Whitney Battle-Baptiste is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. An historical archaeologist of African and Cherokee descent, she has done fieldwork at Colonial Williamsburg, the Hermitage, the W. E. B DuBois homestead, and other sites. She holds a Ph.D. from University of Texas, Austin and conducts research on plantations in the U.S. Southeast, the materiality of contemporary African American popular culture, and Black Feminist theory and its implications for archaeology.