Awards

Titled Professor - 2022

Chancellor's Professor

Fulbright Award - 2012

Finland

About Paul Mullins

Paul Mullins earned a B.S. in communication arts from James Madison University in 1984. He went on to earn his M.A. in anthropology from the University of Maryland and his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1991 and 1996, respectively. He began his teaching career at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in 1999 as an assistant professor of anthropology in the School of Liberal Arts. He was promoted to associate professor in 2003 and full professor in 2010.

Mullins was a historical archaeologist who studies the intersection of materiality and the color line, focusing on the relationship between racism, consumption, and urban displacement. His scholarship has included archaeological excavations, documentary research, and oral history, and his scholarship has spanned the globe. Mullins made translational research knowledge available to professionals, researchers, students, and communities around the world. His work has been an exemplary model of IUPUI faculty members translating research into practice for the betterment of their fields and communities.

In 2012, Paul was awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach and do research at the University of Oulu in Finland. In 2017, Mullins was named one of the inaugural Charles R. Bantz Chancellor’s Community Fellows for their work examining the history and material culture in a series of Indianapolis neighborhoods that have been effaced, ignored, or misrepresented in public discourse. In April 2022, Dr. Mullins was chosen to receive the Chancellor’s Professor Award – only one of two chancellor’s professorships awarded across the IUPUI campus for the year. Dr. Mullins became just the 12th recipient from the IU School of Liberal Arts in the award’s history.