Harvard Anthropology Professor Matthew Liebmann Named Harvard College Professor

The Department of Anthropology at Harvard University is pleased to share that Matthew Liebmann, current Department Chair and Peabody Professor of American Archaeology and Ethnology, has been named one of five Harvard College Professors this year for his commitment to undergraduate teaching.

Students in Liebmann’s courses regularly engage in hands-on learning, including field trips to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum in Connecticut. “When we get into really deep discussions about happiness, love, warfare, and violence, and hear everybody’s different perspectives — those are just great conversations to be a part of,” he said of “Deep History,” the gen-ed class he teaches with Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of History Daniel Smail. “That’s where I feel like I’m getting more out of it than the students.”

Liebmann, chair of the Anthropology Department, added: “Anthropology is the study of human diversity, and an appreciation for human diversity includes the variety of ways that people lived in the past as well as the variety of ways people are living today around the world. The appreciation of that diversity makes the world safe for difference and that’s something that anthropology can really offer.”

Liebmann’s current projects include a long-term research collaboration with the Pueblo of Jemez tribe in New Mexico. His work is “in service” to the needs of the tribe and attempts to fill in the gaps of the historical record using archaeology.

“We always strive for it to be as collaborative as possible and that means working with the tribe from the earliest stages to identify appropriate research questions, identify appropriate methodologies to answer those questions, and talk about what interpretations of the data we might have after they help me gather data in the field,” he said.

The Harvard College Professorship was launched in 1997 with a gift from John and Frances Loeb. Professors hold the title for five years and receive support for a research fund, summer salary, or semester of paid leave.  

Credit to Nikki Rojas, Harvard Staff Writer for the interview referenced above.