Shackel, Paul

Bio

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.

His extensive work at Harpers Ferry delves into issues of class and labor in this early industrial town. He received a 3-year NSF 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. The development of civic engagement activities became an important part of this archaeological program.

He is now working with graduate and undergraduate students on the Anthracite Heritage Project, a program that includes oral histories, documentary research, and archaeology in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania. The project initially focused on the 1897 Lattimer Massacre. Now the research program is exploring issues related to immigration in the past as well as the present in the coal patch towns in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The project crew has worked in Lattimer, Pardeesville, and most recently Eckley Miners' Village, focusing on the households of mining families. The project is currently collecting oral histories of the new and long-time residents of the region. 

Here are some related links to the Anthracite Heritage Project:

ahp.umd.edu
https://lattimerarchaeology.wordpress.com/
https://lattimermassacre.wordpress.com/

http://www.anthracitemuseum.org/we-are-anthracite/

 


 Ruined Anthracite     Remembering Lattimer Book     Shackel Book     book cover

(Click on the above book covers for more information on these works)

Dr. Shackel also works on National Park Service projects that provide work and educational opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. He 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.

Google Scholar Profile

Areas of Interest

  • Historical archaeology, labor history, civic engagement

Research Topics

  • Shackel, P. 2023. Remembering Labor Conflict as an American Battlefield. Parks Stewardship Forum, 39(3). http://dx.doi.org/10.5070/P539362024 Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6fr7w9kzRetrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6fr7w9kz
    • Brown. M and Shackel. P. 2023. Anthracite memories: semantic tagging and coal mining oral histories. International Journal of Heritage Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2023.2243461
      • Brown, M. and Shackel, P. 2022.Text Mining Oral Histories in Historical Archaeology. International Journal of Historical Archaeology https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-022-00680-5.
        • Shackel, Paul A. 2022. “Introduction: The Past Made Public.” In The Oxford Handbook of Industrial Archaeology, edited by Eleanor Casella and Michael Nevell, 1-12. NY: Oxford University Press.
          • Shackel, Paul A. 2018. Remembering Lattimer: Migration, Labor, and Race in Pennsylvania Anthracite Country. Champaign/Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
            • Shackel, Paul A. 2018. ”Immigration Heritage in the Anthracite Coal Region of Northeastern Pennsylvania.” Journal of Community Archaeology & Heritage 5 (1). http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20518196.2017.1385947
              • Shackel, Paul. 2022. "Negotiating the Memory of the American Civil War." In Cultural Encounters and Tolerance Through Analyses of Social and Artistic Evidences: From History to the Present. edited by Altınöz, Meltem Özkan, 36-50. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
                • Shackel, Paul A. 2020. An Archaeology of Unchecked Capitalism: From the American Rust Belt to the Developing World. NY: Berghahn Books.
                  • Shackel, Paul A. 2019. “Structural Violence and the Industrial Landscape.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 25(7). https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2018.1517374
                    • Shackel, Paul A. 2018. Transgenerational Impact of Structural Violence: Epigenetics and the Legacy of Anthracite Coal. International Journal of Historical Archaeology.
                      • Shackel, Paul A. and V. Camille Westmont. 2016. When the Mines Closed: Heritage Building in Northeastern Pennsylvania. General Anthropology 32(1):1-10. DOI: 10.1111/gena.12007
                        • Shackel, Paul A. 2016. The Meaning of Place in the Anthracite Region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. International Journal of Heritage Studies. 22(3):200-213. DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2015.1114009
                          • Shackel, Paul A. and Michael Roller 2012 The Gilded Age Wasn’t So Gilded in the Anthracite Region of Pennsylvania. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 16(4):761-775.
                            • 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. and Matthew M. Palus 2006 The Gilded Age: An Archaeology of Working Class Communities. American Anthropologist 108(4):828-841.
                                • Shackel, Paul A. 2004 Labor’s Heritage: Remembering the American Industrial Landscape. Historical Archaeology 38(4): 43–57.
                                  • Shackel, Paul A. 2001 Public Memory and the Search for Power in American Historical Archaeology. American Anthropologist 102(3): 655–670.
                                    • 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. 1998 Maintenance Relationships in Early Colonial Annapolis. In Annapolis Pasts: Contributions From Archaeology in Annapolis, edited by Paul A.
                                        • 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. 1995 Terrible Saint: Changing Meanings of the John Brown Fort. Historical Archaeology 29(4): 11–25.
                                            • 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 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.
                                                • 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., Parker B. Potter, Jr., and Paul A. Shackel 1987 Toward a Critical Archaeology. Current Anthropology 28(3): 283–301.
                                                    • Shackel, Paul A. and Michael Roller (Editors). 2013 Reversing the Narrative: Archaeologies that Challenge, Diversify, and Expand History for the Present. Historical Archaeology, 47(3).
                                                      • Shackel, Paul A. and David Gadsby (Editors). 2011 Archaeologies of Engagement, Representation, and Identity.Historical Archaeology, 45(1).
                                                        • Fennel, Christopher, Terrance Martin and Paul A. Shackel (Editors). 2010 New Philadelphia: Racism, Community, and the Illinois Frontier (with) Historical Archaeology 44(1).
                                                          • Little, Barbara J and Paul A. Shackel (Editors). 1992 Meanings and Uses of Material Culture (with Barbara J. Little). Historical Archaeology 26(3).
                                                            • Laurajane Smith, Paul A. Shackel and Gary Campbell. 2011. Heritage, Labour and the Working Classes. Routledge Press, NY.
                                                              • Little, Barbara J. and Paul A. Shackel. 2007. Archaeology as a Tool of Civic Engagement. AltaMira Press, Lanham, MD.
                                                                • Shackel, Paul A. and Erve Chambers. 2004. Places in Mind: Archaeology as Applied Anthropology. Routledge Press, NY.
                                                                  • Shackel, Paul A., Paul R. Mullins and Mark S. Warmer (Editors). 1998. Annapolis Pasts: Contributions from Archaeology in Annapolis, (with Paul Mullins and Mark S. Warner). The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN.
                                                                    • Little, Barbara J. and Paul A. Shackel. 1994. Historical Archaeology of the Chesapeake. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
                                                                      • Little, Barbara J. and Paul A. Shackel. 2014. Archaeology, Heritage and Civic Engagement: Working Toward the Public Good. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA.
                                                                        • Shackel, Paul A. 2011. New Philadelphia: An Archaeology of Race in the Heartland. University of California Press, Berkeley.
                                                                          • Shackel, Paul A. 2009. An Archaeology of American Labor and Working Class Life. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, FL.
                                                                            • Moyer, Teresa and Shackel, Paul A. 2008. The Making of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park: A Devil, Two Rivers, and a Dream. AltaMira Press, Lanham, MD.
                                                                              • Shackel, Paul A. 2003. Memory in Black and White: Race, Commemoration, and the Post–Bellum Landscape. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA.
                                                                                • Shackel, Paul A. 1996. Culture Change and the New Technology: An Archaeology of the Early American Industrial Era. Plenum Publishing Corp, New York, NY.
                                                                                  • Shackel, Paul A. 2013. An Historical Archaeology of Labor and Social Justice. American Anthropologist 115(2): 317-320.

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                                                                                    Personal Website(s)

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                                                                                    Paul Shackel

                                                                                    Paul Shackel
                                                                                    Professor

                                                                                    | 1119 Woods Hall

                                                                                    | pshackel@umd.edu

                                                                                    | (301) 405-1422

                                                                                    Graduate Students