Education

2018 - Ph.D., Department of Anthropology – University of Texas at Austin.  

2014 - M.A. African and African Diaspora Studies – University of Texas at  Austin.

2011 - B.A., Anthropology (SummaCum Laude) & Minor in African American Studies - University of Florida 

Professional Employment History

2022 - Present - Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Stanford University

2020 - 2022 - Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside

2018 - 2020 - University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley

2014 - 2017 - Teaching Assistant, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin

2012 - 2014 - Teaching Assistant, Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas at Austin

Grants

2022 - Princeton University Press - Supporting Diverse Voices Book Proposal Development Grant

2022 - Slave Wrecks Project – Joint project between the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and George Washington University. P.I. Ayana Flewellen, Co-PI Justin Dunnavant - $15,000

2021-2023 - Andrew Mellon Swayer Seminar – Co-PI: $225,000

2019 - 2020 Wenner Gren - Post-Ph.D. Research Grant. P.I. Ayana Flewellen - $13,000

2019 - Slave Wrecks Project – Joint project between the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and George Washington University. P.I. Ayana Flewellen, Co-PI Justin Dunnavant - $15,000

2019 - 2021 University of California-Historically Black Colleges and Universities Initiative (UC-HBCU). Summer Research Internship Support Grant. University of California. Research Methods in African Diaspora Archaeology. P.I. J. Cameron Monroe. $250,000

2018 - Slave Wrecks Project – Joint project between the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and George Washington University. P.I. Ayana Flewellen, Co-PI Justin Dunnavant - $15,000

2018 - University of California-Historically Black Colleges and Universities Initiative (UC-HBCU). Summer Research Internship Support Grant. University of California. Research Methods in African Diaspora Archaeology. P.I. J. Cameron Monroe. $150,000

2017 - Slave Wrecks Project – Joint project between the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and George Washington University. P.I. Justin Dunnavant, Co-P.I. Ayana Flewellen - $15,000

Scholarships and Fellowship

2022 - Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship

2021 - NEH Summer Scholar - NEH Summer Institute, Visual Culture of the American Civil War and Its Aftermath

2020 - 2021 - Bard at Brooklyn Public Library Fellow

2019 - Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies’ Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery Short-term Fellowship

2018 - 2020 - University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship

2017 - 2018 - University Graduate Continuing Fellowship - University of Texas at Austin

2017 - Ford Dissertation Writing Fellowship Honorable Mention

2016 - Graduate Student Travel Award, University of Texas at Austin Graduate School

2013 - NSF Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Honorable Mention

2012-2014 - UT COLA Thematic Graduate Fellowship

Awards

2021 - Society for American Archaeology - Outstanding Public Archaeology Initiative Award

2020 - The Explorers Club Inaugural Explorers 50 Program Honoree

2018 - Society of Historical Archaeology’s Gender and Minority Affairs Committee Diversity Field School Award – for the 2017 Estate Little Princess Field School

2016 - Ada Anderson Youth and Arts Honoree – Austin Trailblazers Award

Media

2022 - Featured, Discovery Channel – Documentary Series - Underground Railroad: The Secret History  https://corporate.discovery.com/discovery-newsroom/science-channel-spotlights-the-often-unseen-history-of-the-underground-railroad-now-revealed-by-modern-technology/

2022 - Interviewed, National Geographic’s Into The Depths – Podcast – Episode 2: Training   https://www.nationalgeographic.com/podcasts/into-the-depths/article/episode-2-training

2022 - Interviewed, Cornell University’s RadioCIAMS – Podcast – Season 4 Episode 2: SAPIENS Talk Back: Changing Archaeology's Stories and Who Tells Them https://archaeology.cornell.edu/radio-ciams-archive

2022  - Interviewed, SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human – Podcast – Redrawing Boundaries https://sapienspodcast.libsyn.com/redrawing-the-boundaries

2021 - Featured, CNN Short Films – Documentary – Lessons From the Water: Diving With a Purpose    https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/07/us/cnn-films-shorts-diving-with-a-purpose-charles-todd/index.html

2021 - Interviewed, California Institute of the Arts’ Redcat – Podcast - Black Motion Pictures: Ayana Omilade Flewellen https://art.calarts.edu/events/black-motion-pictures-ayana-omilade-flewellen

2021 - Speaker, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary – Podcast – Pouring Libation: Lessons from the Water on Mothering, Ceremony, and Surrendering https://www.stage.tba21.org/detail/pouring-libation-lessons-from-the-water-on-mothering-ceremony-and-surrendering

2020  - Featured, PBS Digital Platform – Article  https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/blog/she-digs-ayana-omilade-flewellen/

2020  -  Interviewed, Bespoken Bones – Podcast – Episode 68: On Weaving the Threads of Adornment, Feminism, Storytelling, Archaeology, and Blackness. https://bespokenbones.libsyn.com/episode-68-on-weaving-the-threads-of-adornment-feminism-storytelling-archaeology-and-blackness

2019 - Featured, Science Magazine Digital Platform – Video https://youtu.be/4sTZxGnPp14

2019 - Featured, Science Magazine Digital Platform – Article https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/11/caribbean-excavation-offers-intimate-look-lives-enslaved-africans

2019 - Featured, National Geographic Digital Platform – Video https://youtu.be/u2l_EugvRw8

2019 - Invited Panelist, National Museum for Women in the Arts –  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bbGrixapJk

Publications

In Preparation:

2022 - Book In Preparation: The Will to Adorn: Black Women and Sartorial Choice After Enslavement

Under Review:

2021 - Authors: Justin P. Dunnavant and Ayana Omilade Flewellen. “Towards a Archaeology of Redress,” Current Anthropology. (peer reviewed).

2021 - Authors: Rona Carter, Eleanor K. Seaton, Ayana Omilade Flewellen. “The Value of Intersectionality to Pubertal Development Research,” Journal of Adolescent Research. (peer reviewed). 

Published:

2022  - In Press Chapter: “Digging in Our Grandmother’s Gardens: Black Women Archaeologists in the United Stated from the 1930s to the Present” in Women's Accomplishments in Archaeology. Springer 

2022 - “Dress and Labor: An Intersectional Analysis of Clothing and Adornment Artifacts Recovered from the Levi Jordan Plantation.” In Archaeologies (peer reviewed). 

2021 - Book Review: Heritage, Tourism, and Race: The Other Side of Leisure, by Antoinette Jackson. In Transforming Anthropology.  

2021 - Ayana Omilade Flewellen, Alicia Odewale, Justin Dunnavant, Alexandra Jones, William White III. “Creating Community and Engaging Community: The Foundations of the Estate Little Princess Archaeology Project in St. Croix, USVI.” In International Journal of Historical Archaeology (peer reviewed).

2021 - Authors: Ayana Omilade Flewellen, Justin P. Dunnavant, Alicia Odewale, Alexandra Jones, Maria Franklin, Zoe Crossland Tsion Wolde-Micheal. “‘The Future of Archaeology is antiracist:’ Archaeology in the Time of Black Lives Matter.” In American Antiquity (peer reviewed).

2020 - Authors: Maria Franklin, Justin Dunnavant, Ayana Omilade Flewellen, Alicia Odewale. “The Future is Now: Archaeology and the Eradication of Anti-Blackness” In International Journal of Historical Archaeology (peer reviewed).

2019 - “African Diasporic Choices: Locating the Lived Experiences of Afro-Crucians in the Archaeological and Archival Record.” In Nordic Journal of Information Science and Cultural Mediation (peer reviewed). https://tidsskrift.dk/ntik/article/view/118481

2018 - Authors: Justin Dunnavant, Ayana O. Flewellen, Alexandra Jones, Alicia Odewale, and William White III. “Assessing Heritage Resources in St. Croix Post-Hurricanes Irma and Maria.” In Transforming Anthropology (peer reviewed). Vol. 26, Number 2, pp. 157–172 

2018 - Odewale, Alicia, Justin Dunnavant, Ayana Omilade Flewellen, and Alexandra Jones. “Archaeology for the Next Generation.” Anthropology News website, January 2, 2018. https:// doi.org/10.1111/an.729 

2017 - “LocatingMarginalized Historical Narratives at Kingsley Plantation.” In Historical Archaeology (peer reviewed). 51(1), 71-87

2017 - Review of Spill, by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. InEthnic and Third World Literatures, Volume 16, Hybrid Archives and Crossed Disciplines. Vol. 17, Spring 2017

2016 - Review of Yabo, by Alexis De. Veaux, In Ethnic and Third World Literatures, Volume 15, Hybrid Archives and Crossed Disciplines. Vol 16, Spring 2012

2012 - Co-Authored with Justin Dunnavant “Society of Black Archaeologists.” The African Diaspora Archaeology Network Newsletter. Spring 2012

Technical: 

2020 -  Flewellen, Ayana O., Dunnavant, Justin, Alicia Odewale, William A. White, III, and Alexandra Jones Estate Little Princess Preliminary Report 2019, 12VAm-1-197, Plot 46. Society of Black Archaeologists Report 01-2020. 

2019 -  Flewellen, Ayana O., Dunnavant, Justin, Alicia Odewale, William A. White, III, and Alexandra Jones Estate Little Princess Preliminary Report 2018, 12VAm-1-197, Plot 46. Society of Black Archaeologists Report 01-2019. 

2017 - Dunnavant, Justin, Ayana O. Flewellen, and William A. White, III
Research Design for the Estate Little Princess Archaeological Field School in St. Croix,  U.S. Virgin Islands. Society for Black Archaeologists Report 01-2018. 

Research Experience

June 2018 - Present Co-Principle Investigator, Estate Little Princess Archaeological Field School, St. Croix, USVI

June 2017 - Co-principle Investigator with Justin Dunnavant, Estate Little Princess Archaeological Field School, St. Croix, USVI

2016 - 2018 -  Coordinator under the auspices of the Slave Wrecks Project, the Society of Black Archaeologists and Diving With A Purpose in the creation of a marine and terrestrial  archaeology training program, St. Croix, USVI 

2016 - 17 - Intern, The George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center, Austin

2014 - Present - LaboratoryTechnician, UniversityofTexas at Austin,Texas HistoricalArchaeologyLaboratory

Summer 2014 - Graduate Student Volunteer Excavator, Monmouth University, Nevis Heritage Survey Project., systematic excavations of 18thcentury British Fort. PI: Edward Tennant-Gonzalez 

Spring 2012 - Intern, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture Spring Internship. Intern Supervisor: Dr. Deborah Mack

Summer 2012 -   Research Fellow, Breaking New Ground research fellowship funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.  PIs: Dr. Mark R Schultz and Dr. Adrienne Petty.

Summer 2012 - Intern, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture Summer Internship. Intern Supervisor: Dr. Elaine Nichols 

Summer 2011 - Field School, University of Florida, Tanzania Field School in Heritage Management Studies. PI: Dr. Peter Schmidt 

2011-Present - Oral History Project Coordinator for the Society of Black Archaeologists Oral History Project 

Spring 2011 - Intern, University of Florida, Samuel Proctor Oral History Program Spring Internship. Intern Supervisor: Dr. Paul Ortiz

Summer 2010 - Field School, University of Florida, Kingsley Plantation Field School. PI: Dr. James Davidson

2009-2011 - LaboratoryTechnician, University of Florida, Historical Archaeology Laboratory

Selected Papers Presented

2020 - Dress, Labor, and Choice: An Intersectional Analysis of Clothing and Adornment Artifacts. Society for Historical Archaeology, Boston, MA. 

2017 - Sustainable Archaeology: The 2017 Estate Little Princess Archaeological Field School in St. Croix. Association of American Anthropology Annual Conference, Washington, DC

2017  - Co-presented with Justin Dunnvant. Community Archaeology and Capacity Building: The 2017 Estate Little Princess Archaeological Field School in St. Croix. International Association for Caribbean Archaeology Conference, St. Croix 

2017 - Digging in Our Mothers’ Gardens: Unearthing Formations of Black Womanhood, Society for Historical Archaeology, Dallas, TX. 

2016 - Speaking with Elders to Build New Futures: The Society of Black Archaeologists and the Need to Document the Researcher’s Experience, Association of American Anthropology Annual Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota 

2016 - Adornment as Akin to Freedom: African American Women and Identity Formations. Association for the Study of African American Life and History,

2015 - Three Bozals: An Exploration of Possibility.African and African Diaspora Studies Department Graduate Seminar Series, University of Texas at Austin

2014 - Co-organizer and co-chair, with Justin P. Dunnavant, “Theorizing African Diaspora Archaeology” symposium.   Annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology, Quebec City, Canada. 

2014 - Interrogating Notions of Freedom and Enslavement Through the Representation of Anna Kingsley at Kingsley Plantation.Society for Historical Archaeology, Quebec City. 

Invited Talks

2022  - The Nature Conservancy: Historical Archaeology at the Estate Little Princess, St. Croix, USVI,  Keynote

2022 - Brandis University: Black Feminist Archaeology of the Past, Present and Future

2022  - La Trobe University (Melbourne, Australia): African Diaspora Archaeology on St. Croix USVI: A Society of Black Archaeology Project

2022  - Rice University: A Black Feminist Archaeology of Adornment in Post-emancipation Texas

2022 - University of Connecticut: “The Will to Adorn:” Black Women and Sartorial Choice Post-Emancipation 

2021 - Stanford University: Black Feminist Archaeology of the Past Present and Future. 

2021 - University of Southern California: Archival Grounds: The Estate Little Princess

2021 - Boston University’s Andrew Fisk Memorial Center for Archaeological Research: Black and Indigenous Futures - Moderated

2021 - University of California, Riverside: Anthropology Department; 40th James Young Colloquium, Keynote

2021 - National Marine Sanctuary Foundation; Capitol Hill Ocean Week: Justice, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion - Panelist

2021 - National Park Foundation: Wonder Calls: Diving With a Purpose - Panelist

2021 - The University of Maine: Anthropological Perspectives on Diversity and Inclusion - Panelist

2021 - Stanford University; Theoretical Archaeology Group, Opening Plenary Session: Black Feminist Theory: Expanding Disciplinary Boundaries Questions – Organized and Moderated. 

2021 - Harvard University: Historical Archaeology and Afro-Crucian Heritage

2021 - The University of Michigan: “The Will to Adorn:” Black Women and Sartorial Choice Post-Emancipation 

2021 - Penn Museum: Honoring Black Stories in White Institutions: A Programmatic Collaboration between Black history Untold and the Penn Museum.

2021 - Monticello Thomas Jefferson Foundation: Archaeological Work on St. Croix and Future Visions 

2021 - The Non-Obvious Beyond Diversity Summit: Remembering the Past: How Museums Can Drive the Conversation About Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

2021 - Cambridge University’s Garrod Research Seminars: The Society of Black Archaeologists: Envisioning a Diverse and Inclusive Discipline

2020 - Stanford University: A Black Feminist Archaeology of Adornment in Post-emancipation Texas

2019 - National Park Service, ArcheoThursday Topics in Archeology Webinar: Sustainable Archaeology: The Estate Little Princess Archaeological Field School in St. Croix

2019 - National Museum Of Women In The Arts, FRESH TALK: Accessory to Action—Adorning Wakanda.

2019 - The University of California, Los Angeles: A Black Feminist Archaeology of Adornment

2019 - TomTom Festival, Charlottesville, Virginia: Dressing for the Times: African American Dress Practices Post-emancipation  

2019 - The University of California, Los Angeles Gender and Slavery Symposium: Colonial Surveillance and Sartorial Choice Among the Enslaved in the Danish West Indies 

2019 - The University of California, Riverside: The Clothes on Their Backs:  Interpreting Sartorial Practices of Self-Making Within The African Diaspora

2019 - The University of California, San Diego: A Black Feminist Archaeology of Sartorial Choice in Post-emancipation Texas

2018 - The University of California, Merced: The Clothes on Their Backs: Sartorial Practices of Self-making at the Estate Little Princess

2018 - Friends of The National Park Service St. Croix: Summer Lecture Series Sustainable Archaeology: The Estate Little Princess Archaeology Project

2018 - The University of Tulsa Spring Helmerich Center for American Research Symposium. The Genesis of the Society of Black Archaeologists 

2017 - Queen’s College, The City University of New York. Black Feminist Archaeology and the Quest for Sustainable Archaeological Praxis,

2017 - University of the Virgin Islands Caribbean Cultural Center:Sustainable Archaeology: The 2017 Estate Little Princess Archaeological Field School in St. Croix. 

2016 - Sankofa 5 Conference Reflections on the New York African Burial Ground 25 Years Since, in Williamsburg, Virginia:Society of Black Archaeologist and The Future of The Discipline, 

2016 - Panelist at the 2016 Gloria Anzaldúa Bruncheon at the University of Texas at Austin “For Queer People of Color and Allies,” 

2015 - Moderator of artist talk, The George Washington Carver Museum’s Conversations with Contemporary Artist featuring Professor John Yancey

Professional  And Community Service

2022-Present  - Institute for Field Research, Academic Board 

2021-2026 -  American Antiquity, Editorial Board

2021-Present - Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery Advisory Committee

2021-2023  - President, Society of Black Archaeologists

2021-2023 - Board Member, SBA Liaison: Society for Historical Archaeology 

2020-Present - Advisory Board, SAPIENS

2020-2021 - Webinar Series Organizer, Co-sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Society of Black Archaeologists, the Indigenous Archaeologists Collective

2019-Present   - Board Member, Diving with a Purpose

2019-2021 - President-Elect, Society of Black Archaeologists

2011-Present -  Co-Founder, Society of Black Archaeologists 

2017  - Conference Organizer for the New Directions in Anthropology Graduate Student Conference, April 8th-9th, The University of Texas at Austin 

2016 - Community Organizer for the Women’s Center of Central Texas’ Women’s Empowerment Conference, April 1-2nd 2016, Austin, Texas 

2012-Present - Committee Member for Gender and Minority Affairs Committee for the Society for Historical Archaeology