Christopher DeCorse

Distinguished Professor and Chair, Anthropology Department

Senior Research Associate, Maxwell African Scholars Union

Courses

2024 Fall
- ANT 141 Introduction to Archaeology and Prehistory
2024 Summer
- ANT 643 Advanced Field Methods in Archaeology
- ANT 443 Field Methods in Archaeology
2024 Spring
- ANT 741 Archaeological Theory
- ANT 670 Experience Credit
2023 Fall
- ANT 670 Experience Credit
- ANT 141 Introduction to Archaeology and Prehistory
2023 Spring
- ANT 249 Archaeology at the Movies:The Scientific Study of the Past in Popular Culture
2022 Fall
- ANT 470 Experience Credit
- ANT 141 Introduction to Archaeology and Prehistory
2022 Spring
- ANT 249 Archaeology at the Movies:The Scientific Study of the Past in Popular Culture
- ANT 470 Experience Credit

Highest degree earned

Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1989

Bio

I am an archaeologist interested in the cultural entanglements of the early modern world, material culture studies and general anthropology. I have excavated sites in the United States and the Caribbean, but my primary area of research has been in the archaeology, ethnohistory and ethnography of sub-Saharan Africa. I am particularly interested in how archaeology can help us understand the transformations that occurred in Africa during the period of the Atlantic trade. I am currently directing ongoing research projects in coastal Ghana and in Sierra Leone, including work at Elmina, the site of the first and largest European trade post established in sub-Saharan Africa, and at Bunce Island, the major center of European trade on the African coast between the Senegambia and coastal Ghana.

My principal publications on African archaeology include: "An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast, 1400-1900" (Smithsonian Press, 2001, now available from "West Africa during the Atlantic Slave Trade" (an edited volume republished by Bloomsbury Academic, 2016). My book "Small Worlds: Method, Meaning, and Narrative Craft in Microhistory" (School of Advanced Research Press, 2008), co-edited with John Walton and James Brooks, brings together the work of twelve scholars from diverse disciplines to explore theoretical vantage and method in the interpretation of the past through the lens of microhistory.

My textbooks include "Anthropology: A Global Perspective" (with Raymond Scupin, Pearson, 8^th Edition 2016); "Anthropology: The Basics" (with Raymond Scupin, Pearson, 1^st Edition 2016); "In the Beginning: An Introduction to Archaeology" (with Brian Fagan, Prentice Hall, 12^th Edition 2005,) and; "The Record of the Past: An Introduction to Archaeology and Physical Anthropology" (Prentice Hall, 2000). My publications are listed in my resume, and many can be downloaded via my Academia webpage.

Areas of Expertise

General anthropology, African archaeology and history, African diaspora studies, culture contact, colonialism and change, archaeology and popular culture

Research Grant Awards and Projects

"Curation of Artifacts 2024 - 2025", Sponsored by US Air Force Research Labs/Rome.

"Curation of Artifacts Project 2023 - 2024", Sponsored by US Air Force Research Labs/Rome.

"Curation of Artifacts Project 2022 - 2023", Sponsored by US Air Force Research Labs/Rome.

"Outpost of Empire: Kormantine, the slave trade, and England's first outpost in Africa", Sponsored by National Endowment for the Humanities/Natl. Fndn. on the Arts & Humanities.

"Black Past Lives Matter: Digital Kormantin", Sponsored by National Endowment for the Humanities/Natl. Fndn. on the Arts & Humanities.

"British Anti-Slavery, Trade, and Nascent Colonialism on the Freetown Peninsula, Sierra Leone:_Doctoral Dissertation Research", Sponsored by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Selected Publications

Journal Articles
- DeCorse, C. R., Brass Working and Mforowa Manufacture among the Akan of Coastal Ghana during the 17th– 20th centuries. Afrique, Archéologie et Art.
- DeCorse, C. R., Benton, C. J., "Yalunka Child Drawings: The Draw-A-Man Test in Cross-cultural Perspective." West African Journal of Educational and Vocational Measurement.
- Skowronek, T. B., DeCorse, C. R., Denk, R., Birr, S. D., Kingsley, S., Cook, G. D., Dominguez, A. B., Clifford, B., Barker, A., Otero, J. S., Moreira, V. C., Bode, M., Jansen, M. and Scholes, D., "German brass for Benin Bronzes: Geochemical analysis insights into the early Atlantic trade." PLoS ONE , 2023.
- France, C. A., Owsley, D. W., Bruwelheide, K. S., Renschler, E. S., Barca, K. G. and DeCorse, C. R., "Stable isotopes from the African site of Elmina, Ghana and their usefulness in tracking the provenance of enslaved individuals in 18th and 19th century North American populations." American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2019.
- DeCorse, C. R., "Sierra Leone in the Atlantic World: Concepts, Contours, and Exchange." Atlantic Studies, 2015.
- DeCorse, C. R., Historical Archaeology: Methods, Meanings and Ambiguities. In Current Perspectives in the Archaeology of Ghana. Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2014.
- DeCorse, C. R., Early Trade Posts and Forts of West Africa. In First Forts: Essays on the Archaeology of Proto-colonial Fortifications. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Book Chapters
- DeCorse, C. R., "Contact, Colonialism, and the Fragments of Empire: Portugal, Spain and the Iberian Moment in West Africa." In The Global Spanish Empire: Five Hundred Years of Place Making and Pluralism. University of Arizona Press, 2020.
- DeCorse, C. R., "Historical Landscapes of the Modern World." In Power, Political Economy, and Historical Landscapes of the Modern World: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.. SUNY Press Series, Fernand Braudel Center Studies in Historical Social Science, 2019.
- Chouin, G. L., DeCorse, C. R., "Atlantic Intersections: African-European Emporia in Early Modern West Africa." In Trade and Colonization in the Ancient Mediterranean: The Emporion, from the Archaic to the Hellenistic Period,”É. Gailledrat, M. Dietler and R. Plana-Mallart (eds.). Montpellier. Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée, 2018.
- Beier, J. M., DeCorse, C. R., "Forts, Communities, and their Entanglements." In British Forts and Their Communities: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives, C. R. DeCorse and Z. J. M. Beier (eds.). University Press of Florida, 2018.
- DeCorse, C. R., "Landlords and Strangers; British Forts and Their Communities in West Africa." In British Forts and Their Communities: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives. University Press of Florida, 2018.
- DeCorse, C. R., Tools of Empire: Trade, Resources and the British Forts of West Africa. In Building the British Atlantic World. University of North Carolina Press, 2016.
- DeCorse, C. R., Fortified Towns of the Koinadugu Plateau: Northern Sierra Leone in the Atlantic World. In Landscapes of Power: Regional Perspectives on West African Polities in the Atlantic Era. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Book Reviews
- DeCorse, C. R., "Review of Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the African Diaspora, by Akinwumi Ogundiran and Toyin Falola (eds.)." African Archaeological Review, 2009.
- DeCorse, C. R., "Review of Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa, by Timothy Insoll." Journal of African Archaeology, 2005.
- DeCorse, C. R., "Review of African Homecoming: Pan-African Ideology and Contested Heritage by Katharina Schramm." Ethnoarchaeology, 2004.
- DeCorse, C. R., "Review of Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade by Manu Herbstein, First e-reads publication 2001." International Journal of African Historical Studies, 2004.
- DeCorse, C. R., "Review of Cattle for Beads: The Archaeology of Historical Contact and Trade on the Namib Coast by Jill Kinahan, Studies in African Archaeology 17." Historical Archaeology, 2004.
- DeCorse, C. R., "Review of Coast of Slaves (Slavernes Kyst) by Thorkild Hansen, translated by Kari Dako." International Journal of African Historical Studies, 2004.
- DeCorse, C. R., "Review of World Eras, Volume 10: West African Kingdoms, 500-1590 edited by Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Thomas Gale." International Journal of African Historical Studies, 2004.
Books and Monographs
- DeCorse, C. R., An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast. Percheron Press, Foundations of Archaeology Series, 2021.
- Scupin, R., DeCorse, C. R., Anthropology: A Global Perspective. SAGE , 2021.
- Power, Political Economy, and Historical Landscapes of the Modern World: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. DeCorse, C. R. (ed.) the SUNY Press Series, Fernand Braudel Center Studies in Historical Social Science, 2019.
- British Forts and Their Communities: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives. DeCorse, C. R., Beier, Z. J. (eds.) University Press of Florida, 2018.
- DeCorse, C. R., Scupin, R., Anthropology: The Basics. Pearson, 2016.
- West Africa during the Atlantic Slave Trade: Archaeological Perspectives. DeCorse, C. R. (ed.) Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
- DeCorse, C. R., Postcolonial or Not? West Africa in the Pre-Atlantic and Atlantic Worlds. , 2014.
Research Notes and Reports
- Renschler, E. S., DeCorse, C. R., "The Bioarchaeology of Entanglement: Burials from Elmina, Ghana." In Nyame Akuma: The Newsletter of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists. , 2017.
- DeCorse, C. R., Foreword to Ethnic Ambiguity and the African Past: Materiality, History, and the Shaping of Cultural Identities, edited by François G Richard and Kevin C. MacDonald. , 2015.
- DeCorse, C. R., "Archaeological Fieldwork at Bunce Island: A Slave Trading Entrepôt in Sierra Leone." Nyame Akuma, 2014.
- DeCorse, C. R., "Obituary Rachel Lynelle Horlings 22 April 1979 -16." In Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa. , 2013.
- DeCorse, C. R., "Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa." Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa , 2013.
- DeCorse, C. R., "Comment on "Isotopic Studies of Human Skeletal Remains from a 16th- 17th Century AD Churchyard in Campeche, Mexico: Diet, Place of Origin, and Age," by T. Douglas Price, James H. Burton, Andrea Cucina, Pilar Zabala, Robert Frei, Robert H. Tykot, and Vera Tiesler." In Current Anthropology. , 2012.
- DeCorse, C. R., West African Forest Kingdoms. In The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Oxford University Press, 2012.

Presentations and Events

Miller, H., DeCorse, C. R., Society for Historical Archaeology Conference, "A Biocultural Analysis of the Impacts of Interactions Between West Africans and Europeans During the Trans-Atlantic Trade at Elmina, Ghana" (2023)

O'Leary, M., DeCorse, C. R., 87th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, "Marketing Colonialism: Smoking, Pipes and Cultural Entanglement in Colonial Senegal" (2022)

Kolloquium Series, Archaeology and Heritage in the Global south, University of Cologne Institute for African Studies & Egyptology, "West Africa's Vanishing Past" (2022)

Department of History, York University, "Archaeology on the Gold Coast" (2021)

Department of History, William and Mary, "European emporia of West Africa" (2020)

Lorentz Center Workshop, University of Leiden, "African Intersections" (2019)

Planning Workshop Early Modern Period Transitions in Southeast Asia: Environmental Dynamics, Social Change, and Globalization, University of California, Los Angeles, "Thinking Globally" (2019)