Miriam STARK

Research areas and topics

Research Focus:

early state formation, landscape archaeology, archaeology of urbanism

Interest in Synthesis

I am one of a handful of anthropological archaeologists who work in Southeast Asia on political economy and state formation and have worked in the region longer than any US-based archaeologist. I am often called on as the lone Southeast Asianist in any group to issues related to state formation, sustainability, water management, and power, and find that few colleagues working elsewhere are interested in my region unless I can build bridges based on shared thematic interests.  That’s one reason. My other interest in this synthesis stems from having worked on complex societies throughout my career, and having witnessed a series of shifting conceptual paradigms. I would like to see where this collective takes the field next.

Collaboration Interests

I’d love to work collaboratively on a series of topics, including (but not limited to) methodological and theoretical aspects of premodern urbanization, political economy, and emergent notions of a shared state ideology.