Historical Archaeologist Dr. Cheryl Janifer LaRoche is a trans-disciplinarian who believes that African American history permeates every facet of the American experience. She uses escape from slavery and the Underground Railroad to get at deeper historical lessons. She has written widely on the subject. Her academic work spans archaeology and anthropology, history and genealogy, geography, mapping, and the law as well as women’s experiences in slavery.

She has consulted and conducted multiple ethnographic studies for the National Park Service and was the project historian for Cultural Expressions exhibition for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. She has worked for numerous museums and historical sites, lectures widely and has been featured on several documentaries, including “Harriet Tubman: Vision of Freedom” for PBS. Her first book is Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance.

Her most recent article, “The Underground Railroad in Maryland’s Ports, Bays and Harbors: Maritime Strategies for Freedom,” is included in the recently published Sailing to Freedom. She is an associate research professor in Historic Preservation in the School of Architecture at the University of Maryland, College Park.