Michael Nassaney

Michael S. Nassaney (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1992) is a Professor Emeritus at Western Michigan University. His research interests include the archaeology of eastern North America with a focus on colonialism, the fur trade, material analysis, public archaeology, and ethnohistory. He is the principal investigator of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project, an interdisciplinary program in community service learning that focuses on the 18^th-century site of Fort St. Joseph in Niles, Michigan. He is editor of Le Journal, the quarterly publication of the Center for French Colonial Studies, and the editor of the book series, The American Experience in Archaeological Perspective (University Press of Florida) that has led to the publication of 25 books which examine how archaeology contributes to an understanding of America’s hidden histories. Nassaney has published over 100 works on the archaeology of the eastern United States including the co-edited volume, Archaeology and Community Service Learning (2009, Society for Historical Archaeology and University Press of Florida) and The Archaeology of the North American Fur Trade (2015, University Press of Florida). His most recent book, Fort St. Joseph Revealed (University Press of Florida, 2019), presents what we have learned from twenty years of archaeology and history about one of the most important French trading posts in the western Great Lakes region. In 2013 he was appointed by the Governor of Michigan to serve on the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission, which he now chairs. For the past decade he has been working to develop an anti-racist identity to inform how he lives in the world. In 2015 he received the WMU Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest honor given by the University to recognize faculty members for their work with students.