James L. Flexner

PERSON James L. Flexner
James L. Flexner
Honorific Prefix:	Dr.
Occupation:	Lecturer in Historical Archaeology and Heritage
Title:	Doctor of Philosophy
Professional Membership:	{{{member}}}
Known For:	Vanuatu fieldwork, Vanuatu ethnographic collections research, colonialism research, Moloka'i fieldwork, anarchy
Discipline:	Archaeology
Sub Discipline:	Historical Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Archaeology of Oceania
Workplaces:	The University of Sydney (2016-present), The Australian National University (2013-2016), Washington and Lee University (2010-2012)
Education:	BA University of Virginia (2005), MA University of California Berkeley (2006), PhD University of California Berkeley (2010)
Email:	{{{email}}}
Web Links:	[1], [2], [3]
ORCID:	{{{orcid}}}
James L. Flexner 's Network Links

James L. Flexner is a lecturer in historical archaeology and heritage at the University of Sydney. His main research interests are in landscape archaeology and historical archaeology, with a geographic focus on Oceania. Recently, he is also exploring the use of early ethnographic collections in archaeological analysis. A significant component of his research is close collaboration with local communities, as well as broader public outreach efforts to make archaeology accessible to many audiences. His doctoral research at UC Berkeley was a study of the landscapes of the 19th century leprosarium at Kalawao, Moloka'i in the Hawaiian Islands. Since then, he has focused his research efforts on fieldwork projects in Vanuatu. His major research project from 2011-2015 was an analysis of mission sites and surrounding Melanesian landscapes during the era of early Christian contacts on the islands of Erromango and Tanna.

His current research focuses on the long-term history of islands in Vanuatu, particularly the last 2000 years on Futuna, Aniwa, and Tanna. He is also excavating a 19th century hotel and tavern in Triabunna, Tasmania. James' research has made contributions to our understanding of indigenous experiences of European colonialism in Oceania, the archaeology of total institutions, and the archaeology of religious transformation. He has also been involved with projects relating to emerging approaches to 'anarchist archaeology.' His technical expertise has to do with field surveys, excavation methods, historical (18th and 19th century) artefact analysis, and GIS. James is particularly interested in the uses of GIS for 'countermapping', that is, using spatial technology to challenge and undermine colonial paradigms. James is currently the Oceania Representative, Knowledgebase Editor, and Timelord of CAA Australasia, and was one of the organizers of the 2017 Spring Institute in Kioloa.

Research Interests

Historical archaeology, landscape archaeology, community archaeology, archaeological field methods, colonialism, environmental anthropology, institutions, religious transformation, missions, anarchism, museum archaeology, geographic specialisations in Oceania, Melanesia, Vanuatu, Polynesia, Hawai‘i, North America (historical), Australia (historical)

Projects

1. South Vanuatu Archaeology Survey (ARC DP160103578) https://www.researchgate.net/project/Southern-Vanuatu-Archaeological-Survey
2. Southern Vanuatu Mission Archaeology Project (ARC DECRA DE130101703) https://svmap.mukurtu.net/
3. Triabunna Archaeological Field School https://www.facebook.com/TriabunnaBarracks.Dig/
4. Archaeology of the Recent Past at Kalawao https://www.nps.gov/kala/index.htm

Imua Mission House, Tanna Island, Vanuatu

Primary Fieldwork and Research Experience

Principal Investigator, Southern Vanuatu Archaeological Survey. Survey and excavation of 3000-year archaeological record of Futuna, Aniwa, Tanna, and Aneityum. 2016-present.

Project Director, Triabunna Field School. Excavation and artefact analysis of a 19th century site in southeast Tasmania that includes an 1840s military barracks and subsequent tavern, hotel, and post office. 2016-present.

Project Director, Chau Chak Wing Museum Archaeological Excavations. Student volunteer excavation of a campus site at the University of Sydney.

Principal Investigator, Southern Vanuatu Mission Archaeology Project. Documentation and mapping of archaeological sites related to 19th-century Presbyterian missions on Tanna and Erromango islands, Vanuatu. Collaborative project in partnership with the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, 2011-2016.

Surveyor, Springbank Archaeology Project. Topographic survey for investigation of early European settlement in the Canberra area. Spring 2014.

Field Director, Morven Farm Site D Archaeological Field School. Direction and instruction of undergraduate students in archaeological excavation methods, and identification and analysis of 18th century artifacts, Spring 2011.

Field Director/Co-Principal Investigator, Archaeology of the Recent Past at Kalawao. Direction and instruction of undergraduate and graduate students in Hawaiian archaeological field and laboratory methods as part of doctoral research and fieldwork, 2006-2010.

Site Topographer/Site Supervisor, Universidade Estadual do Amazonas (State University of Amazonas) Field School and Central Amazon Project Field School, Brazil. Instruction of Brazilian field school students in topography and excavation methods (Courses taught in Portuguese), Summer 2009.

Field School Instructor, Hawaii Archaeological Research Project NSF-REU Field School. Instruction of field school students in survey and excavation methods on Hawai‘i Island, Summer 2008.

Field Technician/Historical Archaeologist, Kalaupapa Cesspool Project/Waste Management Project, Kalaupapa National Historical Park, Moloka‘i, Hawai‘i. Phase I and II survey work and analysis of recovered materials, Summer 2005.

Site Supervisor/Site Illustrator, Pemba Archaeological Project, Pemba Island, Tanzania. Direction of excavation work, stratigraphic profile illustration, artifact illustration, and artifact analysis, Summer 2004.

Field Technician, Monticello Department of Archaeology, Charlottesville, Virginia. Plowzone sampling, survey, and areal excavation of various sites in the 18th century plantation landscape, 2002-2005.

Field Technician, Archaeological Testing and Consulting, Inc., Rockville, Maryland. Phase I Cultural Resource Management surveys in northern Virginia and southern Maryland, 2003-2004.

Archival Researcher, Maritime Archaeological and Historical Society. Research on Civil War-era shipwrecks in the Pamunkey River, Virginia, Fall 2002.

Student, Monticello-UVA Archaeological Field School. Learned the basics of archaeological field methods, Summer 2002.

Publications

Book

Flexner, J. L. (2016) An Archaeology of Early Christianity in Vanuatu: Kastom and Religious Change on Tanna and Erromango, 1839-1920. ANU Press, Canberra.

Journal Articles

Flexner, J. L. (2017) Reform and purification in the historical archaeology of the South Pacific, 1840-1900. International Journal of Historical Archaeology. DOI: 10.1007/s10761-017-0398-1

Flexner, J. L., and P. V. Kirch (2017) Field mapping and Polynesian prehistory: A methodological history and thoughts for the future. Séances de la Société Préhistorique Française 7: 15-30.

Flexner, J. L., M. A. Mulrooney, M. D. McCoy, and P. V. Kirch (2017) Visualising Hawaiian Sacred Sites: The archives and J.F.G. Stokes’s pioneering archaeological surveys, 1906–1913. Journal of Pacific Archaeology 8(1): 63-76.

Flexner, J. L. (2016) Archaeology and ethnographic collections: Disentangling provenance, provenience, and context in Vanuatu assemblages. Museum Worlds 4: 167-180.

Flexner, J. L. (2016) Dark and bright futures for museum archaeology. Museum Worlds 4: 1-3.

Flexner, J. L. (2016) Ethnology collections as supplements and records: what museums contribute to historical archaeology of the New Hebrides (Vanuatu). World Archaeology 48(2): 196-209.

Flexner, J. L. and A. Ball (2016) Sherds of paradise: Domestic archaeology and ceramic artefacts from a Protestant mission in the South Pacific. European Journal of Archaeology 19(4): 728-754.

Flexner, J. L., M.J. Jones and P. D. Evans (2016) Destruction of the 1912 Lenakel Church (Tanna, Vanuatu) in Cyclone Pam, and Thoughts for the Future of the Site. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 20(2): 463-469.

Flexner, J. L., E. Willie, A. Z. Lorey, H. Alderson, R. Williams, and S. Ieru. (2016) Iarisi's domain: Historical archaeology of a Melanesian village, Tanna Island, Vanuatu. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 11(1): 26-49.

Flexner, J. L. and M. Spriggs (2015) Mission sites as indigenous heritage in southern Vanuatu. Journal of Social Archaeology 15(2): 184-209.

Flexner, J. L. and E. Willie (2015) Under the mission steps: An 800 year-old human burial from south Tanna, Vanuatu. Journal of Pacific Archaeology 6(2): 49-55

Flexner, J. L., M. J. Jones and P. D. Evans (2015) “Because it is a Holy House of God”: Buildings Archaeology, Globalization, and Community Heritage in a Tanna Church. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 19(2): 262-288.

Flexner, J. L. (2014) Mapping Local Perspectives in the Historical Archaeology of Vanuatu Mission Landscapes. Asian Perspectives 53(1): 2-28.

Flexner, J. L. (2014) Historical Archaeology, Contact, and Colonialism in Oceania. Journal of Archaeological Research 22(1): 43-87.

Flexner, J. L. (2014) The Historical Archaeology of States and Non-States: Anarchist Perspectives from Hawai‘i and Vanuatu. Journal of Pacific Archaeology 5(2): 81-97.

Flexner, J. L. (2013) Mission archaeology in Vanuatu: Preliminary findings, problems, and prospects. Australasian Historical Archaeology 31: 14-24.

Flexner, J. L. (2012) An Institution that was a Village: Archaeology and Social Life in the Hansen’s Disease Settlement at Kalawao, Moloka‘i. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 16(1): 135-163.

Flexner, J. L. (2011) Bottles, abandonment, and re-visitation in the Hansen‘s disease settlement at Kalawao, Moloka‘i: Implications for site formation processes and interpretation in surface middens. Hawaiian Archaeology 12: 108-124.

Flexner, J. L. (2011) Foreign Animals, Hawaiian Practices: Zooarchaeology in the Leprosarium at Kalawao, Moloka‘i. Journal of Pacific Archaeology 2(1): 82-91.

Flexner, J. L. (2009) Where is Reflexive Map-Making in Archaeological Research? Towards a Place Based Approach. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 24(1): 7-21.

Flexner, J. L., J. Fleisher and A. LaViolette (2008) Bead Grinders and Early Swahili Household Economy: Analysis of an Assemblage from Tumbe, Pemba Island, Tanzania, 7th-10th Centuries AD. Journal of African Archaeology 6(2): 161-181.

Book Chapters

Flexner, J. L., M. Spriggs, S. Bedford, and M. Abong (2016) Beginning historical archaeology in Vanuatu: Recent projects on the archaeology of Spanish, French and Anglophone colonialism. In Archaeologies of Early Modern Spanish Colonialism, edited by S. Monton Subias, C. A. Ruiz Martinez, and M. Berrocal-Cruz. Springer, New York, pp. 205-227.

Flexner, J. L., and C. L. Morgan (2013) The Industrious Exiles: An Analysis of Flaked Glass Tools from the Leprosarium at Kalawao, Moloka‘i. In Hybrid Material Culture: The Archaeology of Syncretism and Ethnogenesis, edited by J. J. Card. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Carbondale, pp. 295-317.

Edited Journal Volume

Flexner, J. L. and K. Message, editors (2016) Current Approaches to Museum Archaeology. Museum Worlds 4.

Doctoral Dissertation

Flexner, J. L. (2010) Archaeology of the Recent Past at Kalawao: Landscape, Place, and Power in a Hawaiian Leprosarium. PhD Dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley (Published through ProQuest/UMI).

Teaching

As the Primary Instructor

Heritage in Practice, University of Sydney (Master of Museum and Heritage Studies, taught Second Semester 2016, Second Semester 2017)

Heritage and Communities, University of Sydney (Master of Museum and Heritage Studies, taught First Semester 2016, First Semester 2017)

Historical Archaeology, University of Sydney (upper-level undergraduate, taught First Semester 2016)

Archaeological Approaches to Ceramic Artefacts, Australian National University (Master’s level, taught Second Semester 2014)

Archaeological Survey Methods, Washington and Lee University (advanced undergraduate level, taught First Semester 2012)

Introduction to Anthropology, Washington and Lee University (introductory undergraduate level, taught Second Semester 2011, Second Semester 2012)

Archaeology, Washington and Lee University (introductory undergraduate level, taught First Semester 2010, Second Semester 2012), University of California, Berkeley (introductory undergraduate level, taught Summer 2010)

Biological Anthropology, Washington and Lee University Department of Sociology and Anthropology (introductory undergraduate level, taught First Semester 2011)

“People and Nature, Who Changes Whom?”: Environmental Anthropology, Washington and Lee University (first-year undergraduate level, taught First Semester 2010, First Semester 2011)

“How Islands Explain the World”: The Archaeology of Oceania, Washington and Lee University (advanced undergraduate level, taught Second Semester 2011)

Historical Anthropology in Oceania, University of California, Berkeley (first-year undergraduate level, taught Second Semester 2010)

Team Taught

History and Theory of Museums and Heritage, University of Sydney (Master of Museum and Heritage Studies, taught First Semester 2017)

Archaeological Fieldwork, University of Sydney (undergraduate and masters students, taught Summer 2017)

Objects and Places, University of Sydney (Master of Museum and Heritage Studies, taught Second Semester 2016)

Engaging Public Audiences, University of Sydney (Master of Museum and Heritage Studies, taught First Semester 2016, Second Semester 2017)

Archaeological Field School, Triabunna, Tasmania, Australian National University (undergraduate and masters students, taught Summer 2016)

Archaeological Field Methods, Morven Farm, Virginia, Washington and Lee University (advanced undergraduate-level, taught Spring 2011)

Ancient History of the Americas, Patten University Prison University Project, San Quentin State Prison, California (introductory undergraduate-level, taught First Semester 2006)

As a Teaching Assistant

Public Archaeology and Outreach, University of California, Berkeley (postgraduate-level, taught First Semester 2009, Second Semester 2010)

Archaeological Field School, Universidade Estadual do Amazonas (State University of Amazonas, Brazil), Lago do Limão (advanced undergraduate level, taught Summer 2009; Portuguese language field school)

Archaeological Field School, University of New Mexico, Hawai‘i Archaeological Research Project National Science Foundation-Research Experience for Undergraduates, Hawaii (advanced undergraduate-level, taught Summer 2008)

Introduction to Archaeology, University of California, Berkeley (introductory undergraduate-level, taught First Semester 2007, Second Semester 2008)

External Links

1. http://sydney.edu.au/arts/staff/profiles/james.flexner.php
2. https://sydney.academia.edu/JamesFlexner
3. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/James_Flexner?ev=hdr_xprf