Mitch Hendrickson, PhD
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
Director, Industries of Angkor Project; Co-Director, Two Buddhist Towers Project; Co-Director, Iron and Angkor Project
Anthropology, Archaeology
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Contact
Building & Room:
BSB 2138C
Address:
1007 W. Harrison Street
Office Phone:
Email:
CV Download:
About
I am a landscape archaeologist interested in the dynamics of transportation networks, technological interaction, state expansion and Buddhist religion. My work on the Angkorian Khmer Empire in modern day Cambodia is focussed on the complex interaction between road systems and pyrotechnologies using a range of multi-scalar data sets. Over the past decade, my Industries of Angkor Project has sought to address what role regional centers played in the rise of medieval states through an intensive study of iron technology, craft production and political change. The collaboration with Dr. Stéphanie Leroy at CNRS and numerous international specialists is aimed at generating a holistic, multiscalar approach to answer the question of whether access to iron acted as a catalyst in Angkor's major expansions between the 11th and 13th centuries. My second project, The Two Buddhist Towers, also includes a range of leading international scholars focussed on documenting evidence of the transition from Mahayana to Theravada Buddhism at the Angkorian site of Preah Khan of Kompong Svay. In addition to the problem of viewing religious change in the material record we are also evaluating shifts in urban settlement patterns and craft production at what was the largest regional center built by the Angkorian Khmer. Here in Illinois, I am also co-founder of the Tallgrass Prairie Archaeological Landscape Project with Dr. Bill Parkinson and Jamie Kelly from the Field Museum. This ongoing project examines long-term settlement patterns and practices across the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.
Education
PhD in Archaeology from University of Sydney, 2007
MA in Archaeology form University of Calgary, 2001
BA with Honours in Archaeology from University of Calgary, 1995
Research Currently in Progress