Biography

Lu Ann De Cunzo, Ph.D., is a professor with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Delaware. She served as executive director of Historical Fallsington, Inc., a museum and historic preservation organization in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and director of Archaeological Services for Clio Group, a Philadelphia-based historical architecture and culture resource management firm, prior to joining the faculty at the University of Delaware in 1989.​

Research and Teaching Interests

​De Cunzo is a historical anthropologist specializing in the 17th to 19th century cultural histories of the Middle Atlantic region and 20th to 21st century heritage preservation and interpretation of these histories. She has directed public archaeological projects in Delaware in collaboration with the Delaware Historical Society, New Castle Historical Society, New Castle Presbyterian Church, Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, Mt. Cuba Center, Delaware Nature Society, and the Old Swedes Foundation. At the University of Delaware, De Cunzo is engaged in the collaborative, interdisciplinary work of the Center for Material Culture Studies, the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture Studies, and the Preservation Studies graduate programs.

De Cunzo's current research explores 17th-century colonialism in the borderlands of the lower Delaware Valley and the African American experience in northern Delaware. Book projects include New Stories from Old Things (co-editor, author) at Delaware Historical Society's Read House and Gardens in New Castle and Encountering 'Others' and the Material World of the Early Colonial Lower Delaware Valley (editor, author). As president of the Society for Historical Archaeology, De Cunzo has worked to globalize the practice of historical archaeology in the United States.

Select publications

​2022. The Cambridge Handbook of Material Culture Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Co-edited with Catherine Dann Roeber.

2005. Unlocking the Past: The Historical Archaeology of North America. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. Co-edited with John H. Jameson, Jr.

2004. A Historical Archaeology of Delaware: People, Contexts, and the Cultures of Agriculture. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.

1997. Historical Archaeology and the Study of American Culture. Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Delaware. Knoxville: University of Tennessee. Co-edited with Bernard L. Herman.
 
1995. “Reform, Respite, Ritual: An Archaeology of Institutions. The Magdalen Society of Philadelphia, 1800-1850." Historical Archaeology 29(3): i-v, vii-viii, 1-168