Smithsonian Journeys Experts

Paul Goldstein is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. His teaching and research focus on anthropological archaeology, complex societies, and climate and culture change in Latin America, and Andean South America.

Paul's recent research involves the study of how the Tiwanaku civilization, the earliest state level polity that emerged in the important Lake Titicaca region of the southern Andes, expanded (ca. 350-1000 CE), setting many patterns for the subsequent rise of the Inca empire.

He has directed multiple field archaeology projects and received a variety of funding for research in Peru, Chile and Ecuador, including grants from the National Science Foundation, Wenner-Gren, Fulbright, Heinz,  Tinker and Mellon Foundation. Paul is Vice President of the Institute for Andean Studies and has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards including the Dumbarton Oaks Fellowship in Pre-Columbian Studies and has held several positions at Dartmouth College, Museo Contisuyo, Peru; American Museum of Natural History, New York; Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; and Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago.