Heritage Research Lab

Overview: The African American Burial Ground & Remembering Project is an ongoing USF research study which addresses the erasure of historic black cemeteries in the Tampa Bay area. Research sites currently include Zion Cemetery in Tampa (located beneath Robles Park Village) and Oaklawn, Evergreen, and Moffett Cemeteries in St. Petersburg (located beneath VIP Lot 1 of the Tropicana Field Site). 

Visit the AABGP project page via USF Library for more information.

Additional resources: Download a copy of the AABGP site brief here.

Overview: The main focus of the NPS ethnography program is connecting people to parks. Dr. Antoinette Jackson and her team provided consultation and technical assistance in the areas of community engagement and cultural resource management, development, and preservation for the region’s 66+ national parks from the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park in Kentucky and the Wright Brothers National Memorial in North Carolina, to the Cane River Creole National Park in Louisiana and the Biscayne National Park in Florida. 

Dr. Jackson served as the Regional Cultural Anthropologist and Ethnography Program Manager for the National Park Service Southeast Region, August 2012-May 2016. 

Additional resources: “More than scenery: National parks preserve our history and culture” (originally published in The Conversation)

Overview: The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor is a federally recognized National Heritage area managed by a Federal Commission. Commissioners work in partnership with the National Park Service and the state historic preservation offices of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Dr. Antoinette Jackson was appointed to the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission in October 2007. 

Visit the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor for more information.

Overview: Working with the National Park Service and the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site team to make sure the community of Archery, Georgia near President Carter’s boyhood home establishes its place in history, Dr. Jackson’s work has Carter’s personal attention. The nation’s 39th president is both excited and supportive of the project and our research efforts in heritage studies. 

Visit the Jimmy Carter National Historical Site for more information.

Funding/Reports: Research at the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site and surrounding communities—Archery and Plains, Georgia was funded by National Park Service grant no. J5690090007-H5000085095. The project which began in 2009 was led by PI, Dr. Antoinette Jackson. 

The final project report, “The Ethnohistorical Profile of the African American Community of Archery, Georgia” prepared by Antoinette T. Jackson, Ph.D. with Whitney Goodwin, Justin Hosbey, and Aaron Frost is under review by the National Park Service and will be available soon. 

Additional resources: Check out the poster slideshow from the lab's Summer Heritage Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU).