Cemetery Citizens: Reclaiming the Past and Working for Justice in American Burial Grounds

Adam Rosenblatt (Duke University) will give a talk on his new book, Cemetery Citizens: Reclaiming the Past and Working for Justice in American Burial Grounds.

Cemetery Citizens is an ethnography of grassroots groups working to preserve and honor places of the marginalized dead. The book largely focuses on ongoing reclamation efforts in African American burial grounds, including Durham's own Geer Cemetery. It uses sketches and poetic inquiry to “draw out” the voices and active, embodied presence of descendants, grassroots activists and memory-workers. In his talk, Professor Rosenblatt will additionally spend time on his methodology, interactions with the Durham community, and research strategies.

Adam Rosenblatt is Professor of the Practice in International Comparative Studies and Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. An ethnographer interested in human rights, the ethics of care, and our ongoing ties to the dead, Rosenblatt is the author of Digging for the Disappeared: Forensic Science after Atrocity (Stanford University Press, 2015), a winner of Choice's 2016 Outstanding Academic Title award, and Cemetery Citizens: Reclaiming the Past and Working for Justice in American Burial Grounds (2024). In addition to his anthropology work, Adam is an avid cartoonist and is the co-founder of the Durham Black Burial Grounds Collaboratory, an academic-community-cemetery partnership funded by the Duke Endowment.