Nina Schreiner is an anthropological archaeologist and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) compliance specialist. She joined SCIAA in 2023 as NAGPRA Coordinator and was named Associate Director in 2025. She earned a PhD in Anthropology from the University of South Carolina (2024), where she was a Presidential Fellow.

Research Areas:

North American archaeology, decolonizing and collaborative methodologies, settler colonial studies, the history of archaeology, archaeological collections care, preservation and heritage law, NAGPRA, Eastern U.S., 1400-1900 CE

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Dr. Schreiner's research identifies intersections of settler colonialism and American archaeology since the nineteenth century as sites of intervention into ongoing disciplinary norms. Her dissertation "Re-Curating the Carceral Settler Assemblage: Implementing

NAGPRA at a State Curation Facility" explores the impacts of state and federal preservation laws on archaeological practice at a state institution. Her current book project examines the North-South directionality of nineteenth-century American archaeology,

where members of the professionalizing Northern middle class systematically disturbed sacred sites across the post-removal Southeast. Their collections became foundational holdings for museums in Northern industrial centers, many of which are being revisited through NAGPRA compliance today. Dr. Schreiner is also building a research project that establishes historical Indigenous presence and explores trade and diplomacy in the eighteenth-century South Carolina upstate.