In 2004 I began a new Burgundy research program with several colleagues to look at the changing patterns of settlement and lands in the historical period using a variety of integrated methods and techniques. This follows a similar ground-breaking (pun intended) study of the area from prehistory through the middle ages, led by Prof. Carole Crumley of UNC-CH.

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This project began in earnest in 2004, as a continuation of our long-term research activities in the Burgundy region of France. We began working in the 1970s and 1980s as graduate students with the UNC French project, directed by Carole Crumley, conducting archaeological and anthropological fieldwork and research into the long-term relationships between people and their environments (Crumley and Marquardt, 1987). We began our current collaborative efforts to extend the timeframe of the earlier work into the post-medieval and modern eras, including contemporary and future land use issues.

Our focus continues to be trans-disciplinary in nature, where we investigate the complex interplay of methods from the physical sciences, social sciences, and humanities as an integrated toolkit for understanding how human societies both impact and are influenced by their natural environments. We are interested in the benefits (and difficulties) of crossing disciplinary perspectives and techniques in the study of the complex human/environmental relationships that produce landscapes. Thus, our work draws upon multiple theoretical, methodological, and practical skills using the broad perspective of the historical ecology framework (Crumley, 1994).

Visit our project website to learn more about this project.