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Archaeology Professor Wins National Award

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  • Archaeology Professor Wins National Award

    ARCHAEOLOGY PROFESSOR WINS NATIONAL AWARD
    By Courtney Robishaw

    UConn Daily Campus
    http://www.dailycampus.com/news/archaeology-professor-wins-national-award-1.1958667
    Feb 3 2011

    Alexia Smith, an assistant professor in the old world archaeology
    program in the anthropology department, won a National Science
    Foundation CAREER award, an award designed to help advance the careers
    of young faculty members at eligible institutions.

    Smith will use the CAREER award, worth more than $400,000 for five
    years, to study archaeobotany at six locations in the Middle East.

    "I chose to focus on archaeobotany because it provides a wonderful way
    to explore ancient agriculture and interactions with the environment,"
    Smith said.

    Smith will study what plants were grown and how at the six
    archaeological locations. She will also be testing whether or not
    changes in climate have influenced empires and shifts in power in
    the Middle East.

    "I will be exploring the role that food production played with emerging
    social complexity and societal collapses," Smith said.

    At one of the sites, in Areni, Armenia, Smith will work with an
    Armenian archaeobotanist, who will then come to Storrs as a research
    scholar.

    This award will affect the students at UConn, as it will provide
    undergraduates the opportunity to gain more experience in labs. Smith
    also hopes to have a "Sorting Club" established by next semester.

    Smith's CAREER award provides benefits to her department as well.

    "The award will provide rare funding opportunities for graduate
    students carrying out dissertation research, as well as exciting
    international field opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate
    students in locations such as Syria and Armenia," said Natalie Munro,
    director of undergraduate studies for the anthropology department.

    Smith also plans to collaborate with Professor John Settlage from
    the Neag School of Education to provide training for Kindergarten
    through 12th grade archaeology and archaeobotany teachers.

    Finally, Smith plans to organize workshops and lectures through the
    Connecticut State Museum of Natural History.

    Both Smith and the entire Department of Anthropology are very excited
    about the award and the opportunities it will bring to Storrs.

    "We are enormously proud of her," said Anthropology Department Head
    Sally McBrearty.




    From: A. Papazian
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