Directory

IACA Board Members

Jay Haviser, President


Dr. Jay B. Haviser now retired, was the specialist for Monuments and Archaeology at
the Ministry of VROMI office of the Government of St. Maarten (2007-2018), after
having been the Archaeologist for the Netherlands Antilles Government (1982-2007). He
received his doctorate in Archaeology from Leiden University in 1987, and still asissts
with the Leiden University Faculty for Archaeology. Dr. Haviser has served the region as
the President of the International Association for Caribbean Archaeology (1999-2007;
2013-2026), the Senior Regional Representative for the Caribbean in the World
Archaeological Congress (2002-2008), as well as, President of the Museums Association
of the Caribbean (2000-2002). He was granted Knighthood by Queen Beatrix of the
Netherlands in 2008, for his archaeology work in the Netherlands Antilles. Some of his
more prominent book publications include: African Sites Archaeology in the Caribbean
(1999), and co-editor of African Re-Genesis (2006) and Managing Our Past into the
Future (2015), as well as writing over 120 international publications. He has created and
is currently directing, three Youth and Science programs called SIMARC on St. Maarten,
BONAI on Bonaire, and SABARC on Saba.

Benoît Bérard, Vice-President


Benoît Bérard is full professor in Caribbean archaeology at the Université des Antilles (Martinique F.W.I.). He has directed numerous excavations of pre-Columbian archaeological sites in the West-Indies. He has also coordinated international research programs in various islands of the Lesser Antilles. He has directed, co-directed and authored various books as well as more than 80 book chapters and journal articles on Caribbean Amerindian civilizations and also the protection and integration of Amerindian legacies in the heritage of contemporaneous Caribbean Creole societies.

Yadira Chinique de Armas, Vice-President


Yadira Chinique de Armas (Ph.D. University of Havana) is an Associate Professor in Bioanthropology at the Department of Anthropology, University of Winnipeg, and a Graduate Faculty at the University of Manitoba. Her work combines different lines of evidence, including human skeletal biology, stable isotope analysis, and paleobotany, to understand human adaptations and lifeways. Her current research deals with the biocultural diversity and plasticity of circum-Caribbean indigenous groups, with emphasis in their subsistence strategies, interactions, and mobility. In addition, she is interested in the biological and cultural determinants of breastfeeding and weaning practices in ancient human populations. Currently, she co-directs excavations in three archaeological regions of Cuba: The Canímar Valley in Matanzas, the Reserva de Buenavista in Sancti Spiritus, and the Cauto Valley in Granma. In addition, she is the general coordinator of the research program ‘Cuba Aborigen’.

Kevin Farmer, Director


Kevin Farmer is currently Deputy Director of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society (BMHS). A member of the Barbados World Heritage Committee, he was site manager for the property Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison, and is currently site manager for the Newton Enslaved Burial Ground. His research interest in archaeological legislation and methodologies to combat illicit traffic in cultural property saw him present the periodic report on the English speaking Caribbean at the 40th anniversary Celebration of the 1970 convention. He holds a Master’s degree in History (Heritage Studies) from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados, and has lectured in Archaeology at the Department of History at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and taught at the UWI Cave Hill in their MA Heritage Studies program. Mr. Farmer is co-editor of the publication entitled: Pre-colonial and Post-Colonial Contact Archaeology in Barbados; Plantation to Nation: Caribbean Museums and National Identity along with articles written on the cultural resource management, historical archaeology and future of heritage development. A member of the International Association of Caribbean Archaeologists and Museum Association of the Caribbean he has provided expert advice to Regional partners on the 1970 Convention, Disaster Resilience and Museum Development.

Felicia Fricke, Director


Felicia is an archaeologist, osteologist, and (oral) historian who has been studying inequality and colonialism in Europe and the Americas for over a decade. In 2019 she received her doctorate in the interdisciplinary study of enslaved lifeways in the Dutch Caribbean from the University of Kent. She has several years of experience in archaeological fieldwork in the commercial and research sectors, and has published a number of peer reviewed articles and book chapters in English, Dutch, and Papiamentu, as well as a monograph based on her PhD thesis. Between 2019 and 2022, she spearheaded the working group that developed the new IACA Code of Ethics. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Caribbean history project IN THE SAME SEA at the University of Copenhagen.

Andrea Richards, Student Representative


Andrea is a Caribbean archaeologist presently working at the regional level on various initiatives targeting natural and cultural heritage being impacted by natural hazards and climate change, with a focus on mitigation and adaptation planning through culture, post-disaster needs and vulnerability assessments, the safeguarding of living heritage in emergencies and the synergies which exist between the tangible and the intangible and in how islanders of the Caribbean respond to environmental change. Although Andrea’s interests are wide in the heritage field, she also has a special interest in the sustainable use of heritage, the application of international heritage treaties in the Caribbean and the movement of the region’s cultural property. She is an associate fellow at the KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of SE Asian and Caribbean Studies (CaribTRAILS Project) and is presently undertaking doctoral research on climate change adaptation and heritage, with a focus on cultural heritage pathways in mitigation, adaptation and building resilience. She has also conducted research for publications focusing on cultural resource management in the Caribbean, the impact of natural hazards and climate change on the pre-Columbian archaeological record, and resilient Caribbean communities and climate change.

Gérard Richard, Treasurer


Gerard Richard has participated since the age of 20 in archaeological research conducted in the 1970s in his native region by Pierre Petrequin on Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Franche Comté. Since moving to Guadeloupe in 1982, he has directed several excavation sites and has specialized in the study and research of rock art sites in Guadeloupe and the Lesser Antilles. He is a regional expert in rock art for unesco, honorary territorial curator of archaeological heritage. Permanent Treasurer of the International Association of Caribbean Archaeology.

Neal Ferris, Secretary

Neal Ferris holds the Lawson Chair of Archaeology, cross-appointed between the Department of Anthropology at Western University and the Museum of Ontario Archaeology in London, Ontario, Canada. His research examines various dimensions of archaeology as a contemporary social practice of contested heritage and the material practices of ancient and recent Indigenous and Settler communities and their archaeological histories in eastern North America and the Caribbean.