What is CHAS?

The Center for Heritage and Archaeological Studies (CHAS) is an interdisciplinary center focusing on heritage and archaeological studies in New Jersey and the Northeast particularly, as well as in other geographic areas of the world where affiliated MSU faculty are working.   CHAS is housed in MSU's College of Humanities and Social Sciences, where it has close links to the disciplines of Anthropology, Classics, General Humanities, and History.   CHAS also has strong ties with the College of the Arts (especially Art History in the Department of Art & Design) and the Department of Earth & Environmental Studies in the College of Science and Mathematics.

Heritage and archaeological studies include:

- historical and prehistoric archaeological investigations

- engaging local communities in creating their own histories through  

  archaeological, archival, and ethnographic methods

- promoting an awareness of heritage preservation that informs present

  and future community concerns and goals.

Often heritage studies involve contemporary communities and community revitalization and do not focus on the past.

Although CHAS was re-founded in 2007 with the somewhat broader mission described in these pages, its history and a good part of its inspiration lie in Montclair State’s previous Center for Archaeological Studies, which from 1995-2005 sponsored field projects in New Jersey and in Central America and served as an interdisciplinary resource for promoting teaching and outreach to the wider community.  New Jersey has no other institute or center comparable to CHAS. 

Heritage and the Contemporary World:

Heritage is a hot topic.  It has become a major focus of interest nationally and internationally and draws on such fields as archaeology, ethnology, and history.  An interdisciplinary approach, including the perspectives of both anthropological and classical archaeology, to heritage and archaeological studies, will be important for the Center’s success. Heritage is increasingly understood to be critical to community building and revitalization.   We seek to gather a critical mass of faculty who, working collaboratively, will apply methods from different disciplines to address issues in ever-changing communities. 

Issues of fundamental importance in community organization and structure that link past to present include in- and out-migrations of distinct ethnic groups; co-mingling and merging of ethnic groups resulting in new social formations; and social, economic, and political inequalities. In short, we view the concept of “community” not as a bounded, self-contained entity but rather as a mosaic of interacting and continually evolving social and ethnic formations.  Snapshots of the mosaic at different points in time provide a framework for investigating historical changes in the community.  This diachronic perspective allows an examination of the larger regional, and perhaps global, context that figures strongly in the changing complexion of a community.