This past Friday, Prof. Mark Auslander (ANTH), a sociocultural anthropologist and published author, presented a lecture on his latest book, The Accidental Slaveowner: Revisiting a Myth of Race and Finding an American Family.

The lecture, centered predominantly on the book, presented an in-depth look into the complex relationships between religion, slavery and emancipation, and the blurred lines of post-slavery family lineages.

The concept of the matriarchal African-American woman was analyzed in depth, specifically the story of Catherine Boyd, a slave woman known as Miss Kitty who was owned by Methodist Bishop James Osgood Andrew.

Auslander used a combination of classic anthropological research and data acquisition, art history and in-depth analysis of groups of people in the South and their personal thoughts to write a book documenting his journey across the American South.

A portion of the lecture focused on Auslander's commitment to incorporating artwork from Southern communities into the book.

A prominent piece of art within the book was a quilt created by Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier, a photographer and artist from Atlanta.

The quilt adorns the front cover of The Accidental Slaveowner and is a topic of much discussion within the book.

According to an online presentation by the artist, the quilt was created "for the purpose of memory. It was very much like a family as we got together" to create the artwork.

The multi-panel patchwork design was created by a number of descendants of former slaves, as well as friends, family and community members of those involved in the project.

"One of the things that's so neat about African American communities," noted Lynn, "is that there's always someone in the community who keeps the history [alive]."

In an interview with the Justice, Megan McCullough, a visiting assistant professor in anthropology who attended the lecture, spoke of her admiration for Auslander.

"I think it was a great example of public anthropology," she said. "[Auslander] has great links that he sort of made that [allow us] to really contemplate how slavery relates to religion and the echoes of that now."

Prof. Sarah Lamb (ANTH) also attended the lecture, commenting that Auslander's work is "public anthropology at its best."

"We're really excited by the book and hearing him speak about it and the reactions of the people that he's worked closely with in the American South, and their reactions to the book and to the project is really fascinating," added Lamb.

She noted the Southern community's input with such details as "[personal] stories … about slavery, about their families, that influenced [Auslander]; [people] even argued with him about the title, to make the title relevant to their interests."

Auslander is an associate professor and the museum director at Central Washington University; assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Brandeis and the author of such works as "Dreams Deferred: African-Americans in the History of Old Emory" and "Tonight, the tarmac loves blood too much!": The troubled roadscapes of the modern Ngoni Nc'wala ceremony.