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Other times by appointment
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The Special Collections is located on the east side of the Library
on the 3rd floor. Take the stairs and turn left or take the elevator
nearest the Circulation desk and turn right.
Contact Information
Patricia W. & J. Douglas Perry Library
Norfolk, Virginia 23529-0256
telephone (757) 683-4483
fax (757) 683-5954
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Papers of Dr. Susan Kent
Scope and Contents - Series
Descriptions - Access - Container
Listing
Biography
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Susan
Kent was born in 1952. In 1977, she took part in a New Mexico
State University archaeological dig called the Navajo Indian Irrigation
Project. In 1980, she received her Ph.D. For her doctoral dissertation,
she studied spatial patterning of the Navajo Indians, Spanish Americans,
and rural and urban Euro-Americans. In the early 1980's she studied the
Pueblo II Mesa Verde Anasazi in southwestern Colorado. From 1985-86 she
served as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Kentucky.
Later in 1986, she joined the Old Dominion University (ODU) faculty to
teach anthropology. At the time she arrived at ODU, she had five years
of teaching experience, and an excellent record of scholarship and publication.
In 1996, Kent was named a full professor. In 1999, she received the Charles
O. and Elisabeth C. Burgess Faculty Research and Creativity Award. Also
that year, she was elected to the American Anthropology Association's
Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology. As of February 2000,
she was editor of the Archaeology Division column for the American Anthropological
Association newsletter; on the Steering Committee of Build Form and Culture
Research Association, and belonged to eight national and international
professional associations. Also, in 2000, she was named an eminent scholar
of anthropology at ODU for her consistent record of outstanding scholarly
publications and her international reputation in the field of anthropology.
Her works have appeared in journals published in Japan, Botswana, England,
Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia. In 2001, she received the Distinguished
Scholar in Anthropology award from the Virginia Social Sciences Association.
Kent was elected to the executive board of the American Anthropological
Association for a three-year term that began in November 2002. In early
2003, she was elected as a member to the Sigma Xi Scientific Research
Society. This is only a partial list of her many involvements and achievements.
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Kent
was an expert on hunters and gatherers. As part of her ethnographic fieldwork,
she studied numerous people including the Navajo and Tulalip Indians,
Euro-Americans, and Spanish-speaking Americans. Her most extensive and
long-term work was her field research in Botswana. Every summer from 1987
to 1995, and then again in 1997 and 2000, Kent spent considerable time
studying the Bushmen and Bakgalagadi (Bantu-speakers) in the Kalahari
Desert. The Bushmen, also known as Basarwa and San are a formerly nomadic
people. In recent decades, they have been encouraged by government incentives
to discard their nomadic lifestyle and settle. Incentives have included
free food and drilling wells so these people no longer need to move about
in search of these necessities. Special topics of interest for Kent were
the use of space, gender roles, ethnoarchaeology, and health issues in
these people. With regard to health issues, she was particularly interested
in anemia and hemoglobin levels in hunter-gatherer peoples. While studying
the Bushmen, she surveyed their dietary practices and monitored medical
examinations of these people. In the field of archaeology, she excavated
sites that range in date from Paleo-Indian societies to historic twentieth
century sites of Native Americans. During the summers of 1998 and 1999,
she surveyed and excavated African Stone Age sites including the Caledon
River Valley in South Africa. |
Kent was author, editor, or co-author of at least 10 books, and numerous
scholarly papers. She published over sixty book chapters. Her books included:
Analyzing Activity Areas: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of the Use of Space
(1984); Method and Theory
For Activity Area Research (1987); Farmers as Hunters: The Implications
of Sedentism (1989); Diet, Demography, and Disease (1992); Domestic Architecture
and the Use of Space: An Interdisciplinary Cross-cultural Study (1993);
Cultural Diversity Among Twentieth-century Foragers (1996); Gender in
African Prehistory (1998); and Ethnicity, Hunter-Gatherers, and the "Other:
Association or Assimilation in Africa" (2002).
Her papers have included: "Does Sedentism Impact Traditional Gender
Roles: A Case Study from the Kalahari" at the International Conference
on Hunter-Gatherers in Moscow, Russia (1993); "Fact or Fiction: The
Presence of Oscillating Economies Among Hunter-Gatherers of Southern Africa"
at the international Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies in
Osaka, Japan (1998); "Correlation Does Not Equal Causation: Race
and Hemoglobin Means Among North American Blacks" at the 96th Annual
Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Washington, D.C.
(1998); "For Love or Hate: Southern African Hunter-gather's Interactions
with Agropastoralists" at the Society for American Archaeology Conference
in Seattle (1998); "Sleeping Under the Stars: Cross-cultural Study
of the Use of Outdoor and Indoor Space" which she presented at the
National Society for American Archaeology conference in Chicago (1999);
"Is There an Archaeology of Domestic Space?" to the Harvard
University Department of Anthropology (2000); and "Are All Households
Equal? Household Archaeology in the 21st Century" which she presented
at the Society for American Archaeology National Annual Conference (2001).
Susan Kent died on April 13, 2003 in Milwaukee, where she was attending
the Annual Meeting of the American Archaeological Association. A memorial
service was held for her at ODU on April 29, 2003.
Scope and Contents
Material dates from 1975 to 2002, with most of the material falling dating
in the late 1980's and the 1990's. Material includes correspondence; Anthropology
course materials; ODU Sociology and Criminal Justice Department minutes,
reports, and other papers; Anthropology and archaeology articles, papers,
notes from Dr. Kent's field excursions; and various
other items.
Series Descriptions
Series I: ODU Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice (includes
Anthropology)
Includes
blank exams and study guides for classes taught by Dr. Kent;
Instructors guides and study modules; an annual
report; executive committee minutes; departmental receipts and invoices
(mainly for books); and nomination letters for Dr. Kent.
Material dates from
1986 to 2001.
Series II: Research Materials
Sub-series A: Africa Included are Dr. Kent's field notes and inventories
from her expeditions with the Basarwa (Bushmen) and Bakgalagadi in Kutse,
Botswana as well as her published papers on the subject. Material dates from 1988 to 1995.
Sub-series B: North America Contains anthropology papers
on various topics, including a 1975 paper by Dr. Kent titled "An
Analysis of Northwest Coast Combs with Special Emphasis on those from
Ozette"
Sub-series E: Data Contains additional inventories,
maps, pictures, and inventories
from the 1977 Navajo Indian Irrigation Project.surveys and SAS computer data.;
Series III: Miscellaneous
Includes general correspondence
from 1987 to 2002; travel information.
Access
The collection is open to researchers without restrictions.
Questions about literary property rights should be directed to the Special
Collections Librarian.
Size
1.26 Linear Feet. 3 Hollinger Boxes.
Collection Number
RG 17-13B1
Container Listing
Series I: ODU Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice (includes
Anthropology)
Box 1
Folder 1: Annual Report: July 1, 1985 - June 30, 1986
Folder 2: Exams and Study Guides 1992, 1995, 1997, 2000
Folder 3: Executive Committee Minutes, September 18, 1990
Folder 4: Evaluation Letters
Folder 5: Receipts and Invoices 1995-2001
Folder 6: Tenure
Series II: Research Materials
Sub-series A: Africa
Folder 1: Bushmen
Folder 2: Items Left at Abandoned Pigmy Camps
Folder 3: Notes: June-July 1988 I
Folder 4: Notes: June-July 1988 II
Folder 5: Notes: December 1989-January 1990
Folder 6: Notes: 1990-1993
Folder 7: Notes: June 1991
Folder 8: Notes: May-June 1989
Folder 9: Notes: May-June 1992
Box 2
Folder 1: Notes: May-June 1993
Folder 2: Notes: 1995
Folder 3: Notes: Hut/Site diagrams and measurements (n.d.)
Folder 4: Notes: Miscellaneous I (n.d.)
Folder 5: Notes: Miscellaneous II (n.d.)
Box 3
Sub-series B: North America
Folder 1: "An Analysis of Northwest Catacombs with Special Emphasis
on those from Ozette" 1975
Folder 2: Food and Nutrition
Folder 3: Navajo Indian Irrigation Project - Block II Maps
Folder 4: Navajo Indian Irrigation Project - Site 20, August 1977
Folder 5: Navajo Indian Irrigation Project - Site 31, October 1977
Folder 6: Navajo Indian Irrigation Project - Site 32, October 1977
Sub-series C: Data
Folder 7: Gender Computer Raw Data and Surveys 1994
Folder 8: "Nancy" Computer Raw Data (n.d.)
Folder 9: Race Computer Modeling - Simulation
Series III: Miscellaneous
Folder 10: Chobe Game Lodge, Kasane, Botswana
Folder 11: "Concluding Discussion: the Role of Actualism Studies"
Folder 12: Itinerary, Mali Archaeological Tour, April 17, 1996
Folder 13: Professional and Personal Correspondence 1987-2002
Revised 5/4/10
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