ASU professor, former research lab director retires after 20 years

When Michael Smith, professor at Arizona State University's School of Human Evolution and Social Change, read a book the summer after his freshman year of college at Brandeis University about the story of the lost city of Atlantis, he was intrigued.

“(What) resonated with me was the idea that there once existed an advanced civilization on an island called Atlantis. The island sunk into the ocean, and people set off in boats. They landed in what is now Mexico, and became the Mayas and Olmecs,” he recalled. “I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever heard.”

Eager to learn more about the ancient lands in the story, he went to his local public library and checked out a book on the Olmecs and was hooked. Soon after, he started reading about more Mesoamerican cultures such as the Maya, Aztecs and Teotihuacan.

“I soon realized that the Atlantis story was nonsense, but I was hooked on Mesoamerican archaeology,” said Smith.

When he got back to Brandeis University in the fall, he sought out archaeologists working in Mesoamerica and started taking classes in anthropology with George Cowgill, who taught at Brandeis between 1962 and 1990 before joining ASU. Cowgill eventually had Smith start working on his Teotihuacan research, which included spending the summer before his senior year on two projects in Mexico.  

“I fell in love with Mexico that summer — with the archaeology, the people, the food, the music,” said Smith. “I have traveled to Mexico 45 of the 52 years since that summer of 1974.”

After graduating, Smith went on to receive his PhD in anthropology and married his fellow PhD classmate, Cindy. Nearly all of Smith’s trips to Mexico involved his entire family: Cindy, Smith and their two daughters. While in Mexico, Smith and his wife excavated houses at Aztec sites to learn about the lives and conditions of Aztec people, ultimately publishing many books and articles on this fieldwork. 

Before joining ASU, Smith held academic positions at Loyola University of Chicago and the University at Albany. Later on, when Smith’s former professor, Cowgill, retired from teaching at ASU in 2005, Smith applied for the job and was hired as a professor at the newly minted School of Human Evolution and Social Change.

“So, I replaced my former undergraduate professor at ASU! This was one of the cool things of my career,” said Smith. 

He said he was attracted to ASU because it had the best archaeology program in the country. 

“ASU archaeologists did a lot of fieldwork, addressing important questions, and they took a scientific approach to the past. They were particularly clever at finding ways to get at important anthropological and social-science phenomena using archaeological data … (and) using quantitative methods to test hypotheses,” said Smith.

While at ASU, Smith became involved with the Teotihuacan Research Laboratory. In 2015, he took over as director, serving for 10 years until 2025. He described this as a professional detour away from his Aztec studies, but great for his urban interests. The lab experienced multiple breakthroughs under Smith’s tenure as director, one being the digitization of the published map of Teotihuacan, which led to a greater understanding of the ancient city. 

Smith recounted how one important finding came from a student working at the lab as part of the school’s Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP).

“Teotihuacan housing consisted of large single-story apartment buildings, and no one had figured out how many households fit into those buildings,” said Smith. “An anthropology major who was an electrical engineer with Intel in Phoenix was looking for a project with the RAP program, so I asked if he could use the maps of rooms to figure out how many households lived in each building. He said it was a simple network problem and proceeded to work out a clear procedure for mapping households onto rooms. This was a real breakthrough in understanding Teotihuacan housing. It allowed us to make the first rigorous population estimate for Teotihuacan — 100,000 people in 500 C.E.”

“I particularly like to find students who have a particular skill or interest and connect them with a project where they can make a research contribution while developing their knowledge and skills,” shared Smith.

Throughout his career, Smith has provided students with meaningful research opportunities, taking students to the field and giving them opportunities to do research on artifacts in Mexico, as well as supervising students on research projects here at ASU.

“Mike’s contributions have had an outsized impact on our school and the students he has taught over the past 20 years,” said Patrick Ryan Williams, professor and director of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. “He has pioneered new ways of thinking about urbanism and the lessons of the past and has introduced new methodological innovations in student research opportunities. In particular, his leadership of the Teotihuacan Lab and the online research apprenticeship program he created have been transformative opportunities for our students. We wish him a happy retirement and note he will continue to lead in research efforts and student engagement as emeritus professor in the school.”

In his retirement, Smith said he will miss interactions with students, although he will continue to work with his final graduate students and undergraduate interns over the next few years, as well as continuing to do research.

As for the rest, Smith is looking forward to traveling to see his grandchildren and spending time hiking in the desert with his wife, Cindy and dog, Kino. And he might even make a return to his musical side, among other adventures.

“I plan to return to the piano and relearn pieces I used to play, from Bach and Chopin to Duke Ellington and Cole Porter,” Smith shared. “I almost majored in music, and I had many years of piano lessons and a few years of classical guitar lessons. And, maybe I will write another book or two.”