These introductions are really interesting, especially the various 
interests and the global spread of our membership. So here goes:

Robert L. Schuyler - historical archaeologist and anthropologist (BA 
U of Arizona 1964, MA 1968 and PhD 1975 UC-Santa Barbara). I started 
in Southwestern prehistory and Maya archaeology but in graduate 
school shifted into historical archaeology after meeting James Deetz. 
I joined the SHA, the SPMA, the SIA, and the Australian (now 
Australasian) Society for Historical Archaeology when they were 
founded and attended the second official SHA meeting (1969 in 
Tucson). I am Past President of the SHA (1982) and past Executive 
Officer of CNEHA and in 1999 received the J.C. Harrington Medal. I 
have only missed four SHA meetings since 1968.

I am interested in World historical archaeology (all periods) but 
right now am working on the 19th-20th centuries in southern New 
Jersey. I run a graduate program in our field at the University of 
Pennsylvania, founded by John Cotter, which has produced about 40 
PhDs in the field.

I am a major advocate of historical archaeology as part of 
anthropology [although recently I have observed that most of our 
cultural anthropological colleagues are nuts] but also think we need 
to be well grounded in other fields, especially History.

Some pet peeves:

(1) It is "Historical Archaeology" not "Historic" Archaeology,

(2) Historical Archaeology is the archaeology of the Modern World 
(ca. 1400 to the present C.E.). It is not the archaeology of all 
history. Both in terms of culture history and cultural evolution this 
last half millennium or 600 years is one of the most important stages 
in human history.

(3) To succeed Historical Archaeology must clearly and consistently 
define itself. The field, however, faces two dangers. First, defining 
itself out of existence by not being clear who we are, what we study, 
and why our subject is important to general scholarship and to the 
public. Second, it could also be badly damaged by internal 
"balkinization", by trying to set off completely separate, 
independent specializations inside the field. For example, there is 
no "African American Archaeology", only "African American Historical 
Archaeology."

(4) Our field is the only specifically global archaeology and so we 
must remain global in orientation and pay attention to our 
international members but also equally support our student members 
most of which are located here in North America.

We have a great journal and newsletter and some of the best 
conferences (just the right size) in general scholarship.

that's enough.     Bob Schuyler