Anthony Graesch

Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Joined Connecticut College: 2010

Education
B.A., M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles

Specializations
Archaeological anthropology
Colonialism
Complex hunter-gatherer-fishers of North America
Household archaeology
Household and political economy
Urban ethnoarchaeology
Experimental archaeology

"I am an ardent supporter of cross-disciplinary and mixed-methods approaches in the social sciences, particularly those that illuminate the role of objects and built space in the shaping of everyday experience. Archaeological theory and method stand to be improved - and even made relevant to the study of present-day society - with a renewed attention to the intersection of material culture, language, and social interaction. Similarly, research in other anthropology subfields and social sciences stands to be enriched when the socially mediating roles of objects are taken into consideration. In this vein, I teach students how to pursue methodologically rigorous archaeology but also how to apply ethnographic and distinctly mixed-methods approaches to the study of recent and contemporary human behavior."

Contact Anthony Graesch.

Anthony P. Graesch is a four-field-trained anthropologist whose research and teaching focus on the archaeology of North America, including the study of aboriginal and colonizing societies in both past and present settings.

By most measures, Graesch is an archaeologist. One of his current field research programs (2002-present) is situated in western North America where he studies changes in Stó:lô-Coast Salish settlements during the last 600 years. Much of this research has focused on the organization of aboriginal households at Welqámex, a large, island-based settlement in the upper Fraser Valley of southwestern British Columbia. Welqámex was home to upwards of 250-300 people in the mid-nineteenth century and fluoresced into a regional center of aboriginal political and economic activities following early British settlement in the Pacific Northwest. Household-level archaeological research at Welqámex continues to inform an anthropological understanding of how aboriginal political authority can be elaborated under circumstances of epidemic-induced demographic change, new sources of wealth, and intensified warfare. This project represents a direct collaboration with Chawathil First Nation and the Stó:lô Research and Resource Management Centre. Publications resulting from this research have been featured in top-ranked archaeology journals and peer-reviewed edited volumes.

Some of Professor Graesch’s other lines of research blur traditional scholarly boundaries in anthropology and other disciplines. For example, working with a team of inter-disciplinary scholars on a project addressing dual-income families in Los Angeles, he has examined how the built spaces of contemporary family homes reflect historical changes in American middle-class household economy and simultaneously affect daily social interaction among family members. This research, originally based in the Center on Everyday Lives of Families at UCLA, has been highlighted in the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. More recently, Graesch has turned his attention to the study of material culture in “hyper”urban environments, with an emphasis on how objects index and affect the movement of people through space, the expression of otherwise illicit ideas, and the influence of social monitoring on everyday behavior. This recent line of ethnoarchaeological research is the basis of his new course, Urban Ethnoarchaeology.

At Connecticut College, Professor Graesch offers survey courses addressing the practice and theory of archaeological anthropology (e.g., Great Discoveries, Archaeology of North America) as well as intensive seminars that explore the relationship of contemporary urbanites to their material worlds (Urban Ethnoarchaeology), the methodological foundations of scientifically rigorous field- and laboratory-based archaeology (Methods in Archaeology), and conceptual approaches to recent and contemporary societies (Historical Archaeology).

Recent publications in archaeological anthropology include:

• Graesch, A. P., J. Bernard, and A. Noah. (2010). A cross-cultural study of colonialism and indigenous foodways in western North America. In Across the Great Divide: Continuity and Change in Native North American Societies, A.D. 1400-1900, edited by L. Scheiber and M. Mitchell, pp. 212-238. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
• Graesch, A. P. (2009). Fieldworker experience and single-episode screening as sources of data recovery bias in archaeology: A case study from the Central Pacific Northwest Coast. American Antiquity 74(4):759-779.
• Graesch, A. P. (2009). British colonization of the Northwest Coast and interior drainages. In Archaeology in America: An Encyclopedia, Volume 4: West Coast and Arctic/Subarctic, edited by F. McManamon, L. Cordell, K. Lightfoot, and G. Milner, pp. 180-184. Greenwood Publishing, Westport, CT.
• Lepofsky, D., D. M. Schaepe, A. P. Graesch, M. Lenert, P. Ormerod, K. Carlson, J. E. Arnold, M. Blake, P. Moore, and J. Clague. (2009). Exploring Stó:lô-Coast Salish interactions and identity in ancient houses and settlements in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia. American Antiquity 74(4):595-626.
• Graesch, A.P. (2007). Modeling ground slate knife production and implications for the study of household labor contributions to salmon fishing on the Pacific Northwest Coast. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26(4):576-606.

His recent publications in mixed-methods social science research include:

• Saxbe, D. E., A. P. Graesch, and M. Alvik. (2011). Television as a social or solo activity: Understanding families' everyday television viewing patterns. Communication Research Reports 28(2):180-189.
• Saxbe, D. E., R. Repetti, and A. P. Graesch. (2011). Time spent in housework and leisure: Links with parents' physiological recovery from work. Journal of Family Psychology 25(2):271-281.
• Graesch, A. P. (2009). Material indicators of family busyness. Social Indicators Research 93(1):85-94.
  Klein, W., A. P. Graesch, C. Izquierdo. (2009). Children and chores: A mixed methods study of children’s household work in Los Angeles dual-earner families. Anthropology of Work Review 30(3):98-109.
• Campos, B., A. P. Graesch, R. Repetti, T. Bradbury, and E. Ochs. (2009). Opportunity for interaction? A naturalistic observation study of dual-earner families after work and school. Journal of Family Psychology 23(6):798-807.

Graesch's recent conference presentations include:

• Graesch, A. P., D. M. Schaepe, and L. Dojack. 2011. Relations of Built Space and Political Authority in Residential Architecture at Welqámex in the Upper Fraser Valley, Central Northwest Coast. Invited symposium paper presented at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meetings, Sacramento, March 30-April 3.
• D. M. Schaepe, M. T. Blake, S. Formosa, D. Lepofsky, A. P. Graesch, and A. McHalsie. 2011. Exploring Xelhálh as a Place of Centralized Power among the Stó:l?-Coast Salish. Invited symposium paper presented at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meetings, Sacramento, March 30-April 3.
• D. M. Schaepe and A. P. Graesch. 2011. Collaborative Archaeology at Xelhálh and Welqámex: Findings From Our 2008-2010 Fieldschools. Paper presented at the People of the River Conference, Stó:l? Research and Resource Management Centre, Chilliwack, British Columbia, May 1.
• 2010 (w/Belinda Campos) Finding Time and Space for Family Intimacy. Invited paper presented at the UCLA Center on Everyday Lives of Families Conference, “Reconsidering the American Dream: Middle Class Families Experience the 21st Century,” Los Angeles, CA, April 29-30.
• 2010 The Elaboration of Political Authority in Intermediate Societies: A “Historical” Archaeology of Stó:lô-Coast Salish Households and Political Florescence on the Central Pacific Northwest Coast. Invited paper at the Friday Afternoon Lecture Series (FALS), Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, April 4.
• 2009 (w/Catherine E. Bailey and David M. Schaepe) Aboriginal Fishing Practices in Past and Present: An Archaeological Approach to the Study of Colonial-Influenced Changes in Stó:lô (Coast Salish) Household Organization. Invited paper presented at the Theoretical Archaeology Group annual conference, Stanford, May 1-3.
• 2009 (w/David M. Schaepe and Catherine E. Bailey) A Stone’s Throw from the Border: Field Schools at the Near Far. Invited paper presented at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meetings, Atlanta, April 22-26.
• 2009 (w/Kris Gutierrez) Conceptual and Methodological Models for Educational Research from a Cultural and Ecological Framework: Diversity and the Disciplines. Invited paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, April 16.

Visit the anthropology department website, including the archaeological labs page.