David Raymond Carlson

My current research focuses on the relationship between labor, racism, racialization, and class on resource extraction sites in the Pacific Northwest. With the assistance and guidance of my adviser and PhD committee chair, Sara Gonzalez, I am conducting a multi-phase research project at the sawmill town site of Barneston, Washington. My project attempts to determine what kinds of anti-exclusion strategies were adopted by Issei (First-Generation Japanese American) laborers at Barneston. How, for example, did they respond to anti-Japanese racism? How did they navigating the sociopolitics and racialized labor structure of the town? This project is ongoing, with a projected end date of spring 2020, at the latest. Those interested in learning more can visit the project website, the Issei at Barneston Project.

Relevant Publications:

• Carlson, David. 2017. The Issei at Barneston Project: An investigation into issues of race and labor at an early twentieth-century Japanese American sawmill community. Archaeology in Washington 17 (Summer): 30-62. [Available upon Request]

Source: Personal Photo

My original interest in plantation and landscape archaeology in Island Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia. While I've sinced changed topics and locales, I still maintain an interest in the historical archaeology of this region. Key questions include: how did plantation owners manipulate the arrangement and nature of architecture and landscapes so as to control labor and naturalize a dominant ideology? How might slaves and laborers have resisted such domination? Unfortunately, a number of difficulties have made this research untenable for the moment, but I would like to return there in the future.

Relevant Publications:

• Carlson, David and Amy Jordan. 2013. "Visibility and Power: Preliminary Analysis of Social Control on a Bandanese Plantation Compound, Eastern Indonesia." Asian Perspectives 52(2): 213-243. [Peer Reviewed] -- [PDF Proof]

I have developed a strong interest in archaeological pedagogy, particularly in the role active learning techniques can play in college instruction, and in techniques for developing critical reading and argumentative skills in large-lecture classrooms. See my Teaching page for more details.

I have a number of other interests besides those above, mostly reflecting my interest in how archaeologists think about the past and recognition of the importance of involving non-archaeologists in archaeological research.

These interests include:

Source: Webmoor 2007; Gillings 2009

• Epistemology of Archaeology: Epistemology is the philosophical discipline concerned with how we know what we know. While it has fallen somewhat out of favor in the broader discipline of archaeology, I still find it interesting. I am particularly intrigued by debates over how we build confidence in our claims, particularly in a multivocal environment.
• Archaeological GIS: Archaeological GIS concerns the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Geographic Information Science (GISci) to archaeology. I specialize in the application of GIS software and spatial analysis to archaeological questions, and am particularly interested in visibility/accessibility studies. While my current research has taken me away from this particular subset of GIS-based research, I still plan on integrating GIS into my dissertation work, as both a means of efficiently organizing data and as a way of presenting that data to the public.