Paul R. Mullins

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https://hdl.handle.net/1805/11714

Paul Mullins (1962-2023) was a historical archaeologist who studied the intersection of materiality and the color line, focusing on the relationship between racism, consumption, and urban displacement. He is the author of several books, including Race and Affluence: An Archaeology of African America and Consumer Culture (Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1999); Glazed America: A History of the Doughnut (University Press of Florida, 2008); The Archaeology of Consumer Culture (University Press of Florida, 2011); and Revolting Things: An Archaeology of Shameful Histories and Repulsive Realities (University Press of Florida, 2021). He also published numerous scholarly articles in respected journals and maintained two blogs, “Invisible Indianapolis,” and “Archaeology and Material Culture.”

He devoted a great deal of time to painstakingly reconstructing the history of how a century-old, predominately African American community was displaced from the west side of Indianapolis by both the construction of I-65 and the expansion of IUPUI’s (now IUI) campus in the 1960s. In 2010, he and the late Glenn S. White, a former resident of the west side, edited a collection of oral histories with past and present west siders called, The Price of Progress: IUPUI, the Color Line & Urban Displacement. (The book was published by the Office of External Affairs at IUPUI). In addition to his work on race and displacement in Indianapolis, he also studied and published several articles on the legacy of the Continuation War in Finland, 1941-1944 (also known as the Second Soviet-Finnish War). Mullins received several awards during his career including the John L. Cotter Award, presented by the Society for Historical Archaeology for outstanding achievement by an individual at the start of their career; the Joseph Taylor Diversity Award, presented by IUPUI; the Dorothy Riker Hoosier Historical award, presented by the Indiana Historical Society; and in 2022, he was named a Chancellor’s Professor, the highest honor an IU professor can receive. He was also a docent at the University of Oulu in Finland and in Fall 2012, he spent a semester there as a Fulbright Fellow. His research was supported by several grants, many funded by IU and by Indiana Humanities. He also appeared in two films, Attucks: The School that Opened a City (2016) and Arab Indianapolis (2022).

During the 2016-2017 academic year, Mullins, along with his Anthropology Department colleague Susan Hyatt, were named the inaugural Charles R. Bantz Chancellor’s Community Fellows. Their project, “Invisible Indianapolis: Race, Heritage and Community Memory in the Circle City,” examined the history and material culture in a series of Indianapolis neighborhoods that had been effaced, ignored, or misrepresented in public discourse. The goal of the project was to use ethnographic interviews and archival research to illuminate how otherwise “invisible” neighborhoods provide powerful insights into challenging the histories of the class, cultural, religious, and racial inequalities that continue to shape our city.

Mullins received his BA from James Madison University, his MA from the University of Maryland, and his PhD from the University of Massachusetts. At the time of his death, he was working on a book about urban renewal and its impact on Indiana Avenue, once the heart of Indianapolis’ Black arts district. His work on the history and material culture of Indianapolis neighborhoods was an outstanding example of how IUPUI faculty are Translating Research Into Practice. In addition to his numerous academic lectures and conference papers, because he was such an engaging presenter and had such a sure command of Indianapolis history, he was often sought out as a speaker in a variety of non-academic settings.

After a year-long struggle with a malignant brain tumor, Mullins passed away in April 2023.

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Paul Mullins and Susan Hyatt Project Introduction
(Center for Translating Research Into Practice, IU Indianapolis, 2021-03-08) Mullins, Paul; Hyatt, Susan
2020 Bantz Community Dialogue.
An Exploration in the Power of Community Impact in the Work of Paul Mullins
(Center for Translating Research Into Practice, IU Indianapolis, 2023-02-24) Mullins, Paul
Professor Paul Mullins is a historical archaeologist who studies the intersection of materiality and the color line, focusing on the relationship between racism, consumption, and urban displacement. Dr. Mullins’ research has focused on urban displacement in Indianapolis, examining how a century-old, predominately African-American community was displaced and is now reconstructing its history. His scholarship has included archaeological excavations, documentary research, and oral history in Ransom Place, Flanner House Homes, the present-day IUPUI campus, and postwar African-American suburbs. During this special event, several of Dr. Mullins’ colleagues share how his work has and continues to impact their lives and academic careers. This presentation also shows how Paul Mullins’ research is an exemplary model of IUPUI faculty members translating research into practice for the betterment of their fields and communities.
Moderated Discussion
(Indiana University, 2013-01-25) Duke, Linda; Taylor Ross, Mindy; Wilson, Fred; Doss, Erika; Cooks, Bridget; Upton, Dell; Ater, Renée; Pierce, Richard; Mullins, Paul R.
Contexts of Time and Space
(Indiana University, 2013-01-25) Kyrder-Reid, Elizabeth; Pierce, Richard; Mullins, Paul R.; Upton, Dell
Panel including: Elizabeth Kryder-Reid, Introduction. Richard Pierce, “We’ve Been Trying To Tell You: African-American Protest in Indianapolis.” Paul Mullins “Racializing the City: An Archaeology of Urban Renewal and Black Indianapolis.” Dell Upton, “Dual Heritages: The New Face of White Supremacy in the Old South.”
The Hoosier Story - Archaeology of Race
(Awry Productions, 2022-05-26) Mullins, Paul R.; Anne, Shaw
IUPUI Anthropology Professor Paul Mullins sits down with The Hoosier Story host, Anne Shaw, to discuss the expansion of IUPUI's campus and the historically Black neighborhood its expansion displaced. Professor Mullins also shares his research and discusses how historical archaeology can teach us about the relationship between racism and material culture.
The Late Medieval Church and Graveyard at Ii Hamina, Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland – Pollen and macro remains from graves
(Universtiy of Helsinki, 2020) Trandberg, Annemari; Alenius, Teija Helena; Kallio-Seppä, T.; Philip, Buckland; Mullins, Paul R.; Ylimaunu, Timo; Anthropology, School of Liberal Arts
The historical Ostrobothnian (Finland) burial tradition is poorly known, particularly when discussed from the environmental archaeological viewpoint. This article examines Late Medieval burial methods in Ii Hamina village using both micro- and macrofossil analyses incorporated into archaeological work. This research provides information on the continuity of burial methods that were sustained through the medieval period and into modern times. Burial tradition patterns in the Northern Ostrobothnia region exhibit widely recognised characteristics, but also contain some local features.
Race and the Water: Swimming, Sewers, and Structural Violence in African America
(University of New Mexico Press, 2020) Mullins, Paul R.; Huskins, Kyle; Hyatt, Susan B.; Anthropology, School of Liberal Arts
Violence is rampant in today’s society. From state-sanctioned violence and the brutality of war and genocide to interpersonal fighting and the ways in which social lives are structured and symbolized by and through violence, people enact terrible things on other human beings almost every day. In Archaeologies of Violence and Privilege, archaeologists Christopher N. Matthews and Bradley D. Phillippi bring together a collection of authors who document the ways in which past social formations rested on violent acts and reproduced violent social and cultural structures. The contributors present a series of archaeological case studies that range from the mercury mines of colonial Huancavelica (AD 1564–1824) to the polluted waterways of Indianapolis, Indiana, at the turn of the twentieth century—a problem that disproportionally impacted African American neighborhoods. The individual chapters in this volume collectively argue that positions of power and privilege are fully dependent on forms of violence for their existence and sustenance.
Public Memory, National Heritage, and Memorialization of the 1918 Finnish Civil War
(Taylor & Francis, 2019) Seitsonen, Oula; Mullins, Paul R.; Ylimaunu, Timo; Anthropology, School of Liberal Arts
The Finnish Civil War in 1918 left the newly independent country (1917) scarred for decades. In this paper, we assess the difficult public memory, national narrative and memorialization of the war. We take as our starting point a public crowdsourcing organized by the State-broadcasting company about the material traces of conflicts in Finland. Themes raised by the public in the crowdsourcing are used as foundation to map heritage perspectives. Special attention is paid to the memorial landscapes of the war. In the past century, the remembrance of the war has gone through several stages, from the complete denial of memorializing the defeated side and the associated clandestine remembrance practices based on folk religion, to today’s situation where the war is largely seen as a shared national tragedy. We outline the current status and importance of Civil War heritage based on public perceptions and stake out some directions for future research.
Using Campus Ethnography to Reveal Social Inequality
(American Anthropological Association, 2019) Hyatt, Susan B.; Mullins, Paul R.; Anthropology, School of Liberal Arts
The Optimism of Absence: An Archaeology of Displacement, Effacement, and Modernity
(Oxford, 2017) Mullins, Paul R.

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