Rate My Professor Robert Simpkins

Robert Simpkins serves as Professor of Anthropology in the Social Science Division at Porterville College. He earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011 with a dissertation titled "The Road to Golconda: European Travelers' Routes, Political Organization and Archaeology in the Golconda Kingdom (1518-1687)." He also holds an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.A. from San Jose State University. An archaeologist with field experience in Old and New World civilizations, Simpkins specializes in the civilizations of South Asia. His research interests encompass trade networks, monumental architecture, political organization, religious traditions, and cultural landscapes. During his graduate studies, he participated in excavations at Harappa, Pakistan, a major center of the Indus Valley Civilization, and conducted research on architecture and road networks in the Golconda Kingdom of South India. Earlier in his career, from 1994 to 1999, he worked as an Archaeological Assistant in the Office of the State Archaeologist for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. From 2004 to 2009, he served as President of the Santa Clara County Archaeological Society.

At Porterville College, Simpkins has taken on significant leadership roles, including Academic Senate President and Past President, Guided Pathways Faculty Lead, and service on committees such as the Curriculum Committee, Staff Development Committee, and Guided Pathways Committee. His scholarly contributions include peer-reviewed publications such as "Inferring Road Networks and Socio-Political Change through Elite Monuments of the Golconda Kingdom" in South Asian Studies (2019), "The Golconda Highway in Telangana: Forgotten Places and Future Opportunities for Heritage and Tourism" (2019), "An Archaeology of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in Golconda" (2016), and "Golconda's Mosques and Tombs: Distribution, Chronology and Meaning" in The Visual World of Muslim India (2014). He has also authored book reviews, including those on Ancient Fortifications of the Tamil Country as Recorded in Eighteenth-Century French Plans (2015) and Other Landscapes: Colonialism and the Predicament of Authority in Nineteenth-Century South India (2011), and presented papers at conferences like the 89th Annual SWAA Conference (2018).