Urban Organization through the Ages Team
Christopher Boone is an urban geographer who studies the social and environmental drivers and consequences of urbanization, particularly during the last 120 years. His research uses GIS, archival and institutional analysis methods. In 2006, he co-authored City and Environment, an examination of urban environmental issues from ancient cities to the present. Boone holds a joint appointment as associate professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and the School of Sustainability.
George L. Cowgill is a Mesoamericanist archaeologist who has conducted fieldwork and analysis at the central Mexican metropolis of Teotihuacan for four decades. In his work at this site he pioneered the use of quantitative techniques and databases in archaeology. In addition to numerous publications on Teotihuacan and Mesoamerica, Cowgill has also published on comparative early urbanism and various aspects of archaeological method and theory. He is a professor emeritus in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.
Sharon L. Harlan is a sociologist who studies class, gender and ethnic inequalities in contemporary U.S. society. Her recent work is on interdisciplinary problems of social and environmental inequity brought about by rapid urbanization in the Phoenix, Arizona, region. She is the principal investigator of a project examining urban vulnerability to climate change as a dynamic feature of coupled natural and human systems that differentially place landscapes and people at risk from heat-related health problems in urban neighborhoods. She also directs the Phoenix Area Social Survey, which examines the impact of residential segregation on environmental inequalities. She is an associate professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.
Michael E. Smith is an archaeologist who directs excavations at Aztec sites in central Mexico, focusing on issues of urbanization, imperialism and household-level activities and conditions. He has published numerous books and scholarly articles on his fieldwork. Smith has also published on urban form and planning in ancient cities and is interested in the comparative analysis of preindustrial cities as well as comparisons between ancient and modern cities. He is a professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.
Barbara L. Stark is a Mesoamericanist archaeologist whose research focuses on ancient complex societies, including settlement patterns, tropical urbanism and economy. She has directed field projects in south-central Veracruz, Mexico, funded by the National Science Foundation and other agencies. Recent publications have focused on a variety of topics, including Nahua ethnicity, settlement patterns and gardening, archaeological survey methods, economic changes in Mesoamerica from Olmec times, the tropical urban capital Cerro de las Mesas and craft production in south-central Veracruz. She is a professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.
Abigail York studies urban institutions in the social-ecological context with an emphasis on city growth and sustainability. She has a Ph.D. in public policy with fields in political science theory and methodology, and environmental policy from Indiana University. Ongoing projects include studies of fragmentation in Western U.S. cities, local cross-border agreements and coupling of water and land use institutions. She is an assistant professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and the Center for the Study of Institutional Dynamics.
