Dr. Paul Shackel

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. He received a 3-year National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates award that allowed 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 focused on the historic town of New Philadelphia, Illinois 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.

He is now developing a project that includes oral histories and archeology of a labor massacre that occurred in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania in 1897. Dr. Shackel serves as the PI on a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service. 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 Bibliography for Paul Shackel in Chronological Order

Leone, Mark P., Parker B. Potter, Jr., and Paul A. Shackel
1987  Toward a Critical Archaeology. Current Anthropology 28(3): 283–301.

Little, Barbara J. and Paul A. Shackel
1989  Scales of Historical Anthropology: An Archaeology of Colonial A Anglo–America. Antiquity (62)240: 495–509.

Leone, Mark P. and Paul A. Shackel
1990  Plane and Solid Geometry in Colonial Gardens in Annapolis, Maryland. In Earth Patterns: Essays in Landscape Archaeology, edited by William  Kelso, and Rachel Most, pp. 153–167. The University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville, VA.

Shackel, Paul A.
1993  Resilient Shrine. Archaeology 46(3): 72.

Shackel, Paul A.
1994  Town Planning, and Everyday Material Culture: An Archaeology of Social Relations in Colonial Maryland's Capital Cities. In Historical Archaeology of the Chesapeake, edited by Paul A. Shackel and Barbara J. Little, pp. 85–96. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.

Shackel, Paul A.
1994   Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Meanings and Uses of Material Goods in Lower Town, Harpers Ferry. Historical Archaeology 28(4): 3–15.

Shackel, Paul A.
1994  Memorializing Landscapes and the Civil War in Harpers Ferry. In Look to the Earth:  an Archaeology of the Civil War, edited by Clarence Geier and Susan Winter, pp. 256–270. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN.

Shackel, Paul A.
1994  Archaeology of an Industrial Town: Harpers Ferry and the New Order of Manufacturing. CRM 17(1): 16–19.

Shackel, Paul A.
*1995  Terrible Saint: Changing Meanings of the John Brown Fort. Historical Archaeology 29(4): 11–25.

Little, Barbara J. and Paul A. Shackel
1997  Importance of Historical Archaeology in the United States. World Archaeological Bulletin 7.

Martin, Erika, Mia Parsons, and Paul Shackel
1997  Commemorating a Rural African–American Family at a National Battlefield Park. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 1(2): 155–175.

Shackel, Paul A.
1998    Maintenance Relationships in Early Colonial Annapolis. In Annapolis Pasts: Contributions From Archaeology in Annapolis, edited by Paul A. Shackel, Paul Mullins and Mark S. Warner, pp. 97–118. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville,TN.

Shackel, Paul A.
2000  Craft to Wage Labor: Agency and Resistance in American Historical Archaeology. In Agency Theory in Archaeology, edited by John Robb and Marcia–Anne Dobres, pp. 232–246. Routledge Press, London.

Shackel, Paul A.
2001   Public Memory and the Search for Power in American Historical Archaeology. American Anthropologist 102(3): 655–670.

Shackel, Paul A.
2002  Broadening the Interpretations of the Past at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. In The Public Benefits of Archaeology, edited by Barbara J. Little, pp 157–166. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

Shackel, Paul A.
2003   Heyward Shepherd: The Faithful Slave Memorial. In Remembering Landscapes of Conflict, edited by Paul A. Shackel. Historical Archaeology 37(3): 138–148.

Shackel, Paul A.
2004 Labor’s Heritage: Remembering the American Industrial Landscape. Historical Archaeology 38(4): 43–57.

Shackel, Paul A.
2005  Local Identity, National Memory and Heritage Tourism: Creating a Sense of Place with Archaeology. SAA Archaeological Record, 5(3): 33–35.

Little, Barbara J. and Paul A. Shackel
2005 The Public Meaning of Archaeological Heritage. SAA Archaeological Record, 5(2): 18.

Shackel, Paul A. and Matthew M. Palus
2006  The Gilded Age: An Archaeology of Working Class Communities. American Anthropologist 108(4):828-841.

Shackel, Paul A. and Matthew M. Palus
*2006   Remembering an Industrial landscape. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 10(1):49-71.

Shackel, Paul A.
2009  Historic Period Industrial Archeological Sites. Encyclopedia of North American Archaeology, edited by Francis McManamon, pp. 26-39. Greenwood Publishing Group, New York,

Shackel, Paul A.
2010   Identity and Collective Action in a Multi-Racial Community. In New Philadelphia: Racism, Community, and the Illinois Frontier, edited by Christopher Fennel and Terrance Martin and Paul A. Shackel. Historical Archaeology, 44(1): 58-71.

Shackel, Paul A. and Matthew Palus
2010 Industry, Entrepreneurship, and Patronage: Lewis Wernwag and the Development of Virginius Island. Historical Archaeology, 44(2):97-112.

Paul A. Shackel and David Gadsby (editors) (2011) Archaeologies of
Engagement, Representation, and Identity Historical Archaeology, 45(1).

Shackel, Paul A.
2011 A Snapshot of Tourism in Greenland.  International Journal of Heritage Studies 17(1):81-88.

Shackel, Paul A.
2011 America’s Home Town: Fiction, Mark Twain, and the Recreation of Hannibal, Missouri. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 45(3):197-213. 

Shackel, Paul A., Laurajane Smith, an Gary Campbell
*2011  Labour’s Heritage. In Special Issue: Approaches to Labour’s Heritage (with Laurajane Smith and Gary Campbell). International Journal of Heritage Studies 17(4):291-300.

See Dr. Shackel's CV