Tag: Sociology and Anthropology

Variety of Deviance and Social Control (Ivan Shmatko)

Hybrid: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/8/2026 and run for 8 weeks, finishing on 7/31/2026.

Project Description

This project aims to document diversity in how people approached human relations. To be more precise, it seeks to document diversity in terms of control over human behavior. We will dig deeper into how different people, groups, and societies think about what constitutes wrong and right, what they define as crime, and what they see as inappropriate, shameful, desired, and required. No less importantly, we will try to figure out what they do when those norms are breached. We will primarily work with secondary sources. However, it is possible, under certain circumstances, that we might engage in some empirical work as well.

Apply now

Prerequisites

No

Special Comments

No

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/8/2026

Estimated End Date: 7/31/2026

Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: Hybrid

Travel Required? No (If “yes”: )

Contact Information: Ivan Shmatko (email: ishmatko@wlu.edu)

Enslavement at Liberty Hall: Uncovering the Archaeology and Forgotten History of Washington and Lee’s Iconic Back Campus (Donald Gaylord)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/08/2026 and run for 8 weeks, finishing on 7/31/2026.

Project Description

During the summer of 2026 Professor Gaylord will continue his research at Liberty Hall, the location of the iconic 18th-century campus of our predecessor institution, Liberty Hall Academy. In the 1970s, Professor John McDaniel and roughly a decade of W&L students excavated here, focusing largely on the academic period of the site’s occupation (1782-1803). Professor Gaylord’s research has shown that after the Liberty Hall Academy House burned down in January 1803, the two subsequent land owners held roughly one hundred African Americans in bondage at Liberty Hall as the labor force for agriculture and light industry over the years between 1803 and the American Civil War. Our work this summer will focus on excavation in the yard spaces around the Foundation at Liberty Hall—Liberty Hall Structure 9—the academy’s Steward’s House/Dining Hall, which later served as the center of enslaved life at Liberty Hall Plantation. Enslaved people lived here, but they also likely operated a forge, cooked and ate, performed washerwoman and seamstress work, and operated one of the earliest African American schoolhouses in the Valley of Virginia. Additionally, we will concentrate on artifact processing and analysis in trying to understand what life was like for the people held in bondage at Liberty Hall. We will excavate while the weather allows, we will process and analyze the sediments and artifacts when the weather keeps us indoors, and we will visit archives in Rockbridge and Augusta County that hold many of the documents related to Liberty Hall.

Apply now

Prerequisites

Prior coursework in Archaeology, preferably SOAN 210 or 211 (Field or Laboratory Methods in Archaeology), but other skills or experience may be accommodated.

Special Comments

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/08/2026

Estimated End Date: 7/31/2026

Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: On campus

Travel Required? Yes (If “yes”: Mostly local travel covered by the Archaeology Lab.)

Contact Information: Donald Gaylord (email: gaylordd@wlu.edu)