Jennifer Craig

Dr. Jennifer Craig is an NPS Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow with the American Conservation Experience. Her project, titled “Mariana Islands Wartime Experiences through Oral Histories,” is at the War in the Pacific National Historical Park in Guam and American Memorial Park on Saipan in collaboration with CHamoru/Chamorro partners. These World War II focused parks work to share the stories of the conflict in the Pacific as told by those who experienced it on these islands. These islands’ oral histories share sensory experiences of immersion in place, and when engaged in these stories Dr. Craig evokes heart-centered practices. These practices involve work with community-based archaeology to expand the stories in the webs of relations of past experiences to include the animals, the spirits, and the other-than-human beings with traditional scientific rigor. Dr. Craig’s background is in the underwater cultural heritage of the Asia Pacific Region. Craig uses archaeology/museology methodologies to organize data and note patterns (especially spatial and particular locations) and linguistic methodologies to study cultural concepts and a human worldview. She pursues this work in tandem with her specialization in Maritime Archaeology, which aims to understand and interpret the past relationships between humans and WATER.