Rate My Professor Anne Ford

Associate Professor Anne Ford is Head of Programme for Archaeology at the University of Otago, in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities Division. Her research interests are the archaeology of Aboriginal Australia, Papua New Guinea, Neolithic and Bronze Age China, trade and exchange, lithic technology, sourcing studies, modern human migrations and behaviour, and settlement patterns and colonisation studies. As a lithic specialist, she investigates stone tool production, distribution, and adaptations in prehistoric contexts across the Pacific and Asia. She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses including ANTH 106: Human Origins and Civilisations, ANTH 203: Asian Archaeology, and ANTH 405/505: Archaeological Excavation.

Ford completed her Doctor of Philosophy in Archaeology at the University of Otago with the thesis "Learning the Lithic Landscape in the Ivane Valley, Papua New Guinea". She began her academic career at Otago as a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology in February 2013, advancing to Associate Professor. Notable publications include "Stone Tool Production-Distribution Systems at Huizui, China" (2009), "Learning the lithic landscape: using raw material sources to investigate Pleistocene colonisation in the Ivane Valley, Papua New Guinea" (2011), "Human Adaptation and Plant Use in Highland New Guinea 49,000 to 44,000 Years Ago" (2010), "Emergence of a Neolithic in highland New Guinea by 5000 to 4000 years ago" (2020, co-authored, Science Advances), "From shells to cuscus: Reevaluating Turbo argyrostoma exploitation at Matenkupkum during the late Pleistocene" (2026, Quaternary Science Reviews), "Obsidian distribution during middle and late Lapita" (2026, book chapter), and "Gone batty: A newly adapted morphological methodology for bat cranial remains within an archaeological setting" (2025). Ford is part of the editorial team for the Journal of Lithic Studies. Her research has been cited over 850 times.