Emerita Honored

Barbara Voorhies, a professor emerita in UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Anthropology, has been awarded the 2016 Society for American Archaeology Award for Excellence in Archaeological Analysis. The award recognizes innovative, enduring research that has made significant impact on the discipline.

“I am thrilled by the honor of receiving this year’s Excellence in Archaeological  Analysis award by the Society for American Archaeology,” Voorhies said. “In archaeology there is so much teamwork the award properly should be shared with many collaborators to whom I owe so much.”

Voorhies specializes in Mesoamerican prehistory, and the award celebrates her significant accomplishments in the study of the Archaic period. Her long interdisciplinary study of lifeways along the Pacific Coast of southern Mexico — especially her excavations and analyses of shell mounds — has proved crucial in understanding societies of the period.

“We are very pleased and proud that our colleague, Professor Emerita Barbara Voorhies, has been selected for the 2016 Society for American Archaeology Award for Excellence in Archaeological Analysis,” said Stuart Tyson Smith, professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology. “This well-deserved honor attests to Barbara’s continuing excellence, innovation and dedication to the field of anthropological archaeology. She is truly an asset to our department, UCSB and the discipline.”

Voorhies will be honored at the society’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.