Dr. Richard Shiels

Research Interests

• US History to 1877
• Race, Ethnicity and Nation
• Religion in History
• Earthworks

Education

• PhD, Boston University, 1976;
• MA.R., Yale University, 1971; 
• BA, Hope College, 1968.

A former faculty member at the Newark campus, Professor Shiels specializes in American religious history and is the author of articles on that topic. His present research focuses on religious revivals and the formation of voluntary religious societies in New England from 1760 to 1840. He was the recipient of The Ohio State University-Newark Teaching Excellence Award in 1977, 1985, and 1988. Dr. Shiels was the founding director of the Newark Earthworks Center, an academic research center of The Ohio State University.

Research and Grant Work

• World Heritage Ohio | Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks and Serpent Mound
• The Fertile Earth and the Ordered Cosmos: Reflections on the Newark Earthworks and World Heritage.
  • edited by Elizabeth Weiser, Timothy Jordan, and Richard Shiels. The Ohio State University Press, June 2023.
  • "Foreword: Making the Earthworks Public"
  • "Earthworks Terminology"
  • "Just How Does the Octagon Align with the Moon?"
  • "What Can America Learn from the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks?"
  • "The Life-Changing Potential of Our Earthworks"
  • "World Heritage for the Hopewell Culture Earthworks"
• The Newark Earthworks: Enduring Monuments, Contested Meanings
  • edited by Lindsay Jones and Richard Shiels. University of Virginia Press. 2016.
• "The Ancient Ohio Trail"
• Ancient Ohio Trail Landscape Exhibit
  • see also John Crissinger
• Thompson Library Exhibit
• LiDAR Exhibit
• "Remembering the Rosa Parks of the Newark Earthworks" The Newark Advocate, January 19, 2020.
• "A brief history of the Newark Earthworks and what comes next" The Newark Advocate, December 5, 2021.
• "World Heritage the best future for Newark Earthworks" The Newark Advocate, January 16, 2022.

Awards

• The Ohio State University-Newark Teaching Excellence Award, 1977, 1985, and 1988