MA/PhD Students Patrick Hussey, Jennifer Browne, Naurin Philipose Alencherry, and Oreoluwa Sodeke Present Research to Anthropology Department

On May 6, MA/PhD students Patrick Hussey, Jennifer Browne, Naurin Philipose Alencherry, and Oreoluwa Sodeke presented their MA thesis projects to the faculty and students of William & Mary’s Anthropology department. Their presentations marked the culmination of the Spring 2026 Paper and Presentations class, taught by Professor Martin Gallivan.

Patrick Hussey presented his thesis, titled “The Politics of Repatriation: Developing Approaches, Decentering Narratives, and Ceremony.” His thesis examined the repatriation policies and procedural documents of a range of museums, universities, professional organizations and Indigenous communities across the United States and Canada. His presentation highlighted different institutional priorities and the effects of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) on American and Canadian institutions respectively. In his presentation, Hussey ultimately suggested that many institutions must rethink their approaches to repatriation, and that they must move beyond thinking of repatriation as a matter of simply returning ancestral human remains and cultural patrimony in compliance with repatriation law.

Jennifer Browne presented her thesis, titled “‘… brave men being put into the Grave’: Normative and Atypical Burial Patterns at the Governor’s Palace Cemetery.” Her thesis examined the archaeological and documentary record of the Revolutionary War era Governor’s Palace Cemetery, associated with a Continental Army hospital located in Williamsburg, Virginia, that operated in 1781. Her presentation highlighted the social expectations of respect, care, and burial decency for military burials from the eighteenth century. Through studying burial patterns across the cemetery, Browne demonstrated how, in her words, “human care and effort were never lost” even amidst the difficulties and challenges of running a war-time hospital.

Naurin Philipose Alencherry presented her thesis, titled “The Weight that Travels: The Moral Economy of Indian Student Migration to the United States.” Drawing from oral history archives, Youtube vlogs and the discourse in Youtube comment sections, and oral narratives collected from interlocutors, Philipose’s thesis examined the moral economy generated by Indian students’ migration to the United States and the sacrifices and investments made by their family networks back home. Her presentation introduced the concept of “structural surplus obligation”, defined in her words by “the enduring moral weight generated by parental sacrifice that financial repayment cannot discharge.” She highlighted in her presentation the ways that, across six decades of Indian migration to the United States, family investment in overseas migration and education operates as an inalienable gift.

Oreoluwa Sodeke presented her thesis, titled “Beyond Decline: Domestic Practice and Social Continuity in 15th-16th Centuries Post-Classical Ile-Ife.” Her thesis examined the archaeological record of Igbo Rudi, a site located on the periphery of the ancient city of Ile-Ife. Drawing on an analysis of thousands of pottery sherds, debris from ironworking, faunal remains, beads and cowrie shells dating to the post-classical period of Ile-Ife, from the fifteenth to the sixteenth centuries, Sodeke’s presentation highlighted how the continuing social life of the site was evidenced by the cooking, craft production, and adornment activities of its inhabitants. Her presentation ultimately argued against prevailing frameworks of collapse and decline which have been used to interpret life in post-classical Ile-Ife.