Orser is modest about his productivity. “I actually do not see myself as any more productive than any other scholar at a major university,” he maintained when asked about his success. “I enjoy the creativity of the writing process, and I believe that the heart and soul of a university community rests on its scholars’ discoveries and their dissemination of knowledge. Such activity fuels the educational process and keeps the disciplines fresh and exciting.”
It might be fitting that Childe was also a prolific writer who penned several best-selling books about human history. Orser’s Foundations of Social Archaeology reproduces 14 of Childe's most famous, though often difficult to obtain, essays.
Other projects published by Orser are the significantly revised second edition of his textbook Historical Archaeology (2004); the archaeological analysis of race and how race is determined in the archaeological record in Race and Practice in Archaeological Interpretation (2003); the groundbreaking, first in-depth reference source on the most rapidly growing area in archaeology Encyclopedia of Historical Archaeology (2002); and the exploration of the connection between race and economics, institutionalized poverty, and the allocation and definition of space in Race and the Archaeology of Identity (2001). ”All of my books explore the use of archaeology to learn about men and women who are typically not part of mainstream history,” Orser explains. “In addition, I like to examine ways that archaeologists can use a combination of archaeological and historical sources to study such complex social variables as race and class.”
“Chuck Orser's contributions to archaeology generally, and historical archaeology in particular, have made him a central figure in the field,” declared Sociology and Anthropology Chair Nick Maroules. "Perhaps most impressive is his work with students, who have the opportunity—whether it is in the field, the lab, or the classroom—to work with a world-class archaeologist. We are incredibly fortunate to have someone of his caliber at Illinois State University.”
Orser feels professors gain as much from the experience as students. “Archaeology is, by its very nature, a collaborative process,” he explains. “I have been fortunate while at Illinois State to be able to work with so many talented students at excavations in Ireland. We archaeologists never know what we will find when we dig into the soil, so when students excavate something — like the Forget Me Not thimble shown on the Discovery Channel — we see it together for the first time. That kind of excitement is something that everyone appreciates, but is difficult to duplicate outside of a research environment.”