Rate My Professor Naomi Cleghorn

Dr. Naomi E. Cleghorn serves as Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Texas at Arlington, a position she has held since her promotion in Spring 2016. Prior to this, she was Assistant Professor at the same institution from Spring 2010 to 2016. She also served as Associate Chair and Anthropology Program Director from 2018 to 2023. Cleghorn earned her PhD from Stony Brook University and MA from the University of Texas at Austin. Her extensive career includes postdoctoral appointments as Scholar at the Human Evolution Research Center, University of California Berkeley (October 2008–December 2009), and Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution's Archaeobiology Program (Spring 2008). She was Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at UC Berkeley (Fall 2006–Fall 2007), Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley's Archaeological Research Facility (Summer 2008), and Principal Investigator for zooarchaeological contracts in Berkeley (August 2007–March 2008). Earlier roles encompass graduate research and teaching assistantships at Stony Brook University and the University of Texas at Austin, as well as research assistant positions at the Smithsonian Institution and field experience in archaeology.

Cleghorn's research centers on bioarchaeology, zooarchaeology, human osteology, Old World prehistory and human origins, and the archaeology of Neanderthals and early modern humans within biological anthropology. She directs the Zooarchaeology Laboratory at UTA and investigates early human adaptations to environmental changes. Notable projects include the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain initiative, integrating geophysical, biotic, and anthropological data to model an extinct 85,000 km² ecosystem off South Africa's coast, and the Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1 site (44–18 kya), the only such sequence on South Africa's southern coast, funded by a 2014 Leakey Foundation research grant. Her work at Pinnacle Point sites in South Africa contributed to a Nature publication demonstrating early human thriving amid the Toba super-eruption's volcanic winter. Key publications feature "The Destruction of Skeletal Elements by Carnivores: The Growth of a General Model for Skeletal Element Destruction and Its Application to Contemporary Archaeofaunas" (2006, co-authored with Curtis W. Marean, cited over 64 times) and "Early Humans and Changing Landscapes in the Knysna Region of the Southern Cape" (2021, co-authored with Sarah Wurz). She has taught courses at UTA including ANTH 2307: Introduction to Biological Anthropology, ANTH 2339: Introduction to Archaeology, ANTH 3301: Archaeological Method and Theory, ANTH 3375: Neanderthals and the Ice Age World, ANTH 4358: African Archaeology, and Archaeological Field School. Upon promotion to Associate Professor in 2016, the UTA Libraries presented her with an honorary book. Her scholarship influences understandings of human behavioral ecology and paleoenvironmental responses.