Kelly Britt
Kelly Britt
Assistant Professor
Kelly M. Britt is a community-based historical archaeologist specializing in urban spaces of the northeast. She is currently interested in exploring the intersection of gentrification, activism, and material culture in her own backyard community of Brooklyn. Previous research has focused on how identity and sense of place are seen materially through heritage discourse during processes of change and flux in urban settings. Historic preservation work has allowed her to work in a variety of settings, including the federal government, museums, academia, and private cultural resource management firms, in addition to freelance projects and consulting. In her former position as Archaeologist at FEMA Region II's offices in New York, she served as manager and overseer of archaeological projects under review for Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for projects in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. She also served as the Tribal Nation liaison for the Environmental and Historic Preservation Cadre of the Region. In addition, Britt held the position as FEMA Region II's liaison for CultureAID and adviser for Alliance for Response NYC, two volunteer network organizations in the New York City area that assist the arts, cultural, and heritage sectors of the city in preparing for, assisting in, and mitigating after disasters. She has written several successful Network to Freedom designations for Underground Railroad sites in Pennsylvania and several pieces on heritage tourism and community archaeology including a chapter in the 2007 edited work, Archaeology as a Tool of Civic Engagement, by AltaMira Press. She has served on several boards of directors for various archaeological organizations in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York, and is currently acting president of Professional Archaeologists of New York City (PANYC), a not-for-profit organization devoted to the protection and preservation of New York City's archaeological sites. She has always felt service is an important part of any position within a chosen career path. The various employment positions she has held permitted her to civically engage with the communities where she has worked and lived, for she feels it is important to bridge the gap between scholarship and action.
