BA, MA (Dar), PhD (York)

Email: bigi@heeal.eu

Biography

Dr. Biginagwa obtained his Doctorate from York in 2012. His thesis examined animal economies practiced by local communities against the context of the expansion of the caravan trade in north-eastern Tanzania during the nineteenth century. Dr. Biginagwa’s broad research interest is on understanding how contemporary landscapes, habitats and cultures were shaped by changing human-environment interactions after the incorporation of East Africa into the North Atlantic trade system after c. 1500AD. Dr. Biginagwa teaches various undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the department, notably Faunal Analysis in Archaeology, Archaeology of Tanzania, Heritage Laws and Policies, and People and Cultures in Africa.

Areas of Specialization:Faunal analysis in Archaeology/Zooarchaeology, & Material culture

Current Projects

• Devising conservation strategies and sustainable use of colonial heritage assets in Tanzania: the case of German colonial buildings in Bagamoyo, Rufiji and Kilwa districts. A one-year project funded by Gerda Henkel Foundation.
• The impacts of Ngoni migration to southern Tanzania: a multidisciplinary study. A one-year project funded jointly by the University of Dar es Salaam and National Geographic Society.

Completed Projects

• Archaeological investigation of the consequences of the 19^th c. caravan trade on human environment and subsistence strategies in southern Tanzania. A three-year project funded by Volkswagen Foundation.

Publications

Tourigny, E., Newstead, S., Antczak, K. A., Biginagwa, T. J., & Young, R. (2019). Global post-medieval/historical archaeology: what’s happening around the world 2018? Post-Medieval Archaeology, 1-11.

Biginagwa, T. J., and Ichumbaki, E. B. (2018). Settlement history of the islands on the Pangani River, northeastern Tanzania. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 53(1), 63-82.

Biginagwa, T.J. and Mapunda, B.B. (2017). ‘The Kilwa - Nyasa caravan route: the long-neglected trading corridor in southern Tanzania’. In Wynne-Jones and A. LaViolette (eds.). The Swahili World, 541-554.

Biginagwa, T.J. (2016). ‘Archaeology of KilwaKivinje: a nineteenth-century caravan trade coastal terminus ofsouthern Tanzania’. Studies in the African Past, 12, 58-95.

Biginagwa, T.J. (2014). ‘Historical archaeology in eastern Africa’. Encyclopedia of global historical archaeology, 2265 – 2273.

Biginagwa, T.J. (2013). ‘A study of faunal assemblages from 19^{th -}century caravan trade halts in north-eastern Tanzania’. Studies in the African Past, 11, 159-183.

Biginagwa, T. J. (2012). Historical archaeology of the nineteenth-century caravan trade in Northeastern Tanzania: A zooarchaeological perspective. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 47(3), 405-406.

Biginagwa, T.J. (2009). Excavations of 19^th Century Caravan Trade Halts in North-eastern Tanzania. NyameAkuma, 72, 52-60.