Aja Lans is an archaeologist of the African Diaspora who integrates Black feminism and Black study into bioarchaeological investigations. A major area of focus is the objectification of human remains contained within universities and museum collections. She argues for the repatriation of Black Ancestors who are “owned” by such institutions.

Dr. Lans serves as the site bioarchaeologist at the Harlem African Burial Ground (HABG), a project coordinated by the New York City Economic Development Council and the Harlem African Burial Ground Initiative. Originally established as a segregated cemetery when the Dutch colonized Manhattan, the HABG was in use for over two centuries. After the land was sold in the mid-1800s, the section of the cemetery reserved for people of African descent was developed multiple times, most recently as a bus depot for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Before arriving at Hopkins, Dr. Lans was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University as part of the Inequality in America Initiative. There, she performed provenance research on Black Ancestors who are curated in Harvard’s Peabody Museum with support from the Wenner-Gren Foundation.

African American Pioneers in Anthropology

Black Feminist Anthropology

Introduction to Historical Archaeology

In Press May 2026. “Defending Black Ancestors.” In The Cambridge Handbook of the Anthropology of Death, Sarah L. Richardson, Sarah E. Wagner, and Ruth E. Toulson, eds. Cambridge University Press.

2024. “Say Her Name: Resistance, Race Riots, and a Bioarchaeology of Black Life in New York City.” Historical Archaeology 58: 326-350.

With Maria Fernanda Boza Cuadros

2023. “Dismantling the Diorama: A Case Study in ‘Unknowable’ Human Remains.” Curator: The Museum Journal 66 (3): 405-412.

Lans, Aja M.

2023. “Bioarchaeology of the Self.” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 53(1): 79-81.

Lans, Aja M.

2022. “Investigating Black Women’s Mental Health in Progressive Era New York City: A Bioarchaeological Study of Slow Violence and Landscapes of Impunity.” Historical Archaeology 56(4): 663-680.

Lans, Aja M.

2021. “Decolonize This Collection: Integrating Black Feminism and Art to Re-examine Human Skeletal Remains in Museums.” Feminist Anthropology 2(1): 130-142.