Timothy Scarlett

"Whereas innovation, in the backwards reading of creativity, lies outside of time, improvisation, in a forward reading, is inherently temporal."
—Elizabeth Hallam and Tim Ingold (2007) Creativity and Cultural Improvisation. Berg, New York.

Contact

scarlett@mtu.edu
906-487-2359

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Associate Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology

PhD, University of Nevada, 2002
MA, Boston University, 1994
BA, University of Arizona, 1991

Biography

Timothy James Scarlett grew up in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He joined the faculty in the Industrial Heritage and Archaeology (IH&A) Program in the Department of Social Sciences at Michigan Technological University in 2001. Tim is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology, active in the IH&A's interdisciplinary community of practice, and works collaboratively with others in Energy and Environmental Policy, as well as students and faculty in Michigan Tech's departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences, and the College of Forest Resources and Environmental Sciences.

Dr. Scarlett is deeply committed to a dramatically interdisciplinary, public archaeology. In his personal research, he examines how individuals creatively solved problems at work as they adapted to new physical landscapes and social environments. He uses diverse methods in his studies, employing techniques from chemistry and physics to theology and art history. Besides fieldwork, Dr. Scarlett relies upon experimental and experiential discovery in his scholarship. Eclectic organizations have supported his research and public programming, ranging from the National Science Foundation, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, The National Park Service, the Utah Humanities Council, the Scenic Hudson Land Trust, Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission, Utah State Parks, and Earthwatch. Besides Michigan's Copper Country, he has conducted research at sites in the Great Basin and Intermountain West, Southwest, Interior Alaska, Great Lakes, New England, and the Mid-Atlantic regions of North America.

Dr. Scarlett is committed to collaborative and inclusive public archaeology. He has worked to develop best-practice models for archaeological fieldwork that integrate field and lab research with community-based collaboration, education, heritage tourism, and traditional and new media documentary production. Among his current interests, Tim is exploring ways that industrial archaeological fieldwork can create spaces for participatory engagement in planning, helping communities discuss issues of social and energy justice.

Dr. Scarlett is also the founder of the Historical Archaeology interest group on LinkedIn.com. With more than 12,500 international members, this is one of the largest academic archaeological communities on the web. Tim serves as the primary co-owner and co-monitor of this public and moderated community asset.

Links of Interest

Research Interests

Historical and Industrial Archaeologies
Heritage and Energy Systems, Sustainability and Development
Creativity and Work Process
Remote Sensing, Survey, and Geospatial Sciences
Heritage, Placemaking, and Culture Building
Archaeometry and Conservation Sciences
Community-based scholarship, public science/humanities

Recent Publications

Rouleau, Laura, Steven Walton, Sarah Scarlett, and Timothy Scarlett. (2019). Historic Resources Study for Pullman National Monument, Chicago, IL. Midwest Archaeology Center, National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior. December 31, 2019.
Strychar, Kevin, Frank Lupi, Steven Miller, John Baeten, David J Flaspohler, Sarah Green, Amanda Grimm, Latika Gupta, Kelly Kamm, Will Lytle, Guy Meadows, Daisuke Minakata, Amlan Mukherjee, Jill A Olin, Gordon Paterson, Mark Rouleau, Mir Sadri-Sabet, Timothy Scarlett, Chelsea Schelly, David Shonnard, Roman Sidortsov, Bethel Tarekegne, Stephen Techtmann, Adam Wellstead, and Pengfei Xue (2018). Independent Risk Analysis for the Straits Pipelines-Final Report. Project ID 1801011. Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI. Read More
Scarlett, Timothy James. (2017). A Dangerous Discipline: Practicing Historical Archaeology in the Mormon Domain. In Margaret Purser and Mark Warner (eds.), Historical Archaeology through a Western Lens, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln. Read More
Scarlett, Timothy and Steven Walton. (2017). Archaeological Overview and Assessment, Pullman National Monument, Chicago, Illinois. Midwest Archaeology Center, National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior. June 9, 2017.

Scarlett, Timothy James. (2016). Potential Applications of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction and Impregnation for the Stabilization and Conservation of Industrial Heritage Artifacts. Final Project Report (Grant #P11AP60840) submitted to the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior. January 15, 2016. Read More
Scarlett, Timothy James, Amy M. Bastion, Leslie G. Cecil, Christopher W. Merritt, and Michael Glascock. (2015). A Muddy Study: Historical Archaeology and Archaeometry for Societies in Contact. In Jaume Buxeda I Garrigós, Marisol Madrid i Fernández, and dfff G. Iñañez (eds.), Global Pottery 1: Historical Archaeology and Archaeometry for Societies in Contact. British Archaeological Reports (BfgAR), International Series 2761, Archaeopress Press, Oxford, UK. pp. 397-409. Read More
Zhao, Shan, Bowen, Patrick. K., Drelich, Jaroslaw., and Scarlett, Timothy James. (2015). Modeling “Reproducibility in Rehydroxylation of Ceramic Artifacts.” Journal of the American Ceramic Society 98(10):3367–3372. Read More
Bowen, P. K., Drelich, J. D., and Scarlett, T. J. (2013). Modeling Rehydration/Rehydroxylation Mass-Gain Curves for Davenport Ceramics. Journal of the American Ceramic Society (2013):1-7. Read More
Drelich, Jaroslaw., Bowen, Patrick. K., and Scarlett, Timothy James. (2013). "Effect of Humidity Instability on Rehydroxylation in Fired Clay Ceramics" Journal of the American Ceramic Society 96(4):1047-1050. Read More
Scarlett, Timothy James and Samuel Sweitz. (2012). Constructing new knowledge in Industrial Archaeology. In Harold Mytum (ed.), Global Perspectives on Archaeological Field Schools. Springer Verlag, New York, pp. 119-145. Read More
Bowen, Patrick K., Helen J. Ranck, Timothy J. Scarlett, and Jaroslaw W. Drelich. (2011). Rehydration/Rehydroxylation Kinetics of Reheated XIX-Century Davenport (Utah) Ceramic. Journal of the American Ceramic Society 94(8):258-2591. Read More
Scarlett, Timothy James. (2010). What if the Local is Exotic and the Imported Mundane? Measuring Ceramic Exchanges in Mormon Utah. In Carolyn Dillan and Carolyn White (eds.), Trade and Exchange: Archaeological Studies from History and Prehistory. Springer Verlag, New York, pp. 165-178. Read More
Scarlett, Timothy James, Michael Deegan, and Renée Blackburn. (2009). Two Seasons of Excavation at the 1865 Office Building at Scenic Hudson's West Point Foundry Preserve. IA: the Journal of the Society for Industrial Archaeology 35(1-2):105-115.
Deegan, Michael and Timothy James Scarlett. (2008). The Conservation of Ferrous Metals from the West Point Foundry Site. Bulletin of the New York State Archaeological Association 124: 56-68.
Scarlett, Timothy James, Robert J. Speakman, and Michael D. Glascock. (2007). Pottery in the Mormon Economy: an Historical and Archaeometric Study. Historical Archaeology. 41(4):70-95. Read More
Scarlett, Timothy James, Jeremy Rahn, and Daniel Scott. (2006). Bricks and an Evolving Industrial Landscape: the West Point Foundry and New York's Hudson River Valley. Northeast Historical Archaeology 35:29-46.
Scarlett, Timothy James. (2006). Flowscapes of Globalization in Mormon Pioneer Utah. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 10(2):109-134. Read More

Recent Funding

Enhancing electrical grid and community resilience through repurposing decommissioned mines into underground pumped storage facilities. Sponsor: The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. 2019-2020. PIs: Roman Sidortsov and Chelsea Shelly, co-PIs include Qingli Dai, Chee-Wooi Ten, and David Watkins.
Unmanned Aerial Systems for LiDAR Mapping of Archaeological Features. Sponsors: Hiawatha National Forest, United States Forest Service. 2019. Co-PIs Richard Dobson and David Banach (MTRI).
Chemical Estimates of Ancient Mining. Sponsor: Crowdfunded through SuperiorIdeas.org. 2019. Co-PI Lynn Mazzoleni.
Cooperative Agreement for Work with Pullman National Monument. Sponsor: National Park Service. 2016-2019. Co-PIs: Laura Rouleau, Steven Walton, Sam Sweitz, Sarah Scarlett, Melissa Baird, Don Lafreniere, LouAnn Wurst.

Research Projects

Underground Pump Storage Energy Systems and the Adaptive Reuse of Heritage Mine Sites in Industrial Communities. In this new collaboration, Tim Scarlett is working with a group of engineers and policy scientists to develop a proof-of-concept study of how the physical and social heritage infrastructure of abandoned mines can be revitalized, becoming new nodes in a smart-grid power system. In this case, Dr. Scarlett is studying how the social and cultural values of economically-depressed and environmentally-stressed post-mining communities can become assets to green energy and smart-grid development, increasing the resilience of both the network and communities.
The Stabilization and Conservation of Ferrous Metals in Industrial Heritage. Collaborating with Gerard Caneba, Tim Scarlett led an interdisciplinary team of undergraduate and graduate students in a project-based, team-learning exercise. Undergraduate and graduate-level students from backgrounds in history, chemical engineering, anthropology, and materials science all completed a series of experiments applying supercritical fluid chemistry to the challenges of iron conservation for museums and archaeological laboratories. The project included explicit and extensive discussions of ethical reasoning within the conflicting objectives of different stakeholders and professional responsibilities. Sponsor: The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, National Park Service, Department of the Interior.
Seeing the Unseen in Industrial Heritage: Remote Sensing, Digital Visualization, Digitalization, and Public Participatory, Historic Geographic Information Science (PPhGIS). Coordinated effort to create a publicly-accessible WebGIS tool that integrates digital surveys, UAV/ROV- and pedestrian-platform remote sensing and imaging, historical aerial and satellite imagery, archival maps and blueprints of industrial heritage sites for use by agencies and municipal officers to manage and interpret industrial heritage sites and landscapes. Sample Project
Keweenaw Communities Heritage Survey. Since 2010, Timothy Scarlett has been co-leading a public science and history effort in the Copper Country. With other Michigan Tech Co-PIs, particularly Samuel Sweitz, our team of students and faculty have developed a publicly-engaged research and management practice. Using Cultural Resource Management research needs as opportunities for public programming, we generate new knowledge about the history of mining adaptations in the area of one of humanity’s oldest metallurgical traditions. But this project also positions fieldwork data collection as a way to capitalize on public interest in the discovery process of science, creating opportunities to connect resource managers, educators, and community organizations in meaningful discussions about the wise-use of natural and cultural resources. These projects, which grew out of the Cliff Mine Archaeological Survey, have used in-person and social-media driven networks to engage people in resource management, particularly residents of economically and academically disadvantaged rural communities. Sponsors: National Park Service, Michigan Technological University, USDA National Forest Service, Michigan State Parks, others.
Past Projects:
- Industrial Archaeology and Industrial Heritage at Pullman, Illinois (2016-2019)
- Cliff Mine Archaeology Survey (2010-2015)
- Utah Pottery Project (1999-present)
- West Point Foundry Archaeological Project (2001-2008)