Dr. Cameron M. Smith
Adjunct Assistant Professor
PhD, Simon Fraser University, 2004
Dr. Smith has been teaching at PSU since 1999, and completed a doctorate in Archaeology at Canada's Simon Fraser University in 2004. Cameron currently teaches a variety of 100-400-level courses in world prehistory, field and lab methods, and regional topics. He also advises students and is on one MA thesis board. Research interests include archaeology of the Northwest Coast, evolution of hominid cognition, evolution in general, aboriginal watercraft, experimental archaeology, usewear analysis, and quantitative methods.
Cameron Smith has recently published his second popular science book on evolution, titled 'The Fact of Evolution'. He was interviewed on national radio by both Dr. Michio Kaku (co-founder of string theory and popularizer of science) for the Science Fantastic Radio Show as well as the legendary Bob Edwards, for the Bob Edwards Weekend Show. He is completing an introduction to archaeology text and planning two field projects; a summer field school in wetland and landscape archaeology on the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, Washington, and a preliminary aquatic survey of archaeological potential on Isla de la Plata, off the coast of Ecuador, in collaboration with Linfield College and Prof. Florencio Delgado of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
Recently Cameron co-authored (with Julia Ruppell, who completed her MA here in Anthropology and is now completing a doctorate in Biology) "What Anthropologists Should Know About the New Evolutionary Synthesis" in the University of California peer-reviewed e-journal Structure and Dynamics, and he is currently writing an evolution-related feature article for Scientific American. Cameron is also beginning a new popular-science book on the most common misunderstandings of human prehistory, and continuing to analyze the artifacts recovered from the Meier and Cathlapotle archaeological sites with Prof. Emeritus Dr. K.M. Ames.
Listen: Dr. Smith on Scientific American's "Darwin in Space: How Multigenerational Missions Could Shape Human Evolution."