Assistant Professor, Anthropology; Assistant Curator of Historical & Contemporary Archaeology, and of Ethnology, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology
About
Research Keywords: Colonialism, political violence, collective memory, heritage, race and indigeneity, time/temporality, materiality, feminist and community-centric research methods, praxis and politics in anthropological archaeology, historical anthropology, historical archaeology, hemispheric approaches to the study of the Americas.
Dr. Fryer teaches and writes on colonialism and political violence; research methods, praxis, and politics in historical archaeology and anthropology; and, museums, cultural heritage, and collective memory. Her research agenda focuses broadly on the durabilities of colonialism and other forms of political violence in the Americas. Employing methods and theories from across anthropology and adjacent fields, she explores how such violence, the things and places it generates, and the memories that result from its experience yield collective notions of heritage and sociopolitical consciousness across time.
She has conducted archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork across the globe but her principal field research takes place in Quintana Roo, Mexico where she is a longtime member of the Tihosuco Heritage Preservation and Community Development Project—a community-based heritage initiative anchored by an interest in the history and present-day relevance of a 19th century conflict called the Maya Social War (or Caste War of Yucatan). This work is the basis for her current book project tentatively titled Things of War: Conflict and Heritage on Mexico’s Maya Frontier.
After receiving her PhD in Anthropology, Dr. Fryer held a Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Society of Fellows at Princeton University where she was also a lecturer in Anthropology and the Humanities Council. Recently, she co-edited collections on feminist approaches to archaeological heritage practice, reckoning with violence, and the archaeology of coloniality in the Maya Lowlands. Her essay "Heritage as Liberation" (2023) is the 2025 recipient of the Gordon R. Willey Prize for the best archaeological paper published in American Anthropologist in the preceeding three years.
Dr. Fryer is co-counder and associate director of the U-M Center for Community Archaeology & Heritage. Key among their current partnerships is the Woodlawn Cemetery Restoration Project which aims to preserve and protect this historically Black cemetery in Ypsilanti, MI, for future generations. They welcome volunteers! The CCAH welcomes discussions about potential partnerships to pursue grassroots heritage intiatives that include but are certainly not limited to archaeological projects. In this vein, Dr. Fryer also invites potential historical archaeological partnerships as well as interest from researchers, students, and community members in working with our collections at the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology where she is curator of historical and contemporary archaeology as well as ethnology.
Her course offerings include:
- ANTHRARC 285 Frauds & Fantastic Claims in Archaeology (meets the Race & Ethnicity requirement)
- ANTHRARC 488/688 Black & Indigenous Archaeologies (upperlevel seminar meeting the Race & Ethnicity requirement for enrolled undergraduates)
- ANTHRARC 485/ 685 Race Gender Empire
- ANTHRARC 462.002/ 683.002 Surfaces: Practicum in Historical Archaeology (developed with funding from the Inclusive History Project)
Affiliations: Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Doctoral Program in Anthropology and History
