Dr. Justin Dunnavant, an incoming professor in the Department of Anthropology, has been selected as one of “15 global changemakers” for the National Geographic 2021 Emerging Explorer cohort.
National Geographic Society states: “These 15 individuals are conducting innovative work focused on a range of topics such as inventing space technologies, ocean exploration, understanding the past through archaeology and anthropology, species conservation, storytelling, and elevating young voices for the future of education.”
Dr. Dunnavant is currently a provost’s postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University’s Spatial Analysis Research Laboratory and will be an assistant professor in UCLA’s Anthropology Department starting this fall. His current research in the U.S. Virgin Islands investigates the relationship between ecology and enslavement in the former Danish West Indies. Dr. Dunnavant is also co-founder and president of the Society of Black Archaeologists, an American Academy of Underwater Sciences scientific diver, a consultant for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and a 2021 inductee to The Explorers Club. His research has been featured on Netflix’s Explained and Hulu’s Your Attention Please and in American Archaeology and Science magazines.
To read Dr. Dunnavant’s latest article, “Craft an African American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act,” in NATURE, click HERE.
