Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology
109 Munroe Hall
Newark, Delaware 19716
(302) 831- 1854
decunzo@udel.edu
Lu Ann De Cunzo is a professor and chair of Anthropology at the University of Delaware. She earned a Ph.D. in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania. In her research and teaching she specializes in historical archaeology and anthropology with a focus on the 17th to early 20th century culture history of the Middle Atlantic region, and the heritage legacy of this era. She has directed public archaeological projects in Pennsylvania, Delaware and southern New Jersey in collaboration with historical organizations, public agencies, community groups, and students. Her research interests include urbanization and institutions, the cultures of agriculture, colonialism, and the rise of consumerism in the modern world. She is coediting New Stories from Old Things with Michele Anstine of the Delaware Historical Society, and is the author of “Borderland in the Middle: The Delaware Colony on the Atlantic Coast,” in Scandinavian Colonialism and the Rise of Modernity: Small Agents in a Global Arena. Among her other publications are Unlocking the Past: The Historical Archaeology of North America (coeditor, 2005); A Historical Archaeology of Delaware: People, Contexts, and the Cultures of Agriculture (author, 2004); and Historical Archaeology and the Study of American Culture (coeditor, 1996), and Reform, Respite, Ritual: An Archaeology of Institutions. The Magdalen Society of Philadelphia, 1800-1850 (1995). A past president of the Society for Historical Archaeology, she has worked to globalize the practice of historical archaeology in the U.S.
Teaching: the undergraduate Introduction to Material Culture Studies course, diverse undergraduate historical archaeology courses—addressing issues of globalization and archaeology of the modern world, colonialism, African diaspora in North America and slavery, consumerism and industrial revolution, westward expansion, ethnic diversity, regionalism, public engagement, and archaeological field, lab, and analytical methods—graduate sections of the field methods and public engagement courses and occasionally of the material culture studies course, independent studies for graduate students re: archaeology and material culture studies, advising M.A. theses in American Material Culture Studies and Historic Preservation, serving on Ph.D. examining committees and dissertation committees re: archaeology and material culture studies for students in History of American Civilization and Preservation Studies
Service: Executive Committees of Winterthur Program in American Material Culture Studies and Preservation Studies Ph.D. program; collaborating and consulting archaeologist to Delaware Historical Society (especially in New Castle), New Castle Historical Society, State of Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, Old Swedes Foundation, American Swedish Historical Museum, New Jersey Historic Sites Council and in past years to Mt. Cuba Center and Coverdale Farm; active member and Past President of the Society for Historical Archaeology (the largest international professional association of my field) and active member and Past Chair of the Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology; current member of Editorial Board of Winterthur Portfolio and Left Coast Press’s Guide to American Artifacts Series.
