People

Kathryn Weedman Arthur

Professor

Contact

Office: Davis 238 (St. Petersburg Campus Davis Hall, SW stairwell through Reception 287 doors)
Lab: Davis 276 (St. Petersburg Campus Dall Hall next to Reception 287)
email: kjarthur@usf.edu 
phone: O: 727-873-4858/ L: 727-873-4522

• K. Arthur’s Homepage
• Gamo Heritage

Education

PhD, Anthropology, University of Florida-Gainesville
MA, Anthropology, University of Texas Austin
BA, Anthropology, University of Texas Austin

Teaching

Cultural Anthropology
Methods in Cultural Anthropology
Archaeology of Africa
Peoples of Africa
History & Archaeology of the African Diaspora

Research Topics

Community Archaeology, Heritage and Landscapes, Ethnoarchaeology, Material Culture Studies, Ontologies, Stone Tool Technology, Africa, Social Construction of Race and Gender

Bio

Kathryn Weedman Arthur is an accomplished archeologist whose work focuses on community archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, gender, stone tool technology and heritage studies in Africa. Since 1996, she has collaborated with Boreda-Gamo people living in southern Ethiopia to assist with the documentation of their sacred forested landscapes and their technologies. Arthur is the recipient of grants from the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Fulbright Program and others.

Arthur, along with her husband anthropology professor John Arthur, made a once-in-a-lifetime discovery of the first complete ancient African genome in Mota Cave in the Ethiopian Gamo highlands. Her co-authored article on the finding was published in the journal “Science” and earned media coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post and other media outlets. Arthur is one of the co-founders of the journal “Ethnoarchaeology” with Taylor and Francis press. Her research and writing have earned her the prestigious Gordon R. Willey Prize and Exemplary Cross-Fields Scholarship, two national awards from the American Anthropological Association. Arthur’s authored publications include “The Lives of Stone Tools: Crafting the Status, Skill, and Identity of Flintknappers” and “Feminine Knowledge Reconsidered: Women and Flaked Stone Tools.” She co-produced the film  “Woman the Tool Maker” and edited the book “Gender and Hide Production.”

Arthur teaches undergraduate courses in cultural anthropology, methods in anthropological research, community archaeology, African cultures and more. She is the founding faculty advisor for the Anthropology Lambda Alpha Honors Society and has served as advisor for the Women’s Empowerment Club and Students for a Democratic Society Club.