About

Dr. Jamie C. Brandon

Farther Along is  Jamie Chad Brandon’s shameless, self-indulgent blog: my life, music, anthropology, cultural studies, southwest Arkansas, the Ozarks, Memphis, Nashville, Texas, race, whiteness, history, memory and whatever soapbox I happen to get out of bed on.

I have over 20 years of experience in the field of archaeology and have been involved with projects in a total of 13 southeastern states (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MO, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA). I have authored or co-authored publications and/or technical reports on research in seven of those states (AL, AR, LA, MS, NC, TN, TX) and have strong backgrounds in both the academic and private sectors. I have been certified by the Register of Professional Archaeologists and have worked for academic institutions, state agencies, and private cultural resource firms. I have worked at all stages of investigation and on sites dating from the Pleistocene to the twentieth century.

I finished my Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin in December of 2004, but I moved to the Arkansas Ozarks to finish collecting my dissertation data and write in 2003. Between 2003-2006 I also taught anthropology part-time at the University of Arkansas and NorthWest Arkansas Community College.

I am currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas and the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Research Station Archeologist at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, Arkansas. In this “dual” position I teach anthropology courses for SAU’s Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, work with graduate students from the U of A on research projects and I am responsible for the archaeological resources in my station territory–11 counties in southwestern Arkansas.

My current research interests are within the sub-fields of archaeology and cultural studies–archaeology of the southeastern United States (both historical and prehistoric), race construction, representation and power relations in the American South, collective cultural memory, descendant communities, material culture, landscape analysis and critical archaeology. I also have a growing interest in the anthropology of science, industrial archaeology, public culture and critical theory.

Why the Name “Farther along…”?

The name comes from the traditional song “Farther Along”–long a favorite of artists such as The Osborn Brothers, the Flying Burrito Bros., Emmy Lou Harris, George Hamilton IV, Sam Cooke, Dolly Parton, Mississippi John Hurt, Ray Price, the Oakridge Boys, Rose Maddox, Elvis Presley, The Byrds, David Grisman and the Bad Livers.

“Farther along we’ll know more about it.
Farther along we’ll understand why.
Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine…
we’ll understand it all by and by…”