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The Department of Anthropology and Classical Studies
...offers students the opportunity to explore the full scope of human adaptations from our earliest hominid ancestors to the urban societies of the modern world.
Anthropology includes both a cultural component that examines the role of culture in shaping the lives of people from every corner of the world and in every walk of life and a physical component that focuses on early human evolution and the adaptations leading to anatomically modern people.
Classical Studies draws from a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary perspectives to explore the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, and their relationship to our own.
Archaeology studies past cultures and how ancient peoples used material culture to adapt to their natural and social environments. Together, these fields provide the student with a broad, and compelling, perspective on who we are and how we shaped our contemporary world.
The department offers four program options:
- Archaeological
- Biological
- Cultural
- Classical Studies
The Department also offers a variety of student-faculty research opportunities. Recent projects have occurred in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Honduras, Greece, Egypt, Spain, and a number of United States sites. Students are encouraged to give conference presentations, attend professional meetings and publish papers as part of their intellectual development.
Recent Faculty Accomplishments
Associate Professor Carolyn Behrman was honored as the University’s best teacher, earning the 2011 University Teaching Award . She was also selected as the 2010 Scholarship of Engagement Award recipient.
Professor Clayton Fant published Quarrying for Rome: Glimpses Behind the Scenes in Egypt’s Eastern Desert in the Journal of Roman Archaeology.
Professor Timothy Matney was promoted to Professor in recognition of his accomplishments. He had publications in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology and also in Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East. He continues his long-term excavation in Turkey, funded by an NEH grant and private donations.
Senior Instructor John Reeves lectured visiting Woodrow Wilson Scholars about major developments in hominid evolution. He remains active in AAUP’s Akron chapter and during the summer attended the AAUP national conference in Boston.
Professor Michael Shott continued a 3-year project on prehistoric obsidian quarries in the Great Basin. He published Human Colonization and Late Pleistocene Lithic Industries of the Americas in Quaternary International and Size-dependence in Assemblage Measures: Essentialism, Materialism, and ‘SHE’ Analysis in American Antiquity and other articles.
Assistant Professor Christine Thompson continues to direct the Hacksilber Project, studying ancient Phoenician colonial expansion from silver artifacts. She wrote The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani for Near Eastern Archaeology.
Archaeologist Linda Whitman manages our Community Outreach Program (CAP). She completed a major report on Gorge Metropark and is at work on similar projects for Liberty Park and Hardy Road. The summer Forensic Field School she taught received major media coverage from local television and newspapers.
Dr. Eugenia Gorogianni (Adjunct Faculty) continues her project at Ayia Irini in Greece. She has been awarded a Spring 2012 Fellowship at the University of Notre Dame’s prestigious Institute for Advanced Studies.
Dr. Lynn Metzger (Distinguished Senior Lecturer Emerita) directed a project on food bank distribution for Akron-Canton Area Regional Food Bank. She is also documenting a collection of native American ethnographic objects loaned by University benefactors Jim and Vanita Oelschlager.
Senior Lecturer Heather Pollock (Adjunct Faculty) adds the 2009 Certificate of Appreciation from the National Residence Hall Honorary and the 2009-2010 Greek Leadership Award for Faculty Member of the Year to her list of awards and recognitions.
Contact Us
302 Buchtel Common
Olin Hall, Room 237 (show on map)
Akron, Ohio 44325-1910
Phone: 330-972-7875
Fax: 330-972-2338
E-mail: shott@uakron.edu
Anthropology Club
The Anthropology Club is an active student organization with monthly meetings. They visited New York City museums in May 2010 and Washington, D.C. museums in May 2011. If you are interested in learning more about The Anthropology Club, please send an e-mail to the 2013 Anthropology Club President, Victoria Brownfield.
