Professor M. Kathryn Brown honored with Binford Family Award

While a graduate student at Southern Methodist University, Brown studied under Lewis Binford, the acclaimed archaeologist for whom the award is named. This connection with Binford has made the award all the more personal for Brown.

"This award is particularly impactful, as Lewis Binford served as an informal mentor to me while I was in graduate school," Brown said. "Binford was a very important figure in the discipline of archaeology and I feel most fortunate to have had the opportunity to take several classes from him and to learn the importance of using scientific reasoning in archaeology. In all the courses that I teach today, I emphasize scientific reasoning and critical thinking skills."

Providing students with critical thinking tools is a passion for Brown. She has developed a full undergraduate course on that topic, which is open to all students regardless of major and without prerequisites. Brown encourages students from colleges outside of COLFA to sign up for the course.

"I teach a course called 'Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries in Archeology' that teaches students how to critically evaluate the information that comes to them daily from the news, TV, YouTube, friends, relatives and social media," Brown said. "Using scientific reasoning, we critically evaluate and debunk numerous pseudoscientific claims about human society in the past. This course provides students with important critical thinking skills, essentially tools that they can use in their lives even if they are not planning to become professional archaeologists."

In addition to providing a quality experience for undergraduate students, Brown is hopeful that the award and her dedication to teaching outcomes will help attract high quality master's and doctoral candidates to apply for UTSA's anthropology graduate programs.