François G. Richard

(PhD, Syracuse University, 2007) Assistant Professor of Anthropology and of the Social Sciences in the College, specializes in the study of the African historical experience, with emphasis on West Africa/Senegal and with secondary interests in plantation and slave settlements in the Caribbean. The range of his interests include the anthropology and archaeology of landscapes, complexity and political economy, historical anthropology, memory, Marxist and social theory, material culture analysis, survey methodology, and the politics of archaeology and archaeological activism/education.

E-mail: fgrichard@uchicago.edu

Publications:

2007 From Cosaan to Colony: Exploring Archaeological Landscape Formations and Socio-Political Complexity in the Siin (Senegal), A.D. 500-1900. PhD Dissertation, Syracuse University.

2003 (w/ C. DeCorse & I. Thiaw) Toward a Systematic Bead Description System: A View from the Lower Falemme, Senegal. Journal of African Archaeology, 1(1):77-110.

2009  Historical and Dialectical Perspectives on the Archaeology of Complexity in the Siin-Saalum (Senegal): Back to the Future? African Archaeological Review. 26(2).

2010  Atlantic Transformations and Cultural Landscapes in the Senegambia: An Alternative View From the Siin. In J.C. Monroe & A. Ogundiran, eds., State and Society in Atlantic West Africa: Archaeologies of Landscape and Region. Cambridge University Press (forthcoming).

n.d.  Re-Charting Atlantic Encounters: Object Trajectories and Histories of Value in the Siin (Senegal) and Senegambia. Archaeological Dialogues (forthcoming).

n.d. "In [them] we will find very desirable tributaries for our commerce": Cash Crops, Commodities, and Subjectivities in Siin (Senegal) during the Colonial Era. In S. Croucher & L. Weiss, eds., The Archaeology of Capitalism in Colonial Contexts. (Submitted to Plemnum Press).

n.d.  "The very embodiment of the Black peasant"?: Archaeology, History, and the Making of the Serer of Siin (Senegal). In F.G. Richard & K. MacDonald, eds., Ethnic Ambiguities in African Archaeology: Materiality, History, and the Shaping of Cultural Identities. (To be sumitted to Cambridge University Press).

n.d. Found in Transition? Writing Alternative Histories of Siin (Senegal) at the Thresholds of Scale, Materilaity, and Historicity. In M. Oland, S. Hart & L. Fink, eds., Lost in Transition: Decolonizing Indigenous Histories of the "Prehistoric/Colonial" Intersection of Archaeology. University of Arizona Press.

n.d. Ambiguous States and Inalienable Landscapes? Anatomies of Power in Siin (Senegal) during the Atlantic Era. (For submission to Current Anthropology).

n.d. What's in a Name? Provisional Notes on the Making of Serer Ethnicity (15th-20th Century). (In preparation for submission to the Journal of African History).

n.d. Experiencing the State: Materialities of Power in the Siin (Senegal) between Colony and Postcolony. (In preparation for submission to American Anthropologist).

n.d.  Ambiguous States and Reluctant Landscapes: Cultural Histories of Power in Siin (Senegal), 1500-1930 (book manuscript in preparation).