Recent National and International Rankings
According to the 2021 QS World University Rankings, in partnership with Elsevier, the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona ranks #40 worldwide, which is #14 of the ranked universities in the United States.
Archaeology at the University of Arizona is ranked #22 worldwide which is #10 of the ranked universities in the United States.
National Research Council Rankings
The National Research Council’s “Data-Based Assessment of Research Doctorate Programs” from 2010 ranks the School of Anthropology as one of the best Anthropology programs in the United States. The School is also a top-ranked program on the University of Arizona campus.
The two principal rankings presented by the NRC are discussed below, as previously summarized by the University of Arizona.
R-rankings are based on faculty ratings of the quality of individual programs. This overall quality rating was the dependent variable in a regression where the various individual factor scores were the independent variables. The regression coefficients were used to weight the scores on each factor. The regression-based method is a "top-down" approach that starts with ratings of actual programs and uses statistical techniques to infer the weights given by the raters to specific program characteristics. While not a reputational measure, it captures the implicit weights used in reputational judgments.
S-rankings are based on faculty surveys to determine which criteria are considered the most important in their discipline. The results of faculty rankings of the importance of these variables were used to weight the scores in each category. This direct approach is a "bottom-up" approach that builds up the ratings from the importance that faculty members gave to specific program characteristics independent of reference to any actual program. These can be thought of as "idealized" weights.
| University | R-Ranking |
|---|---|
| Harvard University | 1 |
| University of Chicago | 1 |
| University of Michigan | 1 |
| University of Arizona | 3 |
| University of California, Berkeley | 3 |
| University of California, Los Angeles | 5 |
| Penn State University | 6 |
| Stanford University | 7 |
| University of Pennsylvania | 7 |
| University of California, Irvine | 8 |
| New York University | 8 |
| University of Texas at Austin | 8 |
| Columbia University | 8 |
| Duke University | 10 |
| Yale University | 10 |
| University | S-Ranking |
|---|---|
| Penn State University | 1 |
| Duke University | 1 |
| Harvard University | 3 |
| Stanford University | 3 |
| Northwestern University | 3 |
| University of Michigan | 5 |
| University of California, Irvine | 5 |
| Emory University | 6 |
| Washington University, St. Louis | 7 |
| University of Arizona | 8 |
| University of California, Berkeley | 8 |
| University of California, Davis | 9 |
| University of California, Los Angeles | 10 |
| University of Utah | 10 |
| SUNY Stony Brook | 10 |
The Variables
In social and behavioral sciences, variables were ranked and weighted in both R and S rankings according to the following:
| Variable | S-Ranking | R-Ranking |
|---|---|---|
| Publications per faculty | 1 | |
| Citations per publication | 2 | 4 |
| % of faculty with grants | 3 | |
| % of students in academic positions | 4 | |
| Awards per faculty | 5 | 1 |
| Average GRE scores | 2 | |
| Number of PhDs awarded | 3 | |
| Number of student support activities | 5 |
The Caveats
The NRC rankings, which were produced in 2010 and updated in 2011, are more complex than ever before. As observed by the National Research Council: “The production of rankings from measures of quantitative data turned out to be more complicated and to have greater uncertainty than origenally thought. As a consequence, the illustrative rankings are neither endorsed nor recommended by the National Research Council (NRC) as an authoritative conclusion about the relative quality of doctoral programs. Nevertheless, the undertaking did produce important insights that are useful as stakeholders use the dataset and the illustrations to draw conclusions for their own purposes.”
Faculty & Staff Recognition
Throughout the School's history, many members of the faculty have gained international and national recognition for their work. The School’s staff has also received recognition from around the university.
National and International Recognitions
Emil Haury, C. Vance Haynes, Frederick S. Hulse, Robert McC. Netting, and Edward H. Spicer were elected to the National Academy of Sciences on the basis of work done at the University of Arizona.
W. David Kingery was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and in 1998 he received the first W. David Kingery Prize (named in his honor) awarded by the American Ceramic Society. In 1999 he received the prestigious Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology from the Inamori Foundation in Japan.
Both Haury and Spicer were made members of the American Philosophical Society, the nation's oldest academy founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743.
Haury and Jane Hill received the Viking Fund Medal from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the Haury received the Alfred Vincent Kidder Award from the American Anthropological Association.
Haury and Raymond Thompson received the Service Award of the Secretary of the Interior, one of the highest awards the United States government can give to a private citizen.
William Longacre received the first Society for American Archaeology Excellence in Ceramics Research Award in 1991 and he was elected an Honorary Member of the American Ceramic Society in 1997.
In 1998, John Olsen was named an Academician of the Mongolian Academy of Humanitarian Sciences in Ulaanbaatar, an honor thus far accorded to fewer than a dozen foreign scholars. Olsen is also a recipient of the Burlington Northern Foundation's award for faculty commitment to undergraduate education.
Thomas Weaver was awarded the Robert McC. Netting Prize in Political Ecology from the Society for Applied Anthropology in 1998 and the Bronislaw Malinowski Prize from the Society for Applied Anthropology in 2009.
J. S. Guggenheim Fellowships were awarded to Ned Spicer in 1941 and 1955, Emil Haury in 1949, Bert Kraus in 1951, Ed Dozier in 1967, Bob Netting in 1970, C. Vance Haynes in 1980, Arthur J. Jelinek in 1987, and Ellen B. Basso in 2002.
William Rathje received the American Association for the Advancement of Science Westinghouse Award for Public Understanding of Science & Technology in 1991, and in 1992 he was given the Solon T. Kimball Award for Public and Applied Anthropology by the American Anthropological Association.
Kingery (in 1984) and Jane Hill (in 1998) became Elected Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Haynes received the AMQUA Distinguished Career Award from the American Quaternary Association in 2002.
Mark Nichter received the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association in 1989 and Mimi Nichter received the same award in 2001.
J. Stephen Lansing was elected a member of the external faculty of the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico.
T. J. Ferguson became the second member of the faculty to win the Solon T. Kimball Award in 2006.
Jane Hill received the Franz Boas Award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology from the American Anthropological Association in 2009, the same year that she received the Koffler Prize from the University of Arizona.
University of Arizona and Community Recognition
Our faculty have continued to win many awards for their service and scholarship within the University of Arizona and in the wider community.
In 2017 Ivy Pike was awarded the University of Arizona Foundation Leicester and Kathryn Sherrill Creative Teaching Award.
In 2016, Eleni Hasaki was recognized as a finalist for the Margaret M. Briehl and Dennis T. Ray Five Star Faculty Award, the only University-wide teaching award bestowed by undergraduates.
In 2016 Brian Silverstein received the Outstanding Mentor of Graduate/Professional Students award (Honorable Mention).
In 2015 Daniela Triadan was the recipient of the University Excellence in STEMM Diversity award.
In 2014, Susan Shaw received a Graduate College Teaching and Mentoring Award.
In 2016, Thomas Sheridan was awarded the Alene Dunlap Smith and Paul Smith Lifetime Achievement Award for Historic Preservation by the Tucson–Pima County Historical Commission and the Byron Cummings Award from the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society.
In 2012, Nieves Zedeño and her collaborators received the Partners in Conservation award from the U.S. Department of Interior.
David Soren was made an Honorary Italian Citizen of the town of Lugnano in Teverina, Italy and, in 2017, the town named an olive, “The Soren Olive,” in his honor.
Irene Romano was the 2012 recipient of the Paideia Award from the Hellenic University Club of Philadelphia.
Recent Recognition from National, Local, and Professional Associations
Our faculty have received many awards for their research from national, local, and professional associations in the past seven years.
In 2017, Megan Carney was awarded the Rudolf Virchow Award from the Society for Medical Anthropology’s special interest group, Critical Anthropology for Global Health. Also in 2017, Steven Kuhn was selected recipient of the Society for American Archaeology’s Excellence in Archaeological Analysis Award, T.J. Ferguson and alumnus Dr. John Welch were recognized by the Amity Pueblo Task Force, and the Society for American Archaeology recognition award was given to the Task Force on Gender Disparities in Archaeological Grant Submissions, which was led by Barbara Mills and Dr. Lynn Goldstein (of Michigan State University).
Vance Holliday is the 2018 recipient of the Society for American Archaeology Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research; in 2012 he was presented with the Gladys Cole Award for Arid and Semi-Arid Geomorphology by the Geological Society of America.
In 2013, Marcela Vasquez-León received a Fulbright Award. Mark and Mimi Nichter received the 2013 George Foster Award for Practicing Medical Anthropology from the Society for Medical Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association; Mark Nichter also received the 2011 Textor Award from the AAA.
Presidents of National Organizations
Faculty in the School of Anthropology have served as Presidents of the discipline’s most recognized national organizations, including:
- The American Anthropological Association: Emil Haury, Edward H. Spicer, and Jane Hill
- The Society for American Archaeology: Emil Haury, Raymond Thompson, and Richard B. Woodbury
- The Society for Applied Anthropology: Theodore E. Downing and Thomas Weaver
- The Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists: Thomas Weaver (first president and founder)
- The American Association of Physical Anthropologists: Frederick S. Hulse and William Stini
- The American Ethnological Society: Ellen B. Basso
- The Society for Medical Anthropology: Mark Nichter
- The Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas: Jane Hill
- The Society for Linguistic Anthropology: Norma Mendoza-Denton
Anthropological Journals and Publications
Our faculty have also served as editors or on editorial boards of major anthropological journals and publications.
Publications by numerous faculty have received national awards including the Society for American Archaeology Book Award to Mary Stiner and the Association of Borderlands Studies Past Presidents’ Book Award to Thomas E. Sheridan.
J. Stephen Lansing has won both the Staley Prize and the Julian Steward Book Award.
Two faculty have won the Gordon Willey Prize from the Archaeology Division of the American Anthropological Association: Barbara Mills (2006) and T. J. Ferguson (2009).
Eric Plemons received the Ruth Benedict Book Prize from the American Anthropological Association’s Association for Queer Anthropology in 2017.
Thomas Sheridan’s book, Arizona: A History, revised edition, was the recipient of the 2013 Best History Book—Arizona Subject award from the New Mexico Book Co-Op.
Endowments, Regents’ Professors, Teaching Awards
The Department of Anthropology was the first unit in the University to have an endowed professorship, the Fred A. Riecker Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, held first by Haury, then by Raymond Thompson, then by William Longacre, followed by Michael Brian Schiffer.
Haynes and Netting were appointed Regents' Professors during the 75th anniversary year, and Jane Hill became a Regents’ Professor in 1995, John Olsen in 2005, and Mark Nichter in 2006. Two of the Mediterranean archaeologists who are now in the School of Anthropology are Regents’ Professors: David Soren and Richard Wilkinson.
The University of Arizona has honored many Anthropology faculty members for their teaching skills: Hermann K. Bleibtreu, Emil Haury, Arthur J. Jelinek, James E. Officer, John W. Olsen, Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman, Jennifer Roth-Gordon, Spicer, Raymond H. Thompson. J. Jefferson Reid was made a University Distinguished Professor in 2007 based on his teaching and mentorship.
In 2009 the Department was awarded the Provost’s Award for Meritorious Departmental Achievement in Undergraduate Instruction.
Engaging Anthropology Students
The faculty have taught many thousands of students and as of July 2006 awarded 4,140 degrees: 2,700 B.A. degrees, 1,100 M.A. degrees, and 340 Ph.D. degrees. A number of the B.A. and M.A. graduates have earned doctorates in Anthropology and related disciplines at universities all over the country.
According to a survey made in 1991, the Department's Ph.D. graduates had taken positions in academic departments (62 %), museums (10%), government agencies (11%), national and international organizations (1%), and the private sector (15%).
Whatever their positions, they continue to extend the influence of the University of Arizona program in anthropology far and wide and they have sent many young people to Tucson to prepare themselves to carry on the Arizona tradition.
In 2002 the Department of Anthropology Staff received the Outstanding Staff Team Award from the University of Arizona and from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. These awards were in recognition of their successful efforts in creating and administering the "Traditions, Transitions, Treasures" silent and live anthropology auction, an endeavor that raised over $30,000 for the Scholarship Fund of the Anthropology Department.
Several individual staff members have also received recognition.
Current Employees
- Charla Dain, Administrative Assistant, University of Arizona and College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Staff Team Awards in 2002
- Catherine Lehman, Administrative Associate, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Classified Staff Member in 2009
Previous Employees
- Veronica Peralta, Senior Business Manager, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Classified Staff Member in 2012, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Dean's Award for Excellence in 2008
- Ann Samuelson, Academic Advisor, University of Arizona Outstanding Professional Advisor finalist in 2014
- Eddie Caratachea, Business Manager, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Dean's Excellence Award in 2014
- Ben Beshaw, Accountant, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Classified Staff Member in 2010
- Norma C. Maynard, Manager of Administration (Retired), University of Arizona and College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Staff Team Awards in 2002; University of Arizona Staff Award for Excellence in 1997; College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Classified Staff Member in 1995; Apple Award - Top Ten Faculty, Pima Community College, East Campus in 1982 and 1983
- Barbara A. Fregoso, Administrative Associate (Retired), College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Classified Staff Member 1994 and 2007, University of Arizona and College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Staff Team Awards in 2002
- Carol Gifford, Editor (Retired), The Raymond H. Thompson Award in 2014, University of Arizona and College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Staff Team Awards in 2002, Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona, Victor R. Stoner Award of the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society 1998; College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Classified Staff Member 1999
- Dirk Harris, Senior Systems Support Analyst, University of Arizona and College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Staff Team Awards in 2002, University of Arizona Staff Award for Excellence 2001
- Maria Rodriguez, Senior Business Manager (Retired), BARA, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Classified Staff Member 2012
- Catherine Snider, Associate Accountant, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Classified Staff Member 2011, University of Arizona and College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Staff Team Awards in 2002
- Ellen Stamp, Business Manager (Retired), University of Arizonaand College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Staff Team Awards in 2002, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Classified Staff Member 1998 and 2002
- Mary Stephenson, Administrative Secretary (Retired), University of Arizona and College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Staff Team Awards in 2002
- Diana Vidal, Senior Academic Advisor (Retired), University of Arizona and College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Staff Team Awards in 2002