Browsing by Author "Gonzalez, Virginia"

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    Excavations at the Varner-Hogg Plantation Slave Quarters: 2020 Field Season Results
    (Rice University, 2020) Jalbert, Catherine; Morgan, Molly; Hickey, Kristen; Howe-Kerr, Luke; Merchant, Joe; Bartsch, Kyle; Bhatnagar, Anshul|Custer, Katherine; Devine, Lizzie; Gonzalez, Virginia; Hwang, Elaine; Miller, Victoria; Rasich, Biz; Anthropology
    In the spring semester of 2020, Rice University students participated in archaeological excavations at the Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site, under the project directors Dr. Molly Morgan (Rice faculty) and Dr. Catherine Jalbert (Texas Historical Commission). The project team conducted research over four weekends in February and the first weekend in March. This fieldwork fulfilled the requirements for the course ANTH 362: Archaeological Field Techniques. Fieldwork in this project involved students in setting up units of investigation, learning about soils and stratigraphy, hands-on excavation and materials collection methods, and the recording and documentation of all facets of research. Typically, this fieldwork is followed by artifact analysis and interpretation, but in this year of COVID-19, the Rice University Archaeology Laboratory closed and students finished the course by writing summaries of fieldwork and literature reviews on particular artifact categories and their importance in historical archaeology.
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    Recommendations for Reinterpreting the Main House and Enhancing Anti-Racist Curriculum Practices and Community Outreach Strategies at Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site
    (Rice University, 2021) Carmona, Melissa; Galvan, Jesus; Gonzalez, Virginia; Josephs, Lindsay; Center for Civic Leadership; Anthropology
    The Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site is a state historical site under the leadership of the Texas Historical Commission. During its 63 years as a historic site, the staff of Varner-Hogg has aimed to effectively present the histories of all of the people who once lived there, with effective changes occurring in the last ten years and continuing today. These efforts are driven by the staff’s desire to update the original narratives at Varner-Hogg that primarily focused on the experiences of White landowners, as opposed to the enslaved persons who lived and worked on the plantation. This semester, we were tasked with providing research-based recommendations for redesigning the public history interpretation offered at the site's Main House and enhancing the depth of the visitor experience. We examined over 75 academic sources pertaining to four key areas of research: anti-racist heritage site curriculum design; community outreach strategies; presentation of slavery-related topics at other heritage site; and oral histories and individual narratives from the site's plantation period. We subsequently used the research that we gathered to compile the best practices for relaying complex historical information to diverse public audiences within the narrative of seeing the Main House through the eyes of the enslaved who worked there. Finally, we have included a list of projects that we believe would be beneficial for future study and consideration.