Michael Shanks

Current projects

Co-founder and Co-Director, Stanford Metamedia Lab.
Hybrid work in new media. >>metamedia.stanford.edu

Book. Archaeologists with Attitude: Michael Shanks and William Rathje in conversation with Lewis Binford, Victor Buchli, Meg Conkey, Ian Hodder, Mark Leone, Randall McGuire, Lynn Meskell, Mary and Adrian Praetzellis, Colin Renfrew, Michael Schiffer, Patty Jo Watson.

Book. The Past Is Not What It Used To Be: How New Archaeological Thinking Is Changing The Way We Understand History

Select publications

ReConstructing Archaeology
Cambridge 1987, Routledge 1992
With Chris Tilley
The black book.
“They have written the end of innocence” Mark Leone, University of Maryland.
“Issues in a new generation of archaeology.” Ian Hodder, Cambridge University.
“I can’t understand a word these two guys say” Reviewer, Amazon.com.

Social Theory and Archaeology
Polity 1987
With Chris Tilley
The red book.
“It is not the duty of an academic press to publish this political pamphlet” Anonymous reader for Polity Press
“Many of the views presented in these two books will come to dominate much of archaeological debate during the coming years.” Norwegian Archaeological Review

Experiencing the Past
Routledge 1991
“How archaeology can be written creatively” Helinium
“We refuse to review this book … it deserves to be pulped” Antiquity

Classical Archaeology of Greece
Routledge 1996
“A necessary book ... a classic ... a real step forward ...an essential book.” Antiquity

Art and the Early Greek State
Cambridge 1999
“There is nothing original in this work.” “Full of fascinating flashes of insight.” “Mobilizes a vast savoire-faire.” Anonymous readers for Cambridge University Press.

Theatre/Archaeology
Routledge 2001
With Mike Pearson
“Fascinating and ground-breaking.” Elin Diamond, Rutgers
“Well yes I have read it, but it’s impossible - I just don’t know how to quote this book” Anonymous anthropologist at the Society for American Archaeology meetings, Denver CO, 2002.