Richard F. Veit, Ph.D., currently serves as provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs for Monmouth University, and is a professor of Anthropology in the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences. An experienced academic leader, he also previously served as interim and associate dean of the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Veit received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Drew University in 1990, his M.A. in historical archaeology from the College of William and Mary in 1991 and his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. In 2007, he was the recipient of Monmouth University’s Distinguished Teacher Award and in 2012 he received Monmouth University’s Donald Warnecke Award for outstanding university service. In 2019, he received Monmouth’s Eugene Simko Faculty Leadership Award.  

In addition to his administrative duties, he teaches courses on archaeology and New Jersey history. He is the author of eight scholarly books, two of which, “Digging New Jersey’s Past,” and “New Jersey: A History of the Garden State” (with Maxine Lurie), are listed on the New Jersey State library’s 101 Great New Jersey books list. A volume he co-authored with Maxine Lurie, “Envisioning New Jersey,” received an Award of Merit from American Association for State and Local History.    

Veit serves on the New Jersey Historical Commission and on the boards of the Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology, Crossroads of the American Revolution, Preservation New Jersey and the Archaeological Society of New Jersey. He is the President of the Society for Historical Archaeology. His work research has been featured on NPR, in Archaeology Magazine and at TEDx Navesink in 2014.

Education

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

M.A., William & Mary

B.A., Drew University

Research Interests

Historical Archaeology, North American Indians, Gravemarkers and Commemoration, Vernacular Architecture, Military Sites Archaeology

Research Projects:  Joseph Bonaparte’s Point Breeze, Archaeology of the Philadelphia Lazaretto, Dutch-American farms in Colonial New Jersey

Books

2014    The Archaeology of Cemeteries and Gravemarkers . University of Florida Press, Tallahassee.  Co-authored with Dr. Sherene Baugher, Cornell University.

2014       The Historical Archaeology of the Delaware Valley, 1600-1820. University of Tennessee Press. Co-edited with Dr. David Orr, Temple University.

2012       New Jersey, a New History of the Garden State .  Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey.  Co-edited with Dr. Maxine Lurie, Seton Hall University.

2011       Perspectives from Historical Archaeology: Religious Sites in Historical Archaeology.  Society for Historical Archaeology. Co edited with Dr. Alasdair Brooks, University of Leicester, UK.

2008       New Jersey Cemeteries and Tombstones: History in the Landscape.  Co-authored with Mark Nonestied, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick. Winner of New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance best scholarly book author’s award.

2002       Digging New Jersey’s Past: Historical Archaeology in the Garden State.  Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick. Recipient of a State of New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection Historic Preservation Award and New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance, Best Non-Fiction Book Award.

Scholarly Articles

2009       Historical Archaeology of Religious Sites and Cemeteries.  Historical Archaeology 43(1). Guest Editor with Sherene B. Baugher and Gerard P. Scharfenberger.

Neat and Artificial Pipes: Base Metal Trade Pipes of the Northeastern IndiansFirst author with Charles Bello, in The Culture of Smoking: Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Smoking Pipes, pp.185-206, edited by Sean M. Rafferty and Rob Mann, University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.

More Precious than Gold: A Preliminary Study of the Varieties and Distribution of Pre-Contact Copper Artifacts in New Jersey. Archaeology of Eastern North America 32:73-88. First author with Gregory Lattanzi and Charles Bello.

Taken for Granite: Terracotta Grave markers from New Jersey and New York. in Ceramics in America 2003, First author with Mark Nonestied, edited by Robert Hunter, pp. 172-195, Chipstone Foundation and University Press of New England, Hanover, NH, and London.

Rethinking the Mengkom-Mixing Bowl: Salvage Archaeology at the Johannes Luyster House, A Dutch-American Farm. Second author with Gerard Scharfenberger. Northeast Historical Archaeology 30-31:53-72.

Tokens of Their Love: Interpreting Native American Grave Goods from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. First author with Charles Bello. Archaeology of Eastern North America 29:47-64.

Contact and Early Historic Period Archaeology in the Delaware Valley (Guest Editor) Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 15.

Awards

Past winner of the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

Scholarly Interests

Historical Archaeology, North American Prehistory, Northeastern United States and Jamaica