Heather Law Pezzarossi

• 2024 Spring
  • ANT 311 Anthropological Theory
  • ANT/NAT 459/659 Contemporary Native North American Issues
  • ANT 670 Experience Credit
• 2023 Fall
  • ANT 444/644 Laboratory Analysis in Archaeology
• 2023 Spring
  • ANT/HST 145 Archaeology of and in the Modern World
  • ANT 470 Experience Credit: Archaeological Laboratory Practicum
  • ANT/NAT 461/661 Museums and Native Americans
• 2022 Fall
  • ANT 444/644 Laboratory Analysis in Archaeology
  • ANT/NAT 323 Peoples and Cultures of North America
• 2022 Spring
  • ANT 311 Anthropological Theory
  • ANT/NAT 459/659 Contemporary Native North American Issues

Heather Law Pezzarossi is an anthropologically trained archaeologist. She does collaborative work with Indigenous communities in the North America, focusing on community-led heritage and archaeological projects that address the past, especially the colonial past, through methods and theories that serve Indigenous communities in the present and for the future.

She has worked with the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Community in southern New England for over ten years, beginning with excavations at the Burnee/Boston Homestead Site in what is today Grafton, Massachusetts. The Burnee/Boston Homestead was a central gathering place and hub of Nipmuc community in the late 18th- and early 19th-centuries and this site, once under threat of development, is now part of a contemporary Nipmuc heritage landscape. Law Pezzarossi co-wrote "Historical Archaeology and Indigenous Collaboration: Nipmuc Histories with Futures" (University Press of Florida, 2020) about this and other community-led projects with colleagues D. Rae Gould, Holly Herbster and Stephen Mrozowski. It was awarded the Society for American Archaeology’s Scholarly Book Prize in 2021.

Law Pezzarossi also co-edited a volume titled "Indigenous Persistence in the Colonized Americas: Material and Documentary Perspectives on Entanglement" (University of New Mexico Press, 2019) with Rusell Sheptak that focuses on expanding archaeology’s understanding of Indigenous persistence in the face of long-term colonial occupation.

Today, Law Pezzarossi continues to work with the Nipmuc community, critiquing the colonial heritage landscape in southern New England and unpacking the cumulative impacts the messaging on roadside signage, monuments and historical places have had on settler understandings of Nipmuc people. She is part of several projects to make appropriate Nipmuc places, and especially vibrant 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century histories, more visible to everyone in southern New England.  

"Listen to the Elders Speakers Series", Sponsored by Engaged Humanities Mini Grant.

"Urban Archaeology and Cultural Heritage of the I-81 Corridor: Recovering Syracuse's the Past as We Plan for the Future", Sponsored by CUSE Grants - Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant.

"“Onondaga Elders Oral History Project”: A Documentary Film on Onondaga Traditional Knowledge Transmission", Sponsored by Maxwell Tenth Decade Project: Multidisciplinary Discovery.

"Listen to the Elders: Modelling Reciprocal Knowledges with Onondaga Nation ", Sponsored by Maxwell’s Tenth Decade Project: Multidisciplinary Discovery .

• Book
  • Indigenous Persistence in the Colonized Americas: Material and Documentary Perspectives on Entanglement. Law Pezzarossi, H. B., Sheptak, R. (eds.) University of New Mexico Press, 2019.
• Journal Articles
  • Law Pezzarossi, H. B., "Native Basketry and the Dynamics of Social Landscapes in Southern New England." In Things in Motion: Object Itineraries in Anthropological Practice. Joyce , R., Gillespie, S. (eds.) School for Advanced Research Press, 2015.
  • Law Pezzarossi, H. B., "Assembling Indigeneity: Rethinking Innovation, Tradition and Indigenous Materiality in a 19th c. Native Toolkit." Social Archaeology, 2014.
  • Pezzarossi, G., Kennedy, J. R. and Law Pezzarossi, H. B., "Hoe Cakes and Pickerel”: Cooking Traditions and Community at a Nineteenth Century Nipmuc Farmstead." In The Menial Art of Cooking: Archaeological Studies of Cooking and Food Preparation. Graff , S., Rodriguez-Alegria , E. (eds.) University of Colorado Press, 2012.
• Book Chapters
  • Law Pezzarossi, H. B., Gould, R. and Mrozowski, S., "Monumentalizing Nipmuc Heritage and Emplacing Indigenous Presence." In Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Colonial Interaction in the Americas. Panich , L., Gonzalez, S. (eds.) Routledge, 2021.
  • Law Pezzarossi, H. B., "Movement and the Nipmuc Landscape." In Historical Archaeology and Indigenous Collaboration: Nipmuc Histories with Futures. Gould, D. R., Herbster, H. and Mrozowski, S. (eds.) University Press of Florida, 2020.
  • Law Pezzarossi, H. B., Mrozowski, S., "The Archaeology of Hassanamesit Woods." In Historical Archaeology and Indigenous Collaboration: Nipmuc Histories with Futures. Gould, D. R., Herbster, H., Law Pezzarossi, H. B. and Mrozowski , S. (eds.) University Press of Florida, 2020.
  • Law Pezzarossi, H. B., "Brewed Time: Considering Anachronisms in the Study of Indigenous Persistence in New England." Law Pezzarossi, H. B., Sheptak , R. (eds.) Indigenous Persistence in the Colonized Americas: Material and Documentary Perspectives on Entanglement, 2019.
  • Law Pezzarossi, H. B., Sheptak, R., "Introduction to Indigenous Persistence in the Colonized Americas." In Indigenous Persistence in the Colonized Americas: Material and Documentary Perspectives on Entanglement. Law Pezzarossi, H. B., Sheptak, R. (eds.) University of New Mexico Press, 2019.
  • Mrozowski, S. A., Gould, R. and Law Pezzarossi, H. B., "Rethinking Colonialism: Indigenous Innovation and Colonial Inevitability." In Rethinking Colonialism: Comparative Archaeological Approaches. Howlett-Hayes , K., Cipolla , C. (eds.) University Press of Florida, 2015.
  • "A Steely Gaze: my captivation with the American Tintype." In Object Stories: Artifacts and Archaeologists. Law Pezzarossi, H. B., Brown, S., Clark, A. and Fredrick , A. (eds.) Left Coast Press, 2014.
• Technical Reports
  • Cultural Resource Management Study: Archaeological Intensive Excavation, Hassanamesit Woods Property, The Sarah Boston Farmstead. Law Pezzarossi, H. B., Mrozowski, S. A. (eds.) The Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts, 2015.
  • Cultural Resource Management Study No. 26: Archaeological Intensive Excavation, Hassanamesit Woods Property, The Sarah Boston Farmstead. Law Pezzarossi, H. B., Mrozowski, S. A. and Pezzarossi , G. (eds.) The Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts, 2008.
  • Cultural Resource Management Study No. 24a: Archaeological Intensive Excavation, Hassanamesit Woods Property, The Sarah Boston Farmstead. Law Pezzarossi, H. B., Mrozowski, S. A. and Pezzarossi , G. (eds.) The Fiske Center for Archaeological Research atthe University of Massachusetts, 2007.

Doctrine of Discovery Conference, Hosted by the Indigenous Values Initiative, "Lessons Learned in Public" (December 7, 2023 - December 9, 2023)

Syracuse University, "Claiming Space: Monumentalizing Nipmuc Heritage in Nipmuc Homelands" (2021)

Annual Meetings of the Society for Historical Archaeology, "Nipmuc Landscapes and the Politics of Representation" (2020)

Annual Meetings of the Society for American Archaeology, "Belonging, Not Belongings: Thinking Beyond the White Possessive in the Identification of 19th c. Indigenous Landscapes in New England" (2019)

Theoretical Archaeology Group USA Annual Meeting, "Indigenous Futurities" (2019)

Theoretical Archaeology Group USA Annual Meeting, "Thinking Through Making: Art and Archaeology in Practice" (2019)

Theoretical Archaeology Group USA Annual Meeting, "X-Marks: Futurity and the Animated Nipmuc Landscape" (2019)

Co-Recipient of the 2021 Society of American Archaeology Scholarly Book Prize for “Historical Archaeology and Indigenous Collaboration: Discovering Histories that have Futures.” (2020, University Press of Florida), Society for American Archaeology (2021 - 2021)