The BAHA Liberia project team consists of a mix of international researchers, Liberian professionals, community members, and a global community of the Liberian diaspora. In addition to the research team members featured below, countless people have made substantial contributions to this project. Some of the invaluable BAHA project contributors include: "Gran" Fannie Padmore, C. Patrick Burrowes, Oliver Sackey, Stephen Foday, Tabitha Roberts, Samuel McIntosh, Abraham Gartoe, Reggie Goodridge, Bill Williams, Cyrus Vines, Mr. Passaway and members of the Diggs, Weeks, Goodridge, and Porte families. Our work has been done in close consultation with government offices, Liberian professionals, and community members. This project would not have been possible without the support of our sponsors: National Geographic Society and the National Science Foundation.
MEET THE BAHA PROJECT TEAM
Craig Stevens
craig is co-founder and Operations Director of the Black and African Solidarity Show (B.A.S.S.) and a doctoral student at Northwestern University. His work seeks to express anthropological and historical data through artistic forms and creative processes. His archaeological research investigates the placemaking processes of nineteenth-century Black American and Caribbean settlers in West Africa. During his tenure as a Marshall Scholar in the United Kingdom, he completed an MA in Archaeology at the UCL Institute of Archaeology and an MA in Museums, Heritage & Material Culture Studies at The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
Albert S. Markeh
Albert S. Markeh is the Director of the National Museum of Liberia. A Liberian expert in museums and cultural heritage of over 20 years, he holds a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Liberia, where he is currently pursuing an MA through the Kofi Anna Institute for Conflict Transformation. He has received several certificates and post-graduate diplomas in museum and cultural heritage training throughout West Africa, Italy, China, and the United States.
Dr. Caree Banton
Caree Banton is an Associate Professor of African Diaspora History at the University of Arkansas and is jointly appointed in History and African and African American Studies. Her book manuscript, "More Auspicious Shores”: Barbadian Migration to Liberia, Blackness, and the Making of the Liberian Republic, 1865 – 1912, a study that explores continuities and mutabilities in Black experiences of freedom, citizenship and nationhood across the Atlantic world, was published by Cambridge University Press in May 2019.
Dr. Matthew Reilly
Matthew C. Reilly is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Gender Studies, and International Studies at the City College of New York. He conducts archaeological research on race and colonialism in the Caribbean and West Africa. He is the author of Archaeology below the Cliff: Race, Class, and Redlegs in Barbadian Society (2019), published by the University of Alabama Press.
BAHA PROJECT RESEARCH TEAM
Chrislyn Laurie Laurore
Chrislyn Laurie Laurore is a Haitian American scholar and curator pursuing a PhD in Anthropology, Africana Studies, and Historic Preservation at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research explores the affective and political economies of African diaspora heritage tourism and its effects on the monumentalization of historic sites deemed significant to the memory and history of the transatlantic slave trade. Chrislyn’s work has been supported by the Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and Kolb Society.
