Rate My Professor Benjamin Smith

Professor Benjamin Smith serves as Professor of Archaeology (World Rock Art) in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia. He obtained his BA from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1995. Prior to joining UWA in 2013, he progressed through roles at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, including Research Officer (1997), Post-doctoral Fellow (1997-1999), Lecturer (1999-2003), Senior Lecturer (2003-2009), Associate Professor (2009-2013), and Director of the Rock Art Research Institute (2000-2013). At UWA, he has held positions as Associate Dean – Research Training (2013-2015) and International (2015-2016) for the Faculty of Arts, Associate Dean – Research for the Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Education (2017-2020) and Office of Research (2021), and currently coordinates Honours across all disciplines in the School of Social Sciences. He has supervised 13 PhDs, 6 MPhils, and 24 masters theses to completion, including nine with distinction and one international thesis prize.

Smith's academic interests encompass world rock art studies, African and Australian archaeology, heritage studies, cultural heritage management, archaeological theory, and cultural tourism. He leads major projects such as Celebrating Two Centuries of Chinese Heritage in Western Australia (2023-2025), Life after Digitisation: Future-Proofing WA’s Vulnerable Cultural Heritage (2022-2025), Cosmo-Art for rock art heritage management in southern Africa (2021-2024), and the Murujuga Rock Art Conservation Project (2019-2024). His contributions include serving as President of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee for Rock Art (2014-present), adviser to UNESCO on World Heritage listings, UWA representative on the Australian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (2014-present), and editorial board member for Antiquity and South African Journal of Science. Key publications feature 'Taking Stock: Identifying Khoekhoen Herder Rock Art in Southern Africa' (2004, Current Anthropology), 'Empowering Places: Rock Shelters and Ritual Control in Farmer-Forager Interactions in the Northern Province' (2000, Goodwin Series), 'The First In Situ Raman Spectroscopic Study of San Rock Art in South Africa' (2011, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy), and 'Pundawar Manbur: The Art Sequence of a Major Kwini Rock Art Site in the Kimberley' (2025, Archaeopress). With 648 citations and an h-index of 13, his scholarship profoundly shapes global rock art research and conservation.