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What We Published in Spring 2025

May 30, 2025 — The Department of Anthropology is pleased to share the most recent publications of its faculty and graduate students, including articles in Nature and Science. During the spring 2025 semester, we published the following:

Journal Articles

Essays, Commentaries, and Book Reviews

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SMU Anthropology in the Media: Picuris Pueblo Research

May 29, 2025 — The groundbreaking research published recently in Nature by faculty members Mike A. Adler, David J. Meltzer, and Matthew T. Boulanger was the subject of a news feature on KRQE in Albuquerque (below). This work has also been covered by the Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, Smithsonian Magazine, Associated Press, Reuters, LiveScience, ArsTechnica, and other outlets.

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Adler, Meltzer, Boulanger Co-Authors on Major Article in Nature

May 1, 2025 — In a landmark study in Nature, SMU Anthropology’s Michael A. Adler (co-first author), David J. Meltzer (co-last author), and Matthew T. Boulanger, along with their international collaborators, including the University of Copenhagen’s Thomaz Pinotti and Eske Willerslev, have used ancient DNA to definitely link the people of Picuris Pueblo with an ancestral heritage site, Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon. This innovative research, which brought together archaeologists, geneticists, and the Picuris Pueblo community, is not only groundbreaking in its findings but exemplary in its modeling of tribal data sovereignty.

A video and more information are available here.

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David J. Meltzer Receives 2025 Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research

Apr. 22, 2025 — Each year, the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) presents the Fryxell Award, an honor given “in recognition of interdisciplinary excellence.” The SAA has announced that the 2025 recipient is David J. Meltzer, Henderson-Morrison Professor of Prehistory. Meltzer will receive his award and be honored with a half-day symposium this week in Denver at the SAA’s 90th Annual Meeting. The department congratulates Professor Meltzer on this well-deserved celebration of his scholarship!

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David Meltzer Receives 2025 Faculty Career Achievement Award

Mar. 24, 2025 — In recognition of his enormous impact on SMU, David J. Meltzer has been awarded the university’s 2025 Faculty Career Achievement Award. At the award ceremony, which was held this afternoon in the Hughes Trigg Ballroom, President R. Gerald Turner and Provost Elizabeth Loboa praised Meltzer for his extraordinary scholarship, teaching, and leadership.

Meltzer joined the faculty at SMU in 1984, shortly after receiving his PhD at the University of Washington. He is currently the Henderson-Morrison Professor of Prehistory and Executive Director of the Quest Archaeological Research Program. In addition, he is an Affiliate Professor in Prehistory, Climate and Environment, at the Centre for GeoGenetics, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1989), a Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2009), a Member of the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (2009), and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2013). He is also the winner of the Society for American Archaeology’s 2025 Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research.