Michael Shanks (archaeologist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Further information: Shanks (disambiguation)
Michael Shanks (born 1959 in Newcastle upon Tyne) is a British archaeologist who has specialised in Classical archaeology and archaeological theory. He received his BA and PhD from Cambridge University, and was a lecturer at the University of Wales, Lampeter before moving to the United States of America in 1999 to take up a Chair in Classics at Stanford University.
Shanks was a key figure in the development of post-processualism and interpretive archaeology during the 1980s, especially through his collaboration with Christopher Tilley which led to the publication of two influential books: 'Re-Constructing Archaeology' and 'Social Theory and Archaeology' (both 1987). Shanks' first single-authored book, 'Experiencing the Past' (1992), considered the character of archaeological thinking, drawing examples form a wide range of British and European archaeology. During the 1990s, two further monographs - Classical Archaeology of Greece: Experiences of the Discipline (1996) and Art and the Early Greek City State (1999) applied aspects of post-processual thinking to Classical archaeology. He co-authored Theatre/Archaeology' (2001) with performance researcher Mike Pearson. Shanks has also authored and co-authored a range of journal articles, including an influential paper on 'the craft of archaeology' in 1996, published in American Antiquity (with Randall McGuire).
[edit] Current Research Activities
Shanks is director of the MetaMedia Lab which operates under the umbrella of the Stanford Humanities Lab at Stanford University. The Metamedia Lab falls within the broader field of Media studies (which includes such theorists as Marshall McLuhan), while the Stanford Humanities Lab is a pioneering digital arts and humanities research center dedicated to promoting cocreation, building large-scale digitally inflected projects, and experimenting with new approaches to archival practice.
