Scott J. Demel
Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Office: Room 147D Gries Hall
Phone:
E-mail: sdemel@nmu.edu
Web page:

Education:

BS University of Wisconsin-Madison
MA University of Illinois at Chicago
PhD University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Teaching:

Fall 2009: AN 101 Introduction to Physical Anthropology and Archaeology (2 sections)

Spring 2010: courses tbd

Scott J. Demel joins NMU as a full-time assistant professor of anthropology. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a major in archaeology and a minor in geology. Scott is currently teaching the Introduction to Physical Anthropology and Archaeology course and preparing to restart the archaeology field school next summer.

Profile

I am interested in how different ethnic groups have used the Great Lakes throughout prehistory and into the early 19th century. To fully understand the opportunities offered along the coasts of these inland seas I also study all aspects of the natural environment and cultural landscape to learn how humans have adapted to this dynamic landscape.

For the past eight years I have worked at The Field Museum in Chicago where I was the Head of Collections for the Department of Anthropology. This position afforded me the opportunity to study firsthand the intricate details of material culture of ethnic groups from around the globe. I also had the opportunity to meet with indigenous representatives that were seeking to repatriate objects or remains, and to be trained in the use of analytical equipment such as an X-ray XRF elemental analyzer. During this period I also taught courses in archaeology at DePaul University, and co-directed archaeology field schools for DePaul college students, high school students and teachers, and middle-school children. Some of the recent archaeological sites I worked on included: Camp Douglas - Civil War Prison (Chicago), Tetter Homestead – Kankakee IL (reconstruction era), Pullman State Historic Site - Chicago (early industrial), the Kubinski Site - a Middle Woodland Ossuary (Romeoville, IL), and the Brewster Creek Mastodon (DuPage County, IL).

Geographic Areas of Interest

North America

Great Lakes

Midwest/Midcontinent

Recent Publications

Chapters:

Lurie, Rochelle, Doug Kullen, and Scott J. Demel.   ( 2009).   Defining the Archaic in Northern Illinois – In Archaic Societies – Diversity and Complexity Across the Midcontinent; edited by Thomas E. Emerson, Dale L. McElrath, and Andrew C. Fortier (Albany: State University of New York Press, March 2009)

Journal Articles:

Demel, Scott J.(2009). Brewster Creek Mastodon Camp!: Engaging Teens & Teachers in Scientific Inquiry, DuPage County, Illinois in Current Research in the Pleistocene; vol. 26: (submitted).

Pestle, William, Scott J. Demel, Michael Colvard, and Robert Pickering. (2007). Skeletal Biology and Mortuary Practice at the Kubinski Site (11-WI-1186), a Middle Woodland Ossuary in Illinois Archaeology; vol. 19: 47-84. 

Demel, Scott J. (2007). Three Rediscovered Clovis Points From The Field Museum Collections in Current Research in the Pleistocene; vol. 24: 76-77.