About

Maria Franklin is a professor in the Department of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, serving as the Associate Chair. Her research focuses on historical archaeology, archaeological theory, African Diaspora studies, race and gender, and feminist theory. She is engaged in scholarly work that explores these interconnected fields, contributing to a deeper understanding of historical and cultural dynamics within the African Diaspora and related areas.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Archaeology
• History
• Social Science
• Law
• Demography
• Public relations
• Art history

Selected publications

• John L. Cotter Award in Historical Archaeology: Alicia D. Odewale

  Historical Archaeology · 2024-03-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• At the Intersections of History

  Advances in Archaeological Practice · 2023-08-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT The Bolivar Archaeological Project exemplifies the possibilities of archaeology as service, incorporating descendant communities and local stakeholders into the fabric of the research design and planning for a state infrastructure project. This collaborative, multidisciplinary project attends to marginalized histories to offer a model for how publicly funded cultural resources management archaeology can serve multiple goals. The Bolivar Archaeological Project was conceived as a public archaeology project, with dual goals of being community driven and yielding scholarly contributions. In the shifting rural–urban landscape of Denton County, a Texas Department of Transportation road improvement project has supported archaeological investigations of two nineteenth-century sites—a blacksmith shop and hotel—associated with the historic Chisholm Trail. The blacksmith shop belonged to Tom Cook, an African American freedman, whose descendants reside nearby and became active participants in the investigations, including as collaborative authors in this article. The project illustrates the importance of representation and praxis to realize inclusive community engagement, with this article outlining the development of the project and ongoing research. Informed by Black feminist archaeologies, the project works at the intersections of local communities and state infrastructure while navigating landscapes of fraught histories and presents to forge an archaeology for the twenty-first century.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 7 The Knowledge Keepers

  University of Colorado Press eBooks · 2023-08-28

  book-chapterSenior author

  The University Press of Colorado, including the Utah State University Press imprint, publishes forty to forty-five new titles each year, with the goal of facilitating communication among scholars and providing the peoples of the state and region with a fair assessment of their histories, cultures, a

  PublisherDOI

• 6 What the Old Ones Can Teach Us

  University of Colorado Press eBooks · 2023-08-28 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  The University Press of Colorado, including the Utah State University Press imprint, publishes forty to forty-five new titles each year, with the goal of facilitating communication among scholars and providing the peoples of the state and region with a fair assessment of their histories, cultures, a

  PublisherDOI

• Biocultural and intersectional analyses of Black motherwork and children in Georgia

  Southeastern Archaeology · 2022-10-02 · 4 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Biocultural studies have illuminated the roles of slavery, racism, and economic marginalization on the health outcomes of African diasporic populations. This paper highlights Black women as historical agents who, after slavery, exerted greater autonomy over their reproductive roles in childbirth and childcare. The paper’s objectives and interpretations are situated within Black feminists’ discourses on Black motherhood as both a site of subjugation and of empowerment. Raced and gendered oppression meant that Black women’s reproductive and productive demands were burdensome. Yet, Black women’s lower fertility rates over time indicate that many of them chose to bear fewer children following slavery, a decision that is partially implicated in their increased longevity. Further, there is bioarchaeological and historical evidence illustrating how Black mothering practices, including women’s social networks, benefited children’s well-being. Comparative data for the occurrence of linear enamel hypoplasias among enslaved and free Black populations suggest that post-emancipation women prolonged nursing, which helped children to survive chronic stress.

  PublisherDOI

• “The Future of Archaeology Is Antiracist”: Archaeology in the Time of Black Lives Matter

  American Antiquity · 2021 · 134 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Archaeology
  • History

  This forum builds on the discussion stimulated during an online salon in which the authors participated on June 25, 2020, entitled “Archaeology in the Time of Black Lives Matter,” and which was cosponsored by the Society of Black Archaeologists (SBA), the North American Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG), and the Columbia Center for Archaeology. The online salon reflected on the social unrest that gripped the United States in the spring of 2020, gauged the history and conditions leading up to it, and considered its rippling throughout the disciplines of archaeology and heritage preservation. Within the forum, the authors go beyond reporting the generative conversation that took place in June by presenting a road map for an antiracist archaeology in which antiblackness is dismantled.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• AAQ volume 85 issue 4 Cover and Front matter

  American Antiquity · 2020-10-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Future is Now: Archaeology and the Eradication of Anti-Blackness

  International Journal of Historical Archaeology · 2020 · 126 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Archaeology

  Building a new anti-racist archaeology will require an unprecedented level of structural changes in the practices, demographics, and power relations of archaeology. This article considers why this iteration of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement is proving to be unique in terms of its potential to transform the field. We discuss how anti-racist archaeologists arrived at this juncture prepared to meet the challenges now before us, and how members of the Society of Black Archaeologists are collaborating with others to enact change. We acknowledge the significant social justice efforts of others and suggest how archaeologists can get involved to keep this critical momentum going.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• African American descendants, community outreach, and the Ransom and Sarah Williams Farmstead Project

  Journal of Community Archaeology & Heritage · 2020 · 29 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Public relations

  We participated in the research of a post-emancipation African American site in Texas that involved a community outreach programme with local descendants. We worked with the descendant community in producing knowledge and defining project outcomes, both of which benefitted the research and raised the public visibility of black Texas history and archaeology. Based on our experiences, we discuss how cultural resource management (CRM) firms can play an important role in diversifying the profession, and in engendering a long-term commitment to public archaeology among their employees. There were challenges we encountered working within the context of CRM, including funding allocations and enlisting local descendants in the site excavation, yet we hope that this case study helps to promote community archaeology in future CRM projects.

  PublisherDOI

• A Bioarchaeological Study of African American Health and Mortality in the Post-Emancipation U.S. South

  American Antiquity · 2020-08-11 · 14 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  After emancipation, most African Americans remained tethered to agricultural economies, while others migrated to cities seeking better opportunities. Although bioarchaeologists have made significant interventions in researching people of African descent, there are relatively few published comparative studies that address their morbidity and mortality after slavery. This study compares the bioarchaeological evidence for rural and urban southern United States populations to address disparities in health and longevity. It considers the biological effects of racism, including the health impacts of poverty, disease, and malnourishment. Although historians and demographers argue that urban life was especially detrimental to health, the results of this research suggest greater complexity in African American well-being. Whereas urban adults had higher midlife mortality and reduced longevity compared to their rural counterparts, both rural and urban children experienced poor health. Rural child mortality and morbidity varied significantly, suggesting differences in diet and disease exposure across rural communities. With regard to gender, rural and urban women died at younger ages than men. This disparity in mortality is partly attributed to black women's working and reproductive lives within the context of racism and gender inequality.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Alexandra Jones

  University of Worcester

  6 shared

• Tsione Wolde-Michael

  Smithsonian Institution

  6 shared

• Lynn H. Gamble

  6 shared

• Christopher B. Rodning

  4 shared

• Samuel Wilson

  University of North Carolina Health Care

  4 shared

• Nedra Lee

  4 shared

• Anna Marie Prentiss

  4 shared

• Ayana Omilade Flewellen

  Stanford University

  3 shared

Education

• PhD, Anthropology

  University of California