October 22, 2024
by Taylor Carr-Howard
Our 2023 John R. Coleman Traveling Fellowship winner, Taylor Carr-Howard, provides an update from the field.
As the 2023 recipient of the John R. Coleman Traveling Fellowship, I traveled to Morocco, France, and Tunisia to conduct archival research and site visits for my dissertation “Archaeological Photographs and the (De)Colonial Imagination.” My project, which looks at the role of the archaeological photograph in the history of colonial archaeology, draws extensively on archival research. With the support of the John R. Coleman Traveling Fellowship, I was able to complete the French portion of this research, in archives in Paris and Aix-en-Provence, over the course of six weeks. The data that I collected during this period will form several important case studies for my dissertation, which is organized by photographic archive.
I was also able to travel to North Africa for the first time, to visit the Roman sites depicted in these photographic records. I visited archaeological sites in Tunisia (Carthage, Bulla Regia, Dougga, Sousse, and El Jem) and Morocco (Volubilis). On site, I was able to consider the context of the excavated material, the layout of the site and its landscape, and its current status as a cultural heritage site and tourist destination. I took my own photographs at each site, both as records and illustrations for my dissertation, and as a way to experience the site and understand the perspectives from which it has been photographed historically. I also visited several archaeological museums (including the Bardo Museum, which re-opened only a few days before I arrived in Tunisia!) as well as the Maison de la Photographie de Marrakech, which I plan to include as a case study in my dissertation.
This fellowship supported an essential stage of my dissertation research, which has and will continue to, shape my project as well as my career. I am grateful to the AIA and the donors of the John R. Coleman Traveling fellowship for supporting travel to both North Africa and to Europe. This flexibility allowed me to conduct archival research in Europe, that is the basis of my dissertation, while still centering the archaeological material and its reception locally, a focus I will maintain as complete my dissertation.
