- David R. Harris
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David Russell Harris (born 14 December 1930[1]) is a British geographer, anthropologist, archaeologist and academic, well known for his detailed work on the origins of agriculture and the domestication of plants and animals.[2] He is a former director of the Institute of Archaeology at University College London, and as of 2008[update] he retains a position as professor (Emeritus) of the Human Environment at the Institute.[3]
Contents
Academic career
David Russell Harris was born 1930 in London, England. As an undergraduate Harris attended Oxford, first obtaining a B.A. in Geography. Continuing with postgraduate studies at Oxford, in 1955 Harris was awarded an M.Litt. in Geography with a thesis entitled "Water resources and land use in Tunisia".[1]
Between 1958 and 1964 Harris lectured in geography at Queen Mary College, University of London. During the 1962–63 academic year he was a visiting lecturer at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, in addition to pursuing a doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1963 was awarded a PhD from the Geography Department at Berkeley, upon defending his dissertation entitled "Plants, animals, and man in the Outer Leeward Islands, West Indies. An ecological study of Antigua, Barbuda, and Anguilla".[1]
In 1964 Harris took up a position as reader in Geography at University College London (UCL). In 1980 he moved as professor to the Institute of Archaeology, becoming Head of Department of Human Environment and later Director of the Institute, taking over from John Davies Evans who retired in 1989. The postgraduate academic research journal Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, published by the Institute, was launched in Harris' first year as director.[4]
Harris continued as Director until his own retirement from the position in 1996, and was succeeded by Peter Ucko. In 2000 he was named an Honorary Fellow of UCL in recognition of his service to the institution.[5]
During the course of his academic career Harris has also held various visiting fellowships, including at the University of Toronto in 1970, the Australian National University's Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS) in 1974, and at the Anthropology department at University of California, Berkeley in 1982.[1]
In 1972 he was presented with the Back Award by the Royal Geographical Society, for "Contributions to Biogeography, especially of Middle America".[1]
Research
Harris has conducted research investigations in many parts of the world, including New Guinea, the Torres Strait, Africa, Central America and Eurasia. His research has generally been concerned with the ecology and development of agriculture and other modes of subsistence among human cultures.[2]
In 1989 Harris and a colleague were invited to lead the archaeological investigations of the environment at the central Asian Early Neolithic site of Jeitun, located in what is now Turkmenistan. Continuing investigations during the 1990s by Harris and the international project team at Jeitun and surrounds obtained conclusive evidence of agricultural-pastoral settlement by at least 6000 BCE, the earliest indications of agricultural practices in Central Asia known at that point.[6]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Parsons and Vonnegut (1983)
- ^ a b "Carl O. Sauer Memorial Lectures: Current Lecturer". Graduate Council Lectures. UC Regents. 2008. http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/lectures/sauer/harris.shtml. Retrieved 2008-08-07.
- ^ "Emeritus and Honorary Staff in 2007 / 2008". UCL Institute of Archaeology. 2008. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/honoraries.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-07.
- ^ Harris (1990)
- ^ "Honorary Fellows of UCL". UCL - About Us. University College London. n.d.. Archived from the original on 2008-07-25. http://web.archive.org/web/20080725021836/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/about-ucl/honorary-fellows. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
- ^ Harris (2001)
References
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- Harris, David (1990). "Introduction" (PDF online reprint). Papers from the Institute of Archaeology (London: University College London, Institute of Archaeology) 1: i. ISSN 0965-9315. OCLC 231692266. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/pia/prevcont/vol1/1.pdf.
- Harris, David (September 1997). "First farmers 'were colonists after all': Colonisation, more than exchange of ideas, took farming across Eurasia" (reproduced online). British Archaeology (York, UK: Council for British Archaeology) 27: 8–9. ISSN 1357-4442. OCLC 198963457. http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba27/ba27feat.html#harris.
- Harris, David (2001). "The beginnings of agricultural and sedentary settlement in western Central Asia, investigated by excavation and archaeological-ecological survey in the Kara Kum Desert of southern Turkmenistan". Staff Profiles. Institute of Archaeology, University College London. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/profiles/harris/turkmen.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
- Parsons, James J.; and Natalia Vonnegut (eds.) (1983). "DAVID R. HARRIS (Ph.D., 1963)". 60 Years of Berkeley Geography 1923-1983: Bio-bibliographies of 159 PhD's granted by the University of California, Berkeley, since the establishment of a doctoral program in geography in 1923 (online version ed.). Berkeley: University of California. OCLC 70466141. http://geography.berkeley.edu/PeopleHistory/History/60YrsGeog/Harris,%20David.html.
External links
- Works by or about David R. Harris in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Faculty profile, UCL Institute of Archaeology
Categories:- English archaeologists
- English geographers
- English anthropologists
- University of California, Berkeley alumni
- Alumni of the University of Oxford
- Academics of Queen Mary, University of London
- 1930 births
- Living people
- Academics of the UCL Institute of Archaeology
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