Timothy J. Scarlett

Biography

Timothy James Scarlett grew up in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania. After working on his first dig as a 17-year-old high school student,  Tim dedicated his life to the archaeological study of American history. After taking degrees in anthropology and/or archaeology from the University of Arizona (BA, 1991), Boston University (MA, 1994), and the University of Nevada (Ph.D., 2002), he joined the faculty in the Industrial Heritage and Archaeology Program in the Department of Social Sciences at Michigan Technological University. He is now an Associate Professor and is the director of Graduate Studies in Industrial Heritage and Archaeology, overseeing both the Ph.D. and M.S. programs in the Department of Social Sciences at MTU.

Dr. Scarlett is deeply committed to a dramatically interdisciplinary, public archaeology. He examines how individuals creatively solved problems and adapted to new physical and social environments. He uses diverse methods in his studies, employing techniques from chemistry and physics to folklore 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 National Park Service, the Utah Humanities Council ,the Scenic Hudson Land Trust, Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission, Utah State Parks, and Earthwatch. He has conducted research at sites in the Great Basin and Intermountain West, Southwest, Interior Alaska, New England, and the Mid-Atlantic regions of North America, as well as in Michigan's Copper Country. He is the director of the Utah Pottery Project, co-director of the West Point Foundry Project, and now co-directs the Cliff Mine Archaeology Project.

Dr. Scarlett began teaching in 1992 and has been recognized for excellence by several institutions. His early experiences, as an educational docent for the Arizona State Museum and as a teacher for the John’s Hopkins University Center for Academically Talented Youth, provided him with educational training unusual for a University professor. He is among the most popular and highest-rated professors in Michigan Technological University’s core studies program.

Dr. Scarlett is committed to collaborative and inclusive public archaeology. He has worked to develop several best-practice models for archaeological fieldwork that will integrate research excavations with programs in community-based collaboration and education, heritage tourism development, and traditional and new media documentary production.

Tim and his wife, Sarah Fayen Scarlett, live with their son Warren in beautiful Houghton, Michigan, amid the historic copper-mining districts of the Keweenaw Peninsula.