Professor Kidder’s research applies archaeology and geology to the study of how human populations have adapted to climate and environmental change.
Kidder has two main interests: First, what causes people to arrange themselves through time into increasingly complex forms of social organization? And second, how do climate and environment shape human societies through time. Related to this, he is especially interested in the Anthropocene concept, which argues that humans have come to rival nature as a force shaping the earth. His work therefore explores how, when, and to what extent humans have changed climates and especially their environments. With graduate students and collaborators Kidder explore these and related issues through several different projects in the eastern United States, in Central Asia, and in China.
Much of their work is focused in the realm of geoarchaeology and landscape archaeology. His own work emphasizes geomorphology in large river systems and the relationships between climate change, river responses, landscape change, and human cultures. He also uses geoarchaeological methods to study mound building. His lab group is interested in the complex interplay between climate, geology, history, and human agency, which lets us fit much of our research into the frameworks of landscape archaeology, environmental archaeology, and historical ecology. As part of this work his research group conducts studies of the evolution and chronology of the Holocene Mississippi and Yellow Rivers using archaeological and geoarchaeological data.
His lab also does research on issues associated with "complexity." This takes two main forms. One, they are doing research on issues of hunter-gatherer complexity, especially at Poverty Point in Louisiana and Jaketown in Mississippi. The questions here are: what is the interplay of structure and practice in these societies that allowed them to create elaborate monumental earthworks or massive long-distance trade networks while lacking outward signs of hierarchy or stratification? A second area of interest is the construction of earthworks as materialized evidence of social organization and complexity. Work at Poverty Point and Jaketown is important but efforts at Cahokia and elsewhere are critical too.
Videos
Podcasts
Earth’s Future: Causes and Consequences of Climate Change
Prehistoric Climate Change at Poverty Point with TR Kidder
Digging Deep to Discover Clues on How Early Humans Interacted with the Environment
MichMash Podcast
