Paul R. Mullins

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.