Evan Taylor is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside. He received his PhD in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He draws from critical heritage studies and historical and contemporary archaeology to investigate the material intersections of community projects, nationalism, commodification, and colonialisms in the past and present. In his recent research, he analyzes how community-based ethics of care and theories of temporality inform local engagements with state heritage projects in Palestine/Israel and Greece. His previous research explored Indigenous peoples’ activism at museums in Canada and the national-colonial mobilization of the Dead Sea Scrolls at museums and archaeological sites in the United States and Palestine/Israel. He is currently developing a new research project on the convergence of extractive industry and heritage in western Canada. He co-edited (with Dr. Elena Sesma) Contemporary Archaeologies in Old Places: Material Politics Between Past and Future (Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 2022).

“I’m honored to be part of the Conversation - an opportunity to reflect on the diverse human experiences of this place and its people, past and present. It is through these experiences that we can recognize exceptions to grand narratives of regional and world history - particularities that bear important lessons. My time on Rhodes shaped much of my thinking about heritage and place, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my research in this collection.”

Evan Taylor