The Portal to Texas History 2023 Research Fellowship Awardee

Dr. Patricia G. Markert

Project Title

The Storied Landscape: A Century of Placemaking in D’Hanis, TX

Project Description

D’Hanis, TX sits at the intersection of Alsatian, German, and Mexican migration to Texas in the 19th and 20th centuries. This project will assemble stories from Texas newspapers (c. 1847-1947) to situate D’Hanis and its archaeological landscape within the broader landscape of political, social, and ideological changes occurring during a century of mass settlement and displacement, civil and world wars, racialization and segregation, and national mythmaking. This descriptive catalog, layered with the archaeological study of D’Hanis’ rubble-rock ruins and oral history with community members, will contribute to the development of a book project, local heritage efforts, and several scholarly and creative outputs.

Biography

Patricia Markert is an historical archaeologist whose research examines the material and narrative ways communities engage in placemaking in the generations following migration events. She is also interested in the ways national myths exist in conversation with local migration narratives and practices. Since 2017, she has directed the community-based Old D’Hanis Archaeological Mapping Project and the Castro Colonies Oral History Project in Medina County, TX. Her work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation/American Council of Learned Societies, Wenner-Gren Foundation, National Geographic Society, Binghamton University, Western University, Council of Texas Archeologists, and Medina County Historical Commission. She is an assistant professor of anthropology at The University of Western Ontario.