs from Dawdy's perspective. Then I will respond briefly to one of her specific questions. Finally, I will comment on her suggestion for a futurist archaeology.