Distinguished Research Professor Director, Georgia Museum of Natural History Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science I study big turning points in human history, especially how people have come together to form societies and how they've interacted with their environments over time. I focus on wetland and coastal areas, mainly along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U.S., where I use the archaeology to understand how people and climate have shaped each other over thousands of years. A big part of my work looks at how Indigenous communities governed themselves, highlighting the many different ways democratic systems can look beyond what we’re used to today. I'm also actively involved in efforts to ensure that Native American ancestors and cultural items held by the University of Georgia are treated with respect and returned to their descendant communities, in line with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). STUDENTS* *I'm currently not accepting students for next year, but feel free to email me with questions. If you are interested in joining our program as one of my PhD students, I encourage you to have a clear idea of the larger anthropological questions you aim to address through archaeology. Having an idea about this is critical towards a pathway to completion of the program here. At the Laboratory of Archaeology, we engage with a number of cutting-edge methods and techniques. Students often develop specialties in these. However, the goal of our methods is to reveal knowledge. That’s why having a larger question in mind at the outset of your graduate career is critical. My current students engage in a wide variety of topics, geographic regions, and theoretical perspectives, from human dynamics to the study of governance in the past. The Laboratory also takes great care to connect with descendent communities whose ancestral lands we work on and study. In some cases, like the Enfulletv-Mocvse (Muskogee for “new ways”) in Archaeology of Field School https://studyaway.uga.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgramAngular&id=13572 , we work in the field together instructing students and gaining knowledge. If you are interested and possess good writing skills, the ability to see projects through to completion, and a desire to learn about the past in a structured graduate program, please contact me and provide the following: a CV and a short description (no more than 500 words) of your interests in anthropological archaeology. Research Research Interests: Collective action Indigenous governance Historical ecology Heritage management and science Radiocarbon dating Shell midden archaeology Stable oxygen isotopes Remote sensing Geographic Information Systems Southeastern Archaeology Selected Publications Selected Publications: Thompson, Victor D., Karen Y. Smith, Matthew Sanger, Carey J. Garland, Thomas J. Pluckhahn, Katharine Napora, Jennifer Dodd Bedell, Carla Hadden, Alex Cherkinsky, Rachael Cajigas, Elliot Blair, Anna Semon, David Hurst Thomas. 2024. Understanding the Dynamics of Village Life along the South Atlantic Coast (ca. 5000 to 3000 years BP). Nature Scientific Reports 14, 4691 doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-55047-z Howland, Matthew and Victor D. Thompson. 2024. Modeling the Potential Impact of Storm Surge on Coastal Archaeological Heritage: A Case Study from Georgia. PLoS ONE. 19(2): e0297178. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0297178 Thompson, Victor D. 2023. Considering Urbanism at Mound Key (Caalus), the Capital of the Calusa in the Sixteenth Century, Southwest Florida, USA. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 72: 101546, doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2023.101546. Grants Grants: 2023 $210,214. Assistance with Repatriation of Native American Ancestors and Funerary Objects from Museum Collections. US Department of Interior. Victor Thompson (P.I.), co-P.I. Amanda Roberts Thompson. 2023 $8,900. “Enfulletv-Mocvse in Archaeology Field School”, National Endowment for the Humanities. Victor Thompson (P.I.) 2022 $66,188. Collaborative Research: RAPID: Disaster Survey and Documentation of Southwest Florida Archaeological Site Damage from Hurricane Ian. National Science Foundation, Michelle LeFebvre (P.I.), Nicolas Gauthier (co-P.I.), Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz, (co-P.I.). Victor Thompson (co-P.I.) Education Education: PhD, Anthropology, University of Kentucky, 2006
