Oluseyi Agbelusi

British Anti-Slavery,State-SanctionedTrade,and Nascent Colonialism on the Freetown Peninsula, Sierra Leone

Oluseyi is a doctoral candidate in anthropology with a concentration in archaeology. He is a Syracuse University Graduate Fellow and a 2021-2022 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellow. He holds a B.A in archaeology from the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria and an M.S. in conservation studies from the University College London (Qatar Campus). Oluseyi’s region of interest is West Africa where he has participated in numerous archaeological research and conservation projects. He has conducted fieldwork on several sites across south-western Nigeria and in coastal Sierra Leone. He has also participated in a number of excavations and conservation projects in the Mediterranean Basin, the Arab and Islamic World, and recently in the Caribbean. Oluseyi’s research interests include African archaeology, the African Diaspora, culture contact and change, colonialism, cultural heritage law, and archaeological conservation. His interest in African archaeology and Africa’s intersection with the Atlantic world is what led him to apply for the doctoral program. He is writing his dissertation entitled, British Anti-Slavery, Trade, and Nascent Colonialism on the Freetown Peninsula, Sierra Leone, which reveals the impacts of British anti-slavery policies and trade networks on household socio-economic organization at Regent, a Liberated African village on the Freetown Peninsula during the early colonial period (1808-1896). Oluseyi is the Student Representative to the World Archaeological Congress (WAC) Executive and Council.