Kathryn Sikes, Ph.D. Student

Katie Sikes entered the Ph.D. Program in Historical Archaeology in 2004 with an M.A. in Anthropology from Florida State University (2003), and a B.A. in Anthropology from Syracuse University (1996). She has previously worked for the National Park Service's Southeast Archeological Center as well as several cultural resource management firms. Her research interests include postcolonial theory, cognitive landscapes, the relationship between history and the construction of social identity, and maritime archaeology. An excerpt of her M.A. thesis, an historic preservation documentation of a 19th-century schooner, appeared in a 2004 edition of International Journal of Nautical Archaeology (33/2), and she has forthcoming publications in preparation or review including a study of 17th-century Chesapeake pipes decorated in the star motif, as well as two collaborative interpretations of the vernacular boats of 19th-century Achill Island, Ireland (coauthored with Chuck Meide).

For the past two years, Katie has served as the site supervisor and principal teaching assistant for the College of William and Mary’s archaeological field school at the Ravenscroft Site in Colonial Williamsburg (visit the project website here). She is currently working on her dissertation, which focuses upon interethnic encounters in colonial Virginia during the period from the 1630s to 1660s, with particular emphasis upon excavated artifact assemblages from City Point and the upper James River. She has been awarded an American Philosophical Society Lewis & Clark Field Scholarship to support this research.

Excavations at the Ravenscroft Site, 2007