Dr. Michael. E Smith Ph.D.

Dr. Michael E. Smith is Professor of Archaeology in the School of Human Evolution & Social Change at Arizona State University (ASU) and affiliated faculty at ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. He has two major research themes: (1) Archaeological research: Smith is currently Director of the ASU Teotihuacan Research Laboratory in Mexico. He has excavated at numerous Aztec provincial sites in Mexico, addressing provincial life, economics, inequality, and urbanism. (2 ) Comparative urbanism: Smith participates in several innovative transdisciplinary research projects on topics of comparative urbanism, neighborhoods, and urban sustainability. Smith is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has published eleven books and more than 100 articles on his research. His book, At Home With the Aztecs: An Archaeologist Uncovers Their Daily Life (Routledge, 2016), won the Best Popular Book award from the Society for American Archaeology. His most recent book is Urban Life in the Distant Past: The Prehistory of Energized Crowding (Cambridge University Press, 2023).