Stephen A. Brighton

Stephen A. Brighton (born 1969) joined the faculty at the Department of Anthropology in 2005 after completing his post-bachelors Ph.D. at the Department of Archaeology, Boston University. His research interests include Contemporary Theory in Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, Applied Anthropology in Archaeology, Comparative Diasporas, Irish Diaspora, Material Culture Studies, Labor Archaeology, and the Archaeology of Capital and Urbanization. He teaches courses in Material Culture Studies and Archaeology of Modern Cities (Urban Archaeology).
Education
Brighton earned his PhD in Anthropology at the Department of Archaeology, Boston University in 2005. His dissertation focused on creating a theoretical framework to studying diasporic collectives in the material record. He focused on a transnational approach towards understanding the entirety of the Irish Diaspora and its impact on the Famine-period exile of thousands of Irish coming to the United States and the transition from Irish immigrant to Irish-American.
Academic career
Brighton came to the Department of Anthropology at University of Maryland, College Park in 2005 is an Assistant Professor, 2005 - present.
Research projects
In 2001, Brighton conducted research in various counties in Ireland collecting data to understand the material world of pre-Famine Ireland. In 2009, Brighton launched a new research project of an Irish immigrant and Irish-American village called Texas. Texas is in Baltimore County, Maryland and located 12 miles north of Baltimore City. The work is carried out through an annual summer field school. The structure of the project is based on the principles of applied anthropology in that it is a collaborative effort with the local residents and the descendant Irish-American community.

Significant work
In 2008, Brighton became archaeological consulting director of the Duffy’s Cut excavations. Duffy’s Cut is a section of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad built in 1833. Fifty-Seven Irish laborers working on this section succumbed to cholera and buried in a mass grave under the railway. Since 2004, a team led by Frank and Bill Watson have searched for the remains of this unmarked mass grave. In March 2009, the first individual was recovered.
Publications
Books authored
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Articles
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Awards
*GRB Grant (Applied Archaeology of Immigration and Labor) 2009, Summer
*GRB Grant (Applied Archaeology of Immigration and Labor) 2009-2010 Academic Year

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