Paul A. Shackel

Paul A. Shackel (b. 1959) is an American anthropologist and a Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maryland, College Park. He joined the Department of Anthropology in 1996 after working for the National Park Service for 7½ years. His research interests include Historical Archaeology, Civic Engagement, African Diaspora, Labor Archaeology, and the development of Heritage. He teaches courses in Historical Archaeology, Archeology of the Chesapeake, and Method and Theory in Archaeology.

Education

Shackel earned his PhD in Anthropology, which was awarded with distinction, at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1987. His dissertation focused on the archaeology and probate records from eighteenth-century Annapolis, Maryland and he described the development of modern behavior and early capitalism.

Academic career

Shackel began his teaching career as an Adjunct Instructor, Department of Social Sciences, Suffolk Community College. During the summers of 1983 and 1984, he led a team of students in an archaeological excavation to locate the homestead of the founder of the Town of Islip, on Long Island. In 1984 and 1986 he served as an instructor in the Department of Anthropology at SUNY–Buffalo, teaching Introduction to Archaeology, and Historical Archaeology. He co-taught a course with Barbara Little and Parker Potter in the Department of Social Sciences at Anne Arundel Community College in 1986. He served as a Lecturer in Department of Anthropology, UM in the 1987–88 academic year, and served as a Visiting Asst. Professor, Department of Anthropology, UM in–89.

Shackel came to the Department of Anthropology at UM and served as an Assistant Professor from 1996–1999; Associate Professor from 1999–2002 and Professor from 2002–present. He is also currently serving as Chair of the Department.

Research projects

In 1989 Shackel began working for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park as an archaeologist and he was part of a larger program related to the restoration of Lower Town Harpers Ferry. His extensive work at Harpers Ferry delves into issues of class and labor and it has resulted in several books and many articles. In 1996 Shackel came to the University of Maryland (UM) where he served as PI or Co-PI on several projects with the National Park Service. In 2002 he helped to initiate a long-term archaeology project at New Philadelphia, Illinois, a multi-racial town that was founded by a freed African American in 1836. In the 1860s the railroad bypassed New Philadelphia and by the 1920s it was virtually abandoned. In 2002 and 2003 UM partnered with the Illinois State Museum (ISM), the University of Illinois (UI), and the friends group, the New Philadelphia Association (NPA), to perform an archaeological survey of the land. In 2004, UM received a 3-year National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates award that allowed Shackel to partner with UI and ISM to train undergraduates in archaeology and explore issues of race, class and ethnicity on the Illinois western frontier. New Philadelphia was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 and it was designated as and National Historic Landmark in 2009. The Archaeological Conservancy is currently working to help preserve the land, and a bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate to perform a Special Resource Study to determine the feasibility of making it a National Park.

Publications

Books authored

• 2009 An Archaeology of American Labor and Working Class Life. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, FL.
• 2008 The Making of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park: A Devil, Two Rivers, and a Dream (with Teresa Moyer). AltaMira Press, Lanham, MD.
• 2006 “They Worked Regular”: Craft, Labor, Family and the Archaeology of an Industrial Community (with Matthew Palus). University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.
• 2003 Memory in Black and White: Race, Commemoration, and the Post–Bellum Landscape. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA.
• 2000 Archaeology and Created Memory: Public History in a National Park. Kluwer
• Academic/Plenum Publishing, New York, NY.
• 1996 Culture Change and The New Technology: An Archaeology of The Early American Industrial Era. Plenum Publishing Corp, New York, NY.
• 1993 Personal Discipline and Material Culture: An Archaeology of Annapolis, Maryland, 1695–1870. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN.

Edited volumes

• 2007 Archaeology as a Tool of Civic Engagement (with Barbara Little). AltaMira Press, Lanham, MD. National Council for Public History Book Award finalist, 2008
• 2004 Places in Mind: Archaeology as Applied Anthropology, (with Erve Chambers). Routledge Press, NY.
• 2001 Myth, Memory and The Making of The American Landscape. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL. (Paper edition issued in 2008).
• 1998 Annapolis Pasts: Contributions From Archaeology in Annapolis, (with Paul Mullins and Mark S. Warner). The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN.
• 1994 Historical Archaeology of The Chesapeake (with Barbara J. Little). Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.

Awards

• 2008 NCPH Book Award finalist for Archaeology as a Tool of Civic Engagement (w/Barbara Little).
• Ethel Jane Westfeldt Bunting Fellow: School for Advanced Research (SAR), Summer Fellowship, 2007. Sante Fe, New Mexico.
• National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Historic Preservation Medal: 2006;– For work to place New Philadelphia on the National Register of Historic Places.
• Choice Award, 2004;– for Outstanding Academic Title Memory in Black and White (2003 AtltaMira)
• GRB Grant (Environmental Reconstruction at New Philadelphia, Illinois) 2004–2005 Academic Year
• GRB Grant (A survey of Historic African American Churches in Frederick County) 2001–2002 Academic Year

External links

• Department of Anthropology
• New Philadelphia
• Center for Heritage Resource Center
• New Philadelphia Archaeological Project Updates
• Society for Historical Archaeology
• Article: Archaeologists unearthing earliest incorporated black town