Teaching Philosphy

I teach courses on a variety of topics for both graduate and undergraduate students. My teaching philosophy is to provide opportunities for experiential learning, and to foster student excitement about course material. In large lecture courses I strive for student engagement through “participatory” demonstrations in lecture and I provide as many hands-on laboratories as is possible. In seminars, I emphasize the sociopolitical context of anthropological research and provide students the critical insight necessary to place all research in historical context. My enthusiasm for undergraduate teaching is continuously buoyed by those moments in lecture or lab when even the briefest flicker of clarity, understanding, and awe remind me that all students can enjoy learning. Working with graduate students offers its own great rewards; seminar classes are often the only regular opportunities for faculty to engage in the kinds of intellectual conversations for which we entered academia. These bright minds provide nearly daily intellectual stimulation that energizes my own research activities.

Anth 472/572: Zooarchaeology and Taphonomy: Laboratory Methods

“Zooarchaeology and Taphonomy: Laboratory Methods” is an advanced undergraduate and graduate course on laboratory methods in zooarchaeology and taphonomy. Class work emphasizes hands-on experience with faunal remains and teaches students how to identify animal skeletal remains from archaeological sites. Students also learn about assemblage formation and taphonomic processes. Coursework also includes basic introductions to comparative functional anatomy, histology, and taxonomy. Learning assessment includes four practical examinations on mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, and fish remains, a final written exam, and a major research project, which entails the identification and analysis of a zooarchaeological assemblage.

Recent Syllabus

Anth 696: Culture Contact and Colonization

This graduate seminar focuses on anthropological approaches to the study of culture contact and colonialism. The readings in the course, authored primarily by archaeologists, historians, and ethnohistorians, focus particularly on the experiences of Native Americans and Europeans during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries in southeastern and southwestern North America. The first section of the course addresses the history of approaches to the study of culture contact and colonization with the remainder of the course covering the myriad of contemporary anthropological approaches to the study of culture contact and colonialism.

Recent Syllabus

TRAD 104: Origins of Human Diversity

This undergraduate general education course explores the biological and cultural evolution of the human species, and examines human similarities and diversity in a global perspective. Emphasis is placed on physical anthropological and archaeological approaches to the understanding of the origins of human biological and cultural diversity. However, other disciplines are introduced, including ecology, genetics, geology, and primatology. The course introduces students to macro and micro evolutionary mechanisms, the biology and behavior of other living primates, the evolution of mammals and primates, and the biology and behavior of our hominid ancestors. In this class, we begin the story of human origins, as told in paleontological and archaeological remains, in the Cretaceous and end with the domestication of plants and animals by modern humans. Students in the TRAD course also have an opportunity to participate in optional off-campus field trips.

Recent Syllabus

Here are a few photos from past TRAD 104 Field Trips. From top to bottom, left to right: Fall 2007, Fall 2005, and Fall 2006 trips to the Reid Park Zoo, and Fall 2006 trip to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum with Dr. Mitch Pavao-Zuckerman's Introduction to Ecology class.

Email Pavao-Z. for more information.

University of Arizona / Arizona State Museum / Department of Anthropology