ProfessorPh.D., Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1996(206) 543-9604fitzhugh@uw.eduDenny Hall, 242Fields of Interest Archaeology Behavioral Ecology Climate Change Demography Ecology Environment Human Ecology Indigenous Archaeology Arctic archaeologySubarctic archaeologyBackground and ExperienceSummaryMy research focuses on human-environmental dynamics and archaeological histories of maritime/coastal hunter-gatherers especially in the North Pacific. This research addresses questions of human vulnerability and resilience in remote subarctic environments. I collaborate widely with scholars across a range of disciplines in atmospheric, earth and biological sciences and take an historical ecological perspective on human adjustments to (and of) environments in which they live. Recent efforts include the development of international collaborations to explore the ecological and archaeological histories of the North Pacific Rim. I am coordinating a comparative marine ecological working group called Paleoecology of Subarctic Seas (PESAS), which brings together paleoclimate, paleoecology, archaeology and history to investigate similarities and differences in the human-environmental co-evolution the subarctic North Pacific and North Atlantic since the Last Glacial Maximum. I am currently Director of the Quaternary Research Center at the University of Washington, and in this role, seek to promote interdisciplinary scholarship into the evolution of the earth surface (and the role of humans in it) over the past two and a half million years. I am also a founding member of the UW Future of Ice Initiative. Professional Affiliations: Director- Quaternary Research Center (QRC), Canadian Studies Center, Ellison Center, Burke MuseumAffiliated Departments: College of the Environment Research Publications, Essays, Articles, and Book Chapters Khasanov, B., Fitzhugh, B., Nakamura, T., Okuno, M., Hatfield, V., Krylovich, O., . . . Savinetsky, A. (2020). New data and synthesis of ΔR estimates from the northern Pacific Ocean. Quaternary Research, 1-11. DIO:10.1017/qua.2020.27 Fitzhugh, B., W.A. Brown, N. Misarti. 2020 “Archaeological Paleodemography: Resilience, Robustness and Population Crashes around the North Pacific Rim.” In, Arctic Crashes: People and Animals in the Changing North, edited by I. Krupnik, A. Crowell. Smithsonian Scholarly Press, Washington D.C. Pp. 43-60. Gjesfjeld, Erik, Michael A. Etnier, Katsunori Takase, William A. Brown and Ben Fitzhugh. 2020 “Biogeography and adaptation in the Kuril Islands, Northeast Asia.” World Archaeology. DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2019.1715248 Fitzhugh, Ben, Caroline Funk, Jody Bourgeois. 2019 “Volcanoes and Settlement in the North Pacific: Late Holocene Settlement Patterns in the Western Aleutian and Kuril Islands.” In, Tephroarchaeology in the North Pacific, edited by Barnes, Gina L. & Soda, Tsutomu. Oxford: Archaeopress. Pp. 76-96. Fitzhugh, Ben. 2019 “Settlement History and Archaeology of the Kuril Islands in Regional Context.” In, Tradition and Culture of North Pacific Rim Area: 3 Kamchatka Peninsula and Kuril Islands, edited by A. Nakada. The Proceedings of the 33rd International Abashiri Symposium. Abashiri, Japan: The Association for the Promotion of Northern Cultures. Pp. 15-24. Fitzhugh, Ben, Virginia L. Butler, Kristine M. Bovy, and Michael A. Etnier. 2018 “Human Ecodynamics: A Perspective for the Study of Long-term Change in Socioecological Systems.” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.03.016 Fitzhugh, Ben, Erik Gjesfjeld, Will Brown, Mark Hudson, Jennie Shaw. 2016. “Resilience and the population history of the Kuril Islands, Northwest Pacific: A study in complex human ecodynamics.” Quaternary International 419C (2016) pp. 165-193. doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.02.003 Fitzhugh, Ben. 2016. “Origins and Development of Arctic Maritime Adaptations in the Western Subarctic.” Oxford Handbook of the Prehistoric Arctic, edited by T. Max Friesen and Owen K Mason. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199766956.013.20) MacInnes, Bre, Ben Fitzhugh, and Darryl Holman. 2014. “Controlling for landform age when determining the settlement history of the Kuril Islands.” Geoarchaeology 29 (3): 185-201. doi:10.1002/gea.21473 Fitzhugh, Ben. "Hazards, Impacts, and Resilience among Hunter-Gatherers of the Kuril Islands." Surviving Sudden Environmental Change Answers from Archaeology. By David A. Abbott. Ed. Jago Cooper and Payson D. Sheets. Boulder, CO: U of Colorado, 2012. 19-42. Print. Fitzhugh, Ben, S. Colby Phillips, and Erik Gjesfjeld. "Modeling Variability in Hunter-Gatherer Information Networks: An Archaeological Case Study from the Kuril Islands." In, Information and its Role in Hunter-Gatherer Band Adaptations, R. Whallon, W. Lovis, and R. Hitchcock, eds. UCLA Cotson Institute for Archaeology, Los Angeles, 2011. Pp. 85-115. Fitzhugh, Ben, and D.J. Kennett. "Seafaring Intensity and Island-mainland Interaction along the Pacific Coast of North America." The Global Origins and Development of Seafaring. Ed. Atholl Anderson, James H. Barrett, and Katherine V. Boyle. Cambridge, UK: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, U of Cambridge, 2010. 69-80. Print. Publications, Books Fitzhugh, Ben. 2003. The Evolution of Complex Hunter-Gatherers: Archaeological Evidence from the North Pacific. Kluwer Academic- Plenum Publishers. 332 pp B. Fitzhugh and J. Habu, eds. 2002. Beyond Foraging and Collecting: Evolutionary Change in Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems. New York: Kluwer-Plenum. 442 pp. Research Advised: Graduate Dissertations Brown, William. Quantifying uncertainty in demographic temporal frequency analysis (dTFA). Diss. U of Washington. 2019. Wopschall, Kayla P. Akrotiri Aetokremnos and the Cypriot Pygmy Hippopotamus: An Interdisciplinary Look at a Late Pleistocene Large Mammal Extinction. Diss. U of Washington, 2015. Gjesfjeld, Erik W. Of Pots and People: Investigating Hunter-gatherer Pottery Production and Social Networks in the Kuril Islands. Diss. U of Washington, 2014. Anderson, Shelby. From Tundra to Forest: Ceramic Distribution and Social Interaction in Northwest Alaska. Diss. U of Washington, 2011. Phillips, Stephen Colby.. Networked Glass: Lithic Raw Material Consumption and Social Networks in the Kuril Islands, Far Eastern Russia. Diss. U of Washington, 2011. Meierotto, Lisa. The Co-evolution of Nature Conservation and Militarization on the U.S.-Mexico Border. Diss. U of Washington, 2009. Shaw, Jennie Deo. Driftwood as a Resource: Modeling Fuelwood Acquisition in the Mid- to Late Holocene Gulf of Alaska. Diss. U of Washington, 2008. Hood, Larkin Napua. Modeling Hunter-gatherer Ceramic Production and Use: A Test Case from the Upper Texas Coastal Plain. Diss. U of Washington, 2007. Research Advised: Graduate Predissertation Pilot Awards Loiselle, Hope. Multiproxy evidence from archaeological and museum collections to examine intertwined human-faunal-environmental histories: A case study using Zalophus japonicus (Japanese sea lion) from Hokkaido, Japan, 2020 Miller, Hollis. The Historical Archaeology of Gender, Food and Labor in Old Harbor, Alaska. Pilot Research. 2018. Courses Taught Winter 2021 ARCHY 205 A: Principles of Archaeology Autumn 2020 ANTH 461 A: Historical Ecology - Course Website Spring 2020 ARCHY 205 A: Principles of Archaeology - Course Website Winter 2020 ARCHY 600 B: Independent Study or Research Autumn 2019 ARCHY 105 A: The Human Past Spring 2019 ARCHY 377 A: Archaeology of the Arctic Winter 2019 ARCHY 205 A: Principles of Archaeology ARCHY 599 A: Teaching Archaeology Autumn 2017 ANTH 461 A: Historical Ecology Winter 2017 ARCHY 205 A: Principles Of Archaeology ARCHY 600 B: Independent Study Or Research Autumn 2016 ARCHY 469 A: Special Studies In Archaeology - Course Website Winter 2016 ARCHY 205 A: Principles Of Archaeology - Course Website ARCHY 599 A: Teaching Archaeology News & Events Related News Stone Age man’s top tips for felling prey Feb 7, 2018 Reconstructing an ancient lethal weapon Jan 31, 2018 New Collaborations in Indigenous and Community-Based Archeology: The Preserving the Past Together series Jun 7, 2017 Preserving the Past Together - UW Anthropology Seminar Series Jan 4, 2017 Faculty | Staff News 2015 May 1, 2015 Faculty | Staff News 2013 Apr 1, 2013 Faculty | Staff News 2012 Apr 1, 2012 Share: Print PDF