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Ken Lewis

 

Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology

Adjunct Curator of History and Anthropology Emeritus, MSU Museum, Michigan State University

Email:    lewisk@msu.edu

Education

  • Ph.D. University of Oklahoma, 1975
  • M.A. Anthropology, University of Florida, 1969
  • B.A. Anthropology, University of Florida, 1967

Research Interests

Historical Archaeology; Frontiers and Colonization; Archaeological Methodology; Settlement Patterning and Archaeological Landscapes; Eastern North America; South Carolina; Michigan and the Midwest


Research Statement

I am a historical archaeologist whose interests focus on Eastern North America with an emphasis on the examination of colonial societies and their evolution over time.  I am particularly interested in the political economies of regions undergoing settlement and the role of both general and specific factors that affect the settlement landscapes they create.  Understanding the formation of colonial societies requires an examination of the processes that created these specific entities within the broader context of European expansion, and my studies have approached this phenomenon on both broad and narrow scales.  I have approached the study of colonial expansion and interaction with Native societies utilizing the archaeological record in South Carolina, where I have carried out investigations since the 1970s.  I have also conducted research in Michigan, Georgia, and Florida.


Selected Publications

2010 edited with Russell K. Skowronek. Beneath the Ivory Tower: The Archaeology of Academia. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

2005 Camden: Historical Archaeology in the South Carolina Backcountry. Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont, CA.
2010 Introduction. In Beneath the Ivory Tower: The Archaeology of Academia, pp. 1-8. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
2010 Function, Circumstance, and the Archaeological Record: The Elusive Past at Saints’ Rest. In Beneath the Ivory Tower: The Archaeology of Academia, pp. 9-35. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
2013 “Little Better Than a Heap of Rubbish”: History, Legend, and the Archaeological Record at Camden. South Carolina Historical Magazine 114:231-248.
2009 Frontier Change, Institution Building, and the Archaeological Record in the South Carolina Backcountry. Southeastern Archaeology 28(2):184-201.

Courses