We are happy to announce the OR ’18 participation of Michael Shanks. In 2016, Mike keynoted our World Learning Summit, together with among others Google’s chief scientist Peter Norvig. That was a great conference. In our 2015 conference at Stanford, Mike took the audience by surprise in a spontaneous one-man stand-up academic performance not so many would be able to copy. Mike is also a former street theater guy. An archeologist by training and as a professor at Stanford University, Mike has a long-standing interest in the “digital humanities“ – how digital media may be used to shape and expand on teaching and learning in the humanities.

Michael Shanks has since 2011 been CoDirector of The Revs Program at Stanford – connecting the past, present, and future of the automobile – a project in the archaeology of the contemporary past. He was Visiting Professor of Archaeology at Durham University (UK) in 2010, and Visiting Professor of Humanities, Humanities Institute of Ireland, University College Dublin, 2010 – 2013.  In the period 2004 – 2009 Mike was CoDirector of Stanford Humanities Lab – with colleagues Jeffrey Schnapp and Henry Lowood.

Other positions include: 1998 – 2005 Professor by Courtesy, Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Stanford University. The appointment was terminated by the department in 2005. The reason given was “bureaucratic hygiene” (really!), though I didn’t cost them anything. I suspect it was more to do with my interdisciplinary interest in cyborg culture. 1998 – present Professor of Classics, Stanford University. Where he became founding faculty for Stanford Archaeology Center New interdisciplinary moves into (digital) media with my Metamedia Lab. 1996 – 1998 Reader in Archaeology, Head of Department, University of Wales Lampeter.
1993 – 1996 Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Wales Lampeter. A lot of teaching and building new programs and initiatives, in a glorious rural setting. 1991 – 1992 Research Fellow, Centre d’Archéologie Classique, Paris 1 (Sorbonne), Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.