See 2006 Photo Narrative from New Philadelphia

Dr. Paul Shackel joined the Department of Anthropology in 1996 after working for the National Park Service for 7-½ years. He received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1987.

Dr. Shackel is Director of the Center for Heritage Resource Studies, a program that supports the comprehensive approach to the study of heritage. His extensive work at Harpers Ferry delves into issues of class and labor. More recently he received a 3-year National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates award that allows him to partner with other institutions to train undergraduates in archaeology and explore issues of race, class and ethnicity on the Illinois western frontier. The work focuses on the historic town of New Philadelphia and it engages the local community to think about issues of racism in western Illinois. The development of civic engagement activities became an important part of this archaeological program.

Dr. Shackel serves as the PI on a cooperative agreement with several National Park Service -- Historic Trails Campaign. These projects provide work and educational opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. Shackel is interested in what nationally significant sites mean to the American public, and how they help to create and maintain a national identity. Archaeology plays a role in revealing controversial issues of our country’s development, such as labor, racism, and enslavement.

Selected Publications:

Books:

1993 Personal Discipline And Material Culture: An Archaeology of Annapolis, Maryland, 1695-1870. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN.

1996 Culture Change And The New Technology: An Archaeology of The Early American Industrial Era. Plenum Publishing Corp, New York, NY.

2000 Archaeology and Created Memory: Public History in a National Park. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishing, New York, NY.

2003 Memory in Black and White: Race, Commemoration, and the Post-Bellum Landscape. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA.

2006 “They Worked Regular:” Craft, Labor, Family and the Archaeology of an Industrial Community (with Matthew Palus), University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.

2008 “The Making of Harper's Ferry National Historical Park: A Devil, Two Rivers, and a Dream (with Teresa Moyer), AltaMira Press, Lanham, MD.

2009   An Archaeology of American Labor and Working Class Life.  University of Florida Press, Gainesville, FL.

Books Edited:

1994 Historical Archaeology of The Chesapeake (with Barbara J. Little). Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.

1998 Annapolis Pasts: Contributions From Archaeology in Annapolis, (with Paul Mullins and Mark S. Warner). The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN.

2001 Myth, Memory and The Making of The American Landscape. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

2004 Places in Mind: Archaeology as Applied Anthropology, (with Erve Chambers). Routledge Press, NY.

2007 Archaeology as a Tool of Civic Engagement, (with Barbara Little). AltaMira Press, Lanham, MD.

Refereed Journal Volumes Edited:

1992 Meanings and Uses of Material Culture (with Barbara J. Little). Historical Archaeology 26(3).

1994 An Archaeology of Harpers Ferry's Commercial and Residential District (with Susan E. Winter). Historical Archaeology 28(4).

2003 Remembering Landscapes of Conflict. Historical Archaeology 37(3).

2010    New Philadelphia: Racism, Community, and the Illinois (with Christopher Fennel and Terrance Martin) Historical Archaeology 44(1).

2011    Archaeologies of Engagement, Representation, and Identity (with David Gadsby) Historical Archaeology, 45(1), forthcoming.

Monographs:

1993 (Editor). Interdisciplinary Investigations of Domestic Life in Government Block B: Perspectives on Harpers Ferry's Armory and Commercial District, Occasional Report No. 6. Department of the Interior, National Capital Region Archaeology Program. National Park Service, Washington, DC.

1994 (Editor). Domestic Responses to Nineteenth-Century Industry: An Archeology of Park Building 48, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, Occasional Report No. 12. Department of the Interior, National Capital Region Archaeology Program. National Park Service, Washington, DC.

2004 “To Preserve the Evidence of a Noble Past:” An Administrative History of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (with Teresa S. Moyer and Kim E. Wallace). Catoctin Center for Regional Studies, Frederick Community College and the Center for Heritage Resource Studies, Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland.

See Dr. Shackel's CV