Conference Agenda

Sex work occupied a liminal space in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century heteronormative American culture. Sex workers were often perceived as outsiders within the “polite” society of their own communities. In the mining town of Central City, Colorado, there is historical evidence that further restrictions were placed on the movement of sex workers. Despite these constraints, professional spaces occupied by sex workers in the nineteenth-century, such as brothels, were multi-layered counter-spaces, resembling what Foucault referred to as “heterotopias”. Using excavated materials from the Central City Archaeological Project field school, this paper argues that the othering of sex workers was not only embodied, but also inscribed on the spaces which they occupied and reflected in the way that these spaces were constructed, decorated, located on the landscape, or used to present fantasy to the brothel customer.

Given that queer theory was born out of queer activism, queer archaeologists have often challenged heteronormative biases in the discipline because of how they reinforce racist, homophobic, and transphobic opinions in the contemporary world. However, few studies have tackled the struggles of living queer people, despite dealing with histories that are directly tied to living communities. In my work with the akisevallianik angutimut/anguniarnek project, I have found that the values of mutual care, reciprocity, and respect embraced by contemporary and historical queer activists can serve as a road map for how to engage with queer communities. I will, therefore, argue that queer archaeologists can further the activist efforts of their predecessors by implementing a queer ethic of care into their work, which requires them to take action within and outside of their academic spheres to care for the queer people whose history they study.

How do representations of the body and the penis orient understandings of sex and gender? This paper utilizes queer theoretical perspectives on bodies and phenomenology to reconsider archaeological orientations to the penis. Phenomenological perspectives investigate the experience of living in a body and how repeated or habitual actions shape the relations between bodies in the world. Through an examination of iconographic and figurine representations of ancient Maya rituals involving the penis, the paper argues that the Maya had a nuanced view of the human body and a deep understanding of how it works. When viewed through a queer phenomenological lens, ancient Maya representations of the penis call into question normative understandings of the penis as inherently sexual and gendered. Drawing from the Maya to speak to historical archaeology, this paper works to reorient our understanding of the penis and reveals more expansive relations between people and their bodies.

Sex workers exist outside of the heteronormative expectations of society by not conforming to the traditional structure of relationships such as monogamy and non-deviant sexual practices. This deviation from societal norms can manifest in the way they present themselves and behave, such as types of clothing used to portray a certain fantasy of the client and engaging in sexual practices that have been labeled as deviant. This paper explores how personal adornment exists in the space of 19th- and early-20th-century sex work, incorporating theories of embodiment and presentation of self, specifically focusing on the Central City sex district in Colorado. This analysis will be conducted via a theoretical approach to the topic utilizing elements of Queer Theory. Research will include the analysis of artifacts excavated by the Central City Archaeology Project Field School seasons of 2023 and 2024.

Broadly, Black feminism is based on the notion that Black women and our knowledge matter. Our positionality, being Black and female within a patriarchal white supremacist society, subjects us to unique experiences that give us insight into the many forms that oppression can take. Sexuality emerges as a core theme in Black feminist theory, centering topics such as reproductive rights and sexual violence. Importantly, many pioneering Black feminists identified as queer and/or lesbian, emphasizing the deleterious effects of oppression rooted in heteronormativity and homophobia. Historically, Black women have been subject to oversexualization, degendering, and masculinization depending on the context. I consider other ways of interpreting the bioarchaeological record informed by Black feminism that center the experiences of Black women. If dominant archaeological interpretations of the past presume heterosexuality, marriage, and nuclear families, then by default the pathologization of Black women and families is inevitable.

This paper will explore LGBTQ grieving within tangible, temporary, and virtual spaces through examples from Montgomery County Maryland and the larger Washington, DC metropolitan area. Historical burial grounds are heteronormative landscapes, most visibly true in family graveyards and in biological family groupings in community cemeteries where women and children are identified on markers as wife or child. Because the disposition of remains for legally unmarried adults has been decided by the next of kin as recognized by law, queer people are seldom buried with their lovers or families of choice. Instead, they are often buried alone or with their families of origin, and in the case of trans individuals, with their dead names. Recognizing the historical burial sites of LGBTQ people and ways of queer remembrance requires learning to read between the lines of cemetery heteronormativity to find the people who don’t fit the pattern.

As researchers become more critical about the distinctions among phenomena we call "sexuality," "gender," "sex," etc., we are better equipped to reflect on what precisely can be known or learned about any and all of them. This paper asks what archaeological analysis might contribute to an understanding of life in the Pauli Murray Family Home in Durham, North Carolina, ca. 1900-1950. Specifically, given what the archival record reveals about Murray's sexuality, how can an archaeologist frame meaningful questions that produce new knowledge about Murray, about their family, and about life in the first half of the 20th century?

An unfortunate result of heteronormativity in the field of archaeology has been to reinforce Western binary categories onto the archaeological record, which scholars have been unpacking now for over twenty years (e.g., Blackmore 2011; Klembara 2021; Schmidt and Voss 2000). Building on their critiques, I argue this also includes our notion of what counts as archaeology (i.e., anything older than 50 years) and how we study it (i.e., through artifacts and discrete sites). By reframing archaeology as the study of a culture’s heritage through objects, places, and community knowledge, we can use the tools of archaeology and anthropology to document the archaeological record of living queer communities today – preserving it for future generations. In this presentation, I share the results of such documentation of the archaeological record of 20th and 21st queer communities in Oklahoma.