Jennifer G. Kahn

I currently teach as an Associate Professor of Anthropology Department at the College of William & Mary. I have conducted archaeological field research in the Hawaiian Islands, Society Islands, Marquesas Islands, and Gambier Islands of Polynesia. My work considers diverse themes including household archaeology and House Societies; the origins of social complexity and social inequality; settlement patterns, landscapes and monumental architecture; and the role of ritual and religion. My methodological specialties include lithic analysis, use-wear analysis, and chronometric dating. I conduct archaeological field and laboratory work alongside the use of archival documents, oral traditions, community-based knowledge and archival research. I also have analyzed or reanalyzed Museum collections from varied institutions, including the Bishop Museum (Honolulu), the Auckland War Memorial Museum (New Zealand), the Otago Museum (New Zealand), and the American Museum of Natural History (New York). 

My research, teaching and writing are guided by community-based research practices. I collaborate with descendant communities in French Polynesia and Eastern Polynesia to learn about their vibrant pasts. In recent years, I have turned to developing community-facing projects like an outdoor archaeological nature trail, to reach varied publics outside of academia. Much of my community outreach work strives to develop innovative public programming, through artistic restorations of sites, through museum exhibits, and through books and other media developed both for descendant communities and for the general public. 

At William and Mary, I teach undergraduate and graduate courses and advise students at the undergraduate and graduate level. I teach freshman seminars that explore depictions of archaeologists and indigenous communities in Hollywood films and models of human evolution and what we can learn from current scientific studies of evolution in the wild. Upper level topical seminars explore household archaeology and micro-scale studies as well as the origins of inequality. I also offer methods courses such as scientific methods in archaeology, as well as having an active research lab where I train students in archaeological lab techniques. I often bring undergraduates and graduates into the field as I enjoy teaching in hands-on contexts.