NEW ORLEANS – On Thursday, March 11, at 6:30 p.m., join University of New Orleans archaeologist Ryan Gray and 64 Parishes Editor-in-Chief Erin Greenwald for a conversation on the state of colonial-era archaeology in New Orleans. Gray, who has worked on sites as varied as New Orleans’s first cemetery and the Storyville red-light district, will share insights on how archaeology informs our understanding of the city’s diverse early inhabitants. The program will also explore how scientific analysis of organic materials, including faunal remains and ceramics, offers new perspectives on colonial-era trading networks and human impacts on the environment.
Gray is the Richard Wallin Boebel Endowed Professor in Anthropology and Associate Director of the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at the University of New Orleans. He has worked in New Orleans archaeology for over 20 years, with research at sites spanning the colonial era to World War II. Gray is committed to creating new opportunities for public engagement with the archaeology and material culture of the city. His book “Uprooted: Race, Public Housing and the Archaeology of Four Lost New Orleans Neighborhoods” was published by the University of Alabama Press in 2020.
Erin Greenwald is Vice President of Public Programs at the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, where she also serves as editor in chief of 64 Parishes. Prior to joining the LEH, she was curator of programs at the New Orleans Museum of Art and senior curator and historian at the Historic New Orleans Collection. Greenwald is the author of the book “Marc-Antoine Caillot and the Company of the Indies in Louisiana” and curator of the 2018 exhibition “New Orleans, the Founding Era.”
This program is presented by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at the University of New Orleans with funding made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of the agency’s Night of Ideas 2021 partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States.
Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
WHO: The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities with the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at the University of New Orleans, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the French Embassy in the United States
WHAT: “Breaking Ground: A Conversation on French Colonial-Era Archaeological Sites in New Orleans,” a virtual event
WHEN: Thursday, March 11, 2021 | 6:30 p.m. (CST)
WHERE: Online via Zoom and via the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Facebook page
HOW: This event is free and open to the public. Register to participate via Zoom here. In addition, participants can watch via Facebook at Facebook.com/LAHumanities.
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