Daniel O. Sayers

Daniel O. Sayers, PhD, is an archaeologist and Associate Professor of Anthropology at American University in Washington D.C. He focuses upon politically significant areas of U.S. and global history through study of material culture, artifacts, historical records, and landscape. His research on the Great Dismal Swamp and its pre-Civil War resistance communities, the Underground Railroad, animal rights and emancipation, the homeless and hobos of the Great Depression era, and rural America is well known. Sayers is the author of the book A Desolate Place for a Defiant People: The Archaeology of Maroons, Indigenous Americans, and Enslaved Laborers in the Great Dismal Swamp. His research essays have been published in many academic venues. In addition to engaging people through opinion pieces, such as his comments recently published in the New Yorker and the Battle Creek Enquirer, Sayers and his work has been publicized through various media: National Public Radio, television (Mysteries of the Museum and Smithsonian Channel), magazines (Smithsonian Magazine and Archaeology), podcasts (99% Invisible), newspapers, and a variety of news programs. Dismal Swamp Maroons and his work are represented in a permanent exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
A Modest Firearms Proposal

A Modest Firearms Proposal

Since the school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has worked very hard to counter gun control movements by advocating for a stronger gun presence throughout the land and its institutions, like schools ... Read More
Essays /