Elysia Petras joined the Kenyon anthropology department in July 2024. She is a historical archaeologist and her current research on Anguilla and the Cayman Islands examines the trade of locally made Afro-Caribbean ware pottery during the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Petras uses a mixture of archival sources, archaeological field work and Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) to examine the inter-island social networks underlying the trade of pottery made by enslaved and free Black people during the pre-emancipation period. She is especially interested in the role that Black sailors, market women and wharfmen played in liberatory social networks.

Petras was an NSF funded graduate intern in the archaeometry lab at the University of Missouri Research Reactor, and her research has been published in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology, the Society for Historical Archaeology newsletter, and conference proceedings.

Areas of Expertise

Historical archaeology; African Diaspora archaeology; plantation slavery, marronage; Afro-Caribbean ware; neutron activation analysis; community archaeology

Education

2021 — Master of Arts from Temple University

Courses Recently Taught

Today, people increasingly live in highly industrialized and urban civilizations. But how long have humans had "civilization?" What is "civilization" and how can it be recognized? This course addresses these questions through looking at the basic elements of archaeology and its place in anthropology. Topics covered include the history of archaeology, fundamental aspects of fieldwork and analysis, and the prehistoric record from the first humans to the origins of civilization. This foundation course is required for upper-level work in archaeology courses. No prerequisite. Offered every semester.

This course is an archaeological exploration of the major concepts, themes and research questions that are at the foundation of African diaspora studies. In this class, students engage with the very concept of "African diaspora" in conversation with the geopolitical and socioeconomic processes that shaped, and continue to influence the field. Through an engagement with archaeological and ethnographic case studies, we examine the everyday practices of peoples of African descent across numerous geographies, focusing on similarities and differences that emerge from our comparative approach. Students are introduced to a number of methodological and theoretical perspectives and examine topics such as slavery, emancipation, cultural production, gender, ethnicity, class and spirituality. This course appeals to students interested in archaeology, anthropology, history, African American studies and Caribbean studies. This counts toward the upper-level archaeology requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ANTH 112 and permission of the instructor. Offered every spring.