[4] She focuses on the archeology of gender and race because “if people are being written about, archaeology can be used not only to fill the gaps, but to create alternative stories and histories.
She attended Virginia State University, an HBCU in Petersburg, with the same goal, then earned her master's degree in history at The College of William and Mary.
She pursued her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin in the African Diaspora program in anthropology, and focused her studies on archaeology through the lens of race and gender.
Her dissertation, titled “A Yard to Sweep: Race, Gender and the Enslaved Landscape” was published in 2004 and based on her research at Andrew Jackson's Tennessee plantation, The Hermitage.
Du Bois Center at the UMass Amherst Libraries was established in 2009 to engage the nation and the world in discussion and scholarship about the global issues involving race, labor and social justice.