Monica Louise Smith is an American archaeologist, anthropologist, and historian of ancient cities and their household activities. She is Professor and Navin and Pratima Doshi Chair in Indian Studies in the Department of Anthropology at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

Education and career

Smith graduated '' summa cum laude'' with a bachelor's degree in classical civilization from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

in 1985. She earned a master's degree in archaeology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1988 and completed her Ph.D. in anthropology at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1997. After postdoctoral work at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , ...

, and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, she became an assistant professor at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

in 2000. She returned to the University of California, Los Angeles as a faculty member in 2002. In 2016, Smith along with geographer Thomas Gillespie researched potential sites for

Edicts of Ashoka The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on the Pillars of Ashoka, as well as boulders and cave walls, attributed to Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire who reigned from 268 BCE to 232 BCE. Ashoka used the exp ...

. The edicts are evidence of early political regimes,

urbanism Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. It is a direct component of disciplines such as urban planning, which is the profession focusing on the physical design and ...

, and the spread of

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...

within the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

. The team used a computer model to extrapolate 121 possible sites, mostly in the

Deccan Plateau The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by th ...

, Afghanistan-Pakistan border, North West India, based on similarities, such as geological and population data, to existing sites. The paper was published in the ''

Current Science ''Current Science'' is an English-language peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It was established in 1932 and is published by the Current Science Association along with the Indian Academy of Sciences. According to the ''Journal C ...

'' scientific journal. Smith is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the archaeology journal Antiquity.

Books

Smith is the author of books including: *''The Archaeology of an Early Historic Town in Central India'' (British Archaeological Reports, 2001) *''The Historic Period at Bandelier National Monument'' (National Park Service 2002) *''A Prehistory of Ordinary People'' (University of Arizona Press, 2010) *''Cities: The First 6,000 Years'' (Penguin/Random House, 2019) Her edited volumes include: *''The Social Construction of Ancient Cities'' (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2003) *''Abundance: The Archaeology of Plenitude'' (University Press of Colorado, 2017)

References

External links

Home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Monica L. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American archaeologists American women archaeologists American anthropologists American women anthropologists American women historians Historians of antiquity University of California, Santa Barbara alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Michigan alumni University of Pittsburgh faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty Historians from California

Education and career

Books

See also

References

External links