Justin Dunnavant
Anthropologist
Restoring History: Redressing the Environmental Legacies of Slavery
A postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University’s Spatial Analysis Research Laboratory, Dr. Dunnavant will join UCLA’s Anthropology Department in 2021. His former research interrogated the history and representation of minority groups in southern Ethiopia. Currently, he works in the US Virgin Islands investigating the relationship between ecology and enslavement in the former Danish West Indies. Justin is developing his skills in maritime archaeology and has assisted with the documentation of the Slobodna and Acorn wrecks as well as the search for the slave ship Guerrero.
My research explores the relationship between the historic transatlantic slave trade and the environment. I unpack the connections between the dehumanizing system of slavery and commodification and environmental degradation of land in the Americas. Tracing these to the fifteenth century, I find the ramifications of these processes are still felt today.
Moving beyond the role of a traditional academic, I undertake conservation work to offer some form of redress for the environmental legacies of slavery. Engaging in these restorative practices allows me to gain a better understanding of how we can become better stewards of the natural world.
“I hope the work my colleagues and I do will inspire the next generation of heritage professionals. Collectively, we must remember, remind, and restore to make this world a better place.”
