Patrice L Jeppson, Ph.D.
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Patrice Lynn Jeppson, Ph.D.
Patrice L. Jeppson has been active in historical archaeology for more than two decades and has conducted academic and CRM research in the American West, in the Mid-Atlantic, and in South Africa. Her research interest involves exploring the different ways that publics accesses and makes use of archaeological information in the present. From 2008-2013, Patti served the PAF as Secretary and, since 2013, has been the webmaster for the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum’s webpage (a collection of 186 pages of content as of August 2016) and manager of the PAF Facebook page. Since 2005, she has helped annually to co-ordinate Explore Philly’s Buried Past! — a day-long public event featuring as many as 38 Philadelphia-area researchers and avocationalists sharing the region’s most recent archaeological discoveries. (PAF co-sponsors this annual event with Independence National Historical Park and it is hosted by the National Constitution Center). For several years, Patti has also coordinated the PAF Day of Archaeology event as part of the International Day of Archaeology blogging project.
Patti’s first Philadelphia archaeological experience was in 1984, at the Front and Dock Street site — an area of Old City excavated prior to the construction of the Sheraton Hotel. These days she investigates the history of archaeology in Independence Park and its role in tourism and national identity construction. This includes, between 2003 and 2005, assessing the long history of archaeological research at Franklin Court for the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary Consortium (research that contributed archaeological information to the Tercentenary’s international loan exhibit, to the Frankliniana Database, and to educational programs), interpreting archaeology to the public at the Independence Park Archeology Lab and during the President’s House Site excavation, and co-presenting teacher in-service workshops with Education staff of the Independence Park Institute. She was Co-PI on a four-year, Drexel University-based, NSF grant-funded research project investigating new computer vision applications for historical archaeology artifact processing and interpretation using artifacts from Independence National Historical Park (#0803670 The 3D Colonial Philadelphia Project — Digital Restoration of Thin-Shell Objects for Historical Archeological Research and Interpretation). She collaborated with Drexel University’s Dr. Glen Muschio and Drexel and Cheyney University students to research how to better engage the public in helping construct virtual environment-based interpretations for Philadelphia and Pennsylvania’s African American archaeology discoveries.
Patti earned her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. Her dissertation study explored how people make and maintain social identity using everyday objects. This research focused on European and Indigenous interaction on the Eastern Cape frontier of South Africa, 1820-1860, and on how this frontier experience has been interpreted within apartheid and post-apartheid South African society. Between 1998 and 2002, Patti researched how to more effectively bring archaeology into formal school education in a participant observation study at the Center for Archaeology/Baltimore County Public Schools. Prior to that, she taught Anthropology and Historical Archeology as an adjunct faculty member (1994-1997) and worked at the Cultural Resource Facility (1993-1994) at California State University, Bakersfield. Between 2007-2009, she served as lead coordinator for Archaeology for the public, a web-based, clearing-house for public archaeology information hosted by the Society for American Archaeology, which earned the Society’s 2005 Presidential Award of Merit and helped create The Archaeology Education Clearing House, an educational-directed portal for archaeological information co-organized by the Society for American Archaeology, the Society for Historical Archaeology and the Archaeological Institute of America.
Dr. Jeppson taught as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Cheyney University 2007-2019, and taught occassionally in the Anthropology Department at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, including several semesters of a dual enrollment course that brought local high school students into the college-level learning environment. In 2011, she team taught a computational archaeology course at Drexel University co-offered through the computer science and computer engineering departments. For more than a decade, Patti has investigated public archaeology at the Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust, an historical property established by African Americans in 1793. For many years this research was incorporated into her classroom instruction at Cheyney University, the nation’s oldest Historical Black University. She joined the Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust Board in 2017.
From 2009-2011, Dr. Jeppson engaged in a Social Media-based study to learn from the public how archived archaeological records collections housed in Independence Park might be more useful to others. She blogged at Digging In The Archives Archiving the archeological research of Independence National Historical Park, 1950-Present, which was hosted at the Independence National Historical Park Library and Archives web page and at http://digginginthearchives.blogspot.com/. She had previously, in 2005, scripted the first podcast for the, then, very new archaeology@about.com website helping archaeology writer K. Krist Hirst create “The Mastodon Tooth from Benjamin Franklin’s House. Today, Patti regularly continues to promote Philadelphia archaeology by contributing content to the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum web pages including (2016) Archaeobotanical Wonders:Plant Remains in Archaeological Site Soils, (2015) Storyboarding Archaeology Month in Philadelphia, (2015) Shining Light on ‘Light in the Past’: Illumination for Virtual Archaeological Site Reconstructions as an Example of Experimental Archaeology, (2014) “Cemetery Stones With Many Lives“; (2013) “Politics in the Home: The LIBERTY Tumbler“, by Jed Levin and Patrice L. Jeppson; (2011) “Discussion of the 2011, Pennsylvania Archaeology Month Poster theme and contents; (2011) Philadelphia Archaeology and The PECO Crown Lights; (2011) Mastodon Tooth Found At Franklin Court; and (2011) Tracking the Date. She has otherwise written about local archaeology for the public in several venues including (2010) “CU Participation in the 7th Annual Black History Showcase“, in the Cheyney University newsletter Vital Communications 3(4):2, April;(2008) “Digging Our Past”, Community Column, The Philadelphia Women’s Journal, Oct/Nov:page 27; (2006) “A New Look at the Franklin Court Mastodon Tooth” in Franklin Gazette, Quarterly Publication of the Friends of Franklin, Inc. Summer; and (2006) “Independence NHP Archeology at Franklin Court”, National Park Service Archeology Program ‘Research in Parks’ web page.
Among Dr. Jeppson’s Philadelphia archaeology-related scholarly publications are (2019) “Computational Science, Convergence Culture, and the Creation of Archaeological Knowledge and Understanding” (P. Jeppson, G. Muschio, J. Levin) and “Ideological Constraints, Popular Memories, and Imagined Futures: A Case Study Juxtaposing public policy with the public in the determination of archaeological site significance” (J. Levin and P. Jeppson), two chapters in J.H. Jameson edited book, Archaeology and the Public in the 21st Century: Increasing Heritage Awareness through Community Participation. University of Florida Press; (2014) “Rediscovering Franklin: A new story from Franklin Court”, chapter in Richard Veit and David Orr edited, New Archaeology Discoveries of the Delaware Valley; (2013) “A Semantic Analysis Approach to Thin-shell Ceramic Fragment Classification”, by K. Ayafar and P. Jeppson, article in International Journal of Heritage in the Digital Era, Volume 2 No.2, p. 291-306; (2012) “Public Archaeology Via Skyscraper“, by P. Jeppson, G. Muschio, H. Winograd, M. Haas, G. Oxholm, K. Nishino, article in Online Journal in Public Archaeology, 50-80; (2010) “Archaeological Heritage of “We the People”: Public Archaeology at Independence National Historical Park” in AnthropologyNews, Newsletter of the American Anthropological Association; (2010) “African American Archaeology Featured at 2010 Black History Showcase” in African Diaspora Archaeology newsletter; (2009) African American Archaeology On Display at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, in African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter, June 2010; (2007) Digging Up the Past: An Exhibit Review [at the Philadelphia African American Museum] , in African Diaspora Archaeology Network e-Newsletter. September; (2007) “The Archaeology of Freedom and Slavery at the President’s House, in African Diaspora Archaeology Network Newsletter, June; and (2006) “Which Benjamin Franklin – Yours or Mine?: Examining the responses to a new story from Franklin Court”, in Ran Boytner, Lynn Swartz-Dodd and Ann E. Killebrew edited issue ‘Archaeologically-Based Heritage Formulation in Overtly Politicized Environments’, in Archaeologies, Journal of the World Archaeological Congress, 2(2):24-51.
Her recent Philadelphia archaeology-related scholarly research presentations include:
+“Considering the Possibilities of an ‘Urban Public Archaeology’: The Findings of a 60-Year Retrospective of Public Archaeology in the City of Philadelphia”, an invited Paper for the symposium, ‘Urban Archaeology in Philadelphia: A Retrospective and Call to Action’, at the 2016 Society for Historical and Underwater Archaeology Annual Conference
+ “All of the Above: Public Archaeology and Outreach at Independence National Historical Park”, co-author (Jeffrey Collins, Patrice L. Jeppson, and Jed Levin) in the symposium ‘National Park Service Archaeology Outreach and Education at the Centennial’ presented at the 2016 Society for Historical and Underwater Archaeology Annual Conference
+”Archaeological Significance, Professional Practice, and Public Praxis, Part 1: Archaeological Identity and the determination of archaeological site significance (Jed Levin and Patrice L. Jeppson) and “Archaeological Significance, Professional Practice, and Public Praxis, Part 2: Identity, Community Engagement, and the Significance of Archeological Sites. (Patrice L. Jeppson and Jed Levin)”, invited papers for the 2014 Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology
+ “Computer Vision Technologies and Historical Archaeology’s Ceramic Typologies”, Jeppson, P. L, K. Aryafar, A. Shokoufandeh, presented in the symposium entitled, ‘Modern Technology, Past Culture: Emerging Effects of Information Technologies on Archaeological Practice’ at the 2013 Society for Historical and Underwater Archaeology Annual Conference
+ “When the Walls Come Down: Computer Vision Technologies and the Future of Historical Archaeology”, (P. Jeppson, K. Ayarfar, A. Shoukoufandeh) paper presented at the 2013 ‘High-Tech Heritage: How Are Digital Technologies Changing Our Views of the Past?’ Conference
+ “Computational Mathematics, Convergence Culture, and the Creation of Archaeological Knowledge and Understanding” (G. Muschio, P. Jeppson, J. Levin) paper presented at the 2012 High-Tech Heritage: How Are Digital Technologies Changing Our Views of the Past?
+ “High Tech Heritage: Digital Archaeology Via Skyscraper”. (J. Levin, P. Jeppson, G. Muschio, H. Winogard, M. Haas, G. Oxholm, K. Nishino) paper presented at the 2012 High-Tech Heritage: How Are Digital Technologies Changing Our Views of the Past? Conference
+ “Archaeology and the Interpretation of the President’s House: Limits and Largesse, (with Jed Levin), paper presented at the 2012 Society for Historical and Underwater Archaeology Annual Conference
+ “Computational Archaeology: A New Way of Looking at Independence Park Ceramic Remains” 2011 Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology annual conference
+ “Blogging on an Archaeological Records Collection: Archive Outreach and Creating a User-Friendly Access Plan” (Karen Stevens and Patrice L. Jeppson) paper presented at the 2011 Society for Historical and Underwater Archaeology Annual Conference
+ “Contextualizing Computer Vision Technologies within Cultural Heritage: The Archaeologist’s Perspective”: 2nd Workshop on Applications of Computer Vision in Archaeology ACVA’10-Vision, Visualization, and Computational Methods for Cultural Heritage Needs, In conjunction with the 2010 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (IEEE CVPR 2010)
+ “Virtual Reconstruction of Archaeological Vessels using Convex Hulls of Surface Markings” (Fernand Cohen, Zhongchuan Zhang, and Patrice Jeppson), CVPR 2010 Conference Workshop Proceedings, IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
+ “Classification of Archaeological Fragments Using Texture and Color Descriptors” (Ali Shokoufandeh, Patrick Smith, and Patrice L. Jeppson), CVPR 2010 Conference Workshop Proceedings, IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
+ “A Platform Above and Beyond the Archaeology: History and Historicity at the President’s House Site (with Joe Roberts), paper presented at the 2009 Society for Historical and Underwater Archaeology Annual Conference
+ “The Independence Living History Center Archeology Laboratory: Anatomy of a Public Archeology Program. (Katelyn Coughlan, Willie Hoffman, Patrice L. Jeppson, Jed Levin, and Deborah Miller) paper presented at the 2009 Society for Historical and Underwater Archaeology Annual Conference
+ “The President’s House Site Archaeological Investigation: Theory, Community and Practice” invited paper, 2008 Society for Applied Anthropology
+ “Can Evaluation Be More?: Principles of evaluation and the relationship between materiality and social existence (Patrice L. Jeppson and Karen Brauer), paper presented in the symposium ‘Evaluation of Public Archaeology: Principles, not Protocols’, 2008 Society for Historical and Underwater Archaeology annual conference
+ “Telling the Truth” about American History: Social Justice and the Archaeology of Slavery and Freedom at the President’s House Site” (with Jed Levin and William Hoffman) 2007 American Anthropological Association annual conference
+ “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of….Archaeology: How the history of our own field offers a glimpse into the American Experiment” 2006 Society for Historical and Underwater Archaeology Conference.
Patti is married and lives in Philadelphia.
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