Smithsonian Journeys Experts

Alexia Smith, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut, specializes in archaeology, ancient plant use, and the archaeology of Mesopotamia. She has worked on multiple excavations in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Armenia and has conducted agricultural research in Malaysia. She has also lived in Spain, where she taught English, and Austria. Her research focuses on early agriculture and how people adapted to climate change in the past, but more recently, she has become fascinated with the cultural history of food. She is now working on a book detailing the cultural rise of bread. She is a former Fulbright Scholar, has published numerous articles in prominent journals, has received funding from the National Science Foundation to further her research and teaching, and has received university awards for her advising. Alexia has formal academic training in Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Irrigation Engineering, African Studies, and Anthropology. Alexia received her Ph.D. in Archaeology from Boston University and teaches courses on Great Discoveries in Archaeology across the globe, ancient plant use in antiquity, Ecological Anthropology, and Early Civilizations.