Samantha Ellens

(She/Her)

ellenssa@msu.edu
McDonel Hall E-29

Archaeology Collections Manager - MSU Museum

Anthropology

Biography

Samantha Ellens is the Archaeology Collections Manager at the Michigan State University Museum in conjunction with the Anthropology Department. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Wayne State University, specializing in historical archaeology. Samantha is responsible for the care, preservation, documentation, and activation of the archaeological collections housed within the MSU Museum.

As a historical archaeologist with a background in Ontario, the Midwest, and the Caribbean, Samantha has over a decade of experience in museum management, collections-based research, and community archaeology. Her research emphasizes urban and colonial landscapes, drawing upon many topics, including consumption, trade, health, labor, and identity, to inform her work in Michigan and the Caribbean.

Works

Richmond Hill Estate Survey and Excavations (PI, 2026-present) – Archaeological consultation in collaboration with the Montserrat National Trust’s UKRI/INTO RISE-funded Plants, Enslavement and Public History initiative, providing archaeological context for new public interpretation and signage at the Richmond Hill Sugar Mill Museum.

Clay, Elizabeth C. and Samantha M. Ellens, eds. Plant Commodities in Global Colonialism: Historical Archaeology of Landscapes and Labor. Critical Plant Studies series. Under contract with Bloomsbury Academic. Manuscript delivery: January 31, 2027.

Ellens, Samantha M. (2025), Uncovering Landscapes of Labor: Contributions of the Citrus Lime Industry to Socioeconomic Transformations in the Post-Emancipation Lesser Antilles. Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Wayne State University. Committee: Krysta Ryzewski (advisor); Tamara L. Bray, Yuson Jung, Mark W. Hauser, James Delle.

Ellens, Samantha (2021) Landscapes of Lime: Boom-and-Bust Cycles of Botanical Commodities in the Eastern Caribbean. In The SAA Archaeological Record. 21(5):30-33.

Ellens, Samantha, Susan Villerot, and Don Adzigian (2021) Interpreting the Sherds: Ceramic Consumption Practices in a Nineteenth-Century Detroit Riverfront Neighborhood. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology. 46(1):83-106.

Ellens, Samantha (2020) Tracing the Post-Emancipation Landscape of Dominica’s Lime Industry. In Slavery on the Edge of Empire: The Political Ecology of a Caribbean Plantation, edited by Mark W. Hauser and Diane Wallman. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.