Sophia Perdikaris
Chair, Professor
Sophia Perdikaris is an environmental archaeologist with a specialty in the analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean. She is interested in people-environment interactions and how heritage work can inform sustainability questions for the future. Environmental sustainability is a challenge for every community, including communities in Antigua and Barbuda. Working toward sustainability means understanding human and environmental change over time: what is changing, how it is changing, why it is changing, and what we can do to mitigate change, adapt to change, or both. As a director of the Human Ecodynamics Research Center (CUNY Graduate Center) and director of the Barbuda Research Complex (Codrington, Barbuda, West Indies), she is focusing on a transdisciplinary approach to explore issues of sustainability projects combining the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the arts in a collaborative research perspective that connects scientists, local communities, and youth. Her early work concentrated on the transition from the Viking Age to medieval times in northern Norway and how the early commercialization of the cod fisheries (AD 1200) affected the people and the economy of the area. She has been excavating in Norway for the last 12 years, in Iceland for seven years, and in Barbuda for six years, and takes students with her in the field to Barbuda.