Dr. Shawn Phillips
Education
- Ph.D. - Biological Anthropology, State University of New York, Albany - 2001
- B.A. - Anthropology, Purdue University - 1993
Dr. Phillips is a biological anthropologist who specializes in the recovery and analysis of human skeletal remains. His fieldwork in bioarchaeology primarily focuses on historic period North America. He has directed and consulted on the excavation and analysis of cemeteries throughout the eastern US (Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, New York, and Wisconsin) from a variety of contexts including almshouses and asylums, battle field sites, rural family cemeteries, church cemeteries, Fur Trade era burials, and a frontier period community cemetery. From that fieldwork his research and publications have centered on the care and medical understanding of the mentally ill and disabled and the bioarchaeology of the Wabash Valley. Below is a list of his bioarchaeological cemetery excavations and field projects:
Indian Orchard Cemetery, Terre Haute, IN 2018
Black Friary Archaeological Field School, Trim, Ireland 2017
Asylum Hill Cemetery, Jackson, MS, 2014-present (project consultant)
Prairie Creek 1st Baptist Church Cemetery, Prairie Creek, IN 2013
Fur Trade era burial, Tippecanoe Co., IN 2012
Vigo County Home Cemetery Bioarchaeology Field School, Terre Haute, IN 2011
Habermayer-Trueblood Cemetery, Vigo Co., IN 2009
Fur Trade era burials, Vigo Co., IN 2006
Albany County Almshouse Cemetery, Albany, NY 2002
Vardeman-Stephenson-Holmes Cemetery, Lincoln Co., KY 2000
Program Coordinator, Burial Sites Pres. Office, Wisconsin SHPO-DNR, 1999-2000
Forensic and Prehistoric & Historic cemetery field site compliance investigations throughout Wiscsonsin
Queensbury Quaker Cemetery, Queensbury, NY, 1998
Oneida Asylum Cemetery, Rome, NY 1997-2002
Research Associate, New York State Museum, Albany, NY
Lutheran Church Cemetery, Albany, NY, 1996
Cobleskill Family Cemetery, Schoharie Co., NY 1995
French and Indian War, Lake George, NY 1993-1994
Precontact Mound Burials, St. Catherines Island, GA, 1992, 1993
Purdue University, BA (Anthropology) 1993
State University of New York, Albany PhD (Anthropology) 2001
Most Recent Presentation:
SM Phillips "Social Contract/Individual Responsibility: A perspective to investigate the nexus of determinants on the care of the dependent and disabled in historic period US." BARFAA Conference, Allendale MI, October 2019.
International Presentations:
SM Phillips “A comparison of home and institutional care in the US (1850-1950): Osteobiography as a method to recover the dependent and disabled experience.” Experiences of Dis/ability from the Late Middle Ages to the Mid-Twentieth Century Conference, Tampere, Finland, August 2019.
SM Phillips “Syphilis in America: Unravelling a Medical 'Conspriracy of Secrecy.'” Northern Ontario School of Medicine History of Health & Medicine Lecture Series, CA, 2016.
SM Phillips “Forensic Anthropology & Archaeology: Merging disciplines to investigate suspicious deaths.” Forensic Medicine Colloquium, Lakehead University, CA, 2016.
SM Phillips "Secret Disease: Bioarchaeology of Syphilis in the US." Canadian Association of Physical Anthropology, Peterborough, ON, CA, 2016.
SM Phillips “Vampires, Stigma, & Devotion: Archaeology of Mortuary Position in Public vs. Family Burials During Epidemics (USA).” Corpses, Burial, & Infection Conference, CRASSH Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, 2015.
SM Phillips "Multiple Myeloma or Lytic Metastic Carcinoma: Differential Diagnosis of Osteolylic Lesions." Canadian Association of Physical Anthropology, Toronto, ON, CA, 2014
SM Phillips “A Long Waiting for Death: Uncovering Institutional Care for the Disabled in 19th Century America.” TAG: The Theoretical Archaeology Group. Liverpool, UK, 2013.
SM Phillips "Identifying and Understanding Disabling Conditions in the Archaeological Record." Canadian Association of Physical Anthropology, Montreal, QC, CA, 2011
SM Phillips “Inmate Life in the 19th Century American Asylum." Inmate and the Asylum Conference. Birmingham, UK, 2011
SM Phillips “Mental illness, human biology, & therapeutics: A case study of the Oneida Asylum.” Ontario School of Medicine Faculty Seminar Series, CA, 2009.
Publications and Professional Reports (*= peer reviewed)
Works in progress (in prep/under review/in press):
SM Phillips “A comparison of home and institutional care in the US (1850-1950): Osteobiography as a method to recover the dependent and disabled experience.” International Journal of Bioarchaeology.*
SM Phillips “Multiple Myeloma: A Test of the Rothschild Method.” Homo: Journal of Comparative Human Biology.*
SM Phillips “Secret Disease: Bioarchaeology of Syphilis in America.” Social Science and Medicine*
SM Phillips “Bioarchaeology of the Wabash Valley: 200 years of Cultural Change.” International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.*
SM Phillips “Indian Orchard Cemetery Project., Terre Haute, IN” Human Osteology Lab, ISU, Report to be submitted to the DHPA-IDNR.
Completed works:
SM Phillips “’A Long Waiting for Death’: Dependency and Care for the Disabled in a Nineteenth Century Asylum.” In, Care in the Past: Archaeological and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. W. Southwell-Wright & L. Powell, R. Gowland (eds.). Oxford, UK: Oxbow Press, (2017).* https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=eEO8DQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA125&dq=info:QcZpEXrKa5sJ:scholar.google.com&ots=b73wfYtBVI&sig=Kn6CySPQVXcV2c5G3B_RsFGyEbM#v=onepage&q&f=false
SM Phillips “Bioarchaeology of a Kentucky Pioneer Family: Analysis of the Vardeman-Holmes-Stephenson Skeletal Series.” Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology 26:132-141 (2016).* file:///C:/Users/sphillips5/Downloads/Phillips-Bioarch-HVS-OVHA.pdf
SM Phillips “Trepanematosis in 19th Century USA: Evidence of Dependency and Stigma in a Nineteenth Century American Institution.” Journal of Paleopathology 26(1):9-13 (2016).*
SM Phillips and LW Phillips “From Excavation to Oral History: Lessons from the Vigo County Home Cemetery Site.” Indiana Archaeology 10(2):51-56 (2015).*
SM Phillips ’Just can’t Work Them Hard Enough’: An Historical Bioarchaeological Study of the Inmate Experience in the American Asylum.” In, Insanity and the Lunatic Asylum in the Nineteenth Century. T. Knowles & S. Trowbridge (eds). London: Routledge Press, (2015).*
SM Phillips, E. Ellis, M. Maynard, L. Newton, K. Norton, M. Moroz, & S. Del Rio “Bioarchaeology of the Vigo County Home Cemetery: Recovering Social Systems of Care for the Impoverished, Infirm, and Disabled.” Indiana Archaeology 9(1):229-252 (2014).*
SM Phillips, Cemetery Excavation Plan & Report, 1st Prairie Creek Baptist Church, Prairie Creek, IN, Human Osteology Lab, ISU, 17pp., Report submitted to the DHPA-IDNR, (2014).
SM Phillips, GPR Study of 1st Prairie Creek Baptist Church, Prairie Creek, IN. Human Osteology Lab, Indiana State Univeristy, 8pp, Report submitted to the DHPA-IDNR, (2013).
SM Phillips “The Most Dangerous Deviants in America: Why the Disabled are Depicted as Deranged Killers.” In, Mental Illness in America, L. Rubin (ed.). New York: McFarland Press, (2012).*
SM Phillips, Cultural Resources Survey Recovery of Fur Trade Era Burials AD 2012-063 per IC 12-21-1/IAC 22-3-3 Lafayette, IN. Human Osteology Lab, Indiana State University, 32pp, Report submitted to the DHPA-IDNR, (2012).
SM Phillips “Bioarchaeology of the Holmes-Vardeman-Stephenson Cemetery Project: Report to the KY Transportation Cabinet.” University of Kentucky: Program for Archaeological Research/ Human Osteology Lab, Indiana State University, 742pp, (2010).
SM Phillips, “Analysis of victim with gunshot wounds and dismemberment”, Human Osteology Lab, Indiana State University, Report submitted to Dr. R. Kor, Vigo County Medical Examiner, 45pp, (2009).
SM Phillips and LW Phillips “Health Transition in the Cayman Islands: An Historical Analysis of a Caribbean Population, 1890 to 1930.” Wadabagei 11(3):100-118 (2008).*
SM Phillips “Os odontoideum and neuropathic arthropathy (Charcot’s Joint) of the elbow in a male from nineteenth century U.S.A.” Journal of Paleopathology 19: 63-71 (2007).*
SM Phillips, EW Dearth “The Indiana frontier during the War of 1812: A bioarchaeological study of the siege of Fort Harrison.” Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology 22:82-87 (2007).*
SM Phillips M Sivilich “Cleft palate: A case study of disability and survival in prehistoric North America.” International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 16(6):528-535 (2006).*
SM Phillips “Diet and oral hygiene: Oral health in a nineteenth century asylum for the mentally ill.” International Journal of Dental Anthropology 8:10-21 (2006).*
SM Phillips “Atlas and axis fracture with healing and non-union in an inmate from a nineteenth century asylum for the mentally ill.” Journal of Paleopathology 17(2):65-70 (2005).*
C Fisher*, SM Phillips, N Davis*, & K Rienhard* (NYSM*), Cultural Resources Survey-Pearl Street Cemetery Recovery: Archaeological mitigation report. New York State Museum, Albany, New York, 318pp, (2004).
SM Phillips “Skeletal analysis of the human remains from the Lutheran Church, Albany, NY.” Bulletin of the New York State Museum 499:53-58 (2003).*
SM Phillips “Worked to the Bone: Biomechanical Consequences of Labor Therapy.” In, Human biology in the archives: Demography, health, nutrition, and genetics in historical populations, Alan Swedlund and Anne Herring, eds. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press (2002).*
SM Phillips “County institutions as crucibles of social judgment: Bioarchaeological evidence of the consequences of disease and social stigma.” Northeast Anthropology 61:27-47 (2001).*
SM Phillips “John Thomas Scopes: A biographical essay.” In, Censorship: A World Review. Derek Jones, ed. London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers (2001).*
SM Phillips “Deviancy to mental illness: Nineteenth century mental health care.” In, Science and its times: Nineteenth century, Neil Schlager, ed. New York: Gale Press (2000).*
SM Phillips “Recovering lost minds: Evidence of insanity in a 19th-century almshouse skeletal sample.” In, In remembrance: Archeology and death, David Poirier and Nicholas Bellantoni, eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press (1997).*
SM Phillips “Hyperostosis frontalis interna in the Oneida burial sample." American Journal of Physical Anthropology 22:185 (1996).*
An applied aspect of Dr. Phillips’ work is the forensic recovery and identification of human remains discovered under suspicious circumstances. Dr. Phillips provides pro bono consultation to the Dept of Natural Resources, the Office of the State Archaeologist, and regional police and Sheriff’s Depts. For more than 20 years he has provided over 200 such consultations to law enforcement and regulatory agencies in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, New York, and Wisconsin.
Recovery and analysis of human skeletal remains, bioarchaeology, paleopathology
Historic period health and disease patterns, medical and cultural responses to disease, biocultural theory, disability studies