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Vernon L. Scarborough

Vernon L. Scarborough is the Distinguished University Research Professor and Charles Phelps Taft Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Cincinnati. His work emphasizes sustainability and global water systems. By examining past engineered landscapes, he addresses both ancient and present societal issues from a comparative ecological and transdisciplinary perspective. Geographically, his published work has included studies about the U.S. Southwest, Belize, Guatemala, Indonesia, Greece, Pakistan, and Sudan. He has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, Alphawood Foundation, Taft Foundation, Wenner-Gren Foundation and the School of Advanced Research.

In addition to editing Water and Humanity: A Historical Oveview for UNESCO, a major initiative of over 40 lengthy chapters (2013), he participates in cross-disciplinary exchanges including international invitational workshops such as those sponsored by the International Hydrological Programme (IHP, Delft), the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Tokyo), Man and the Biosphere (UNESCO—Paris), the Foundation for the Future (Seattle), the Santa Fe Institute, the School for Advanced Research (Santa Fe), and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. As a steering committee member and invited participant at IHOPE’s (Integrated History for the Future of the People of Earth—an effort of the IGBP—International Geosphere and Biosphere Programme, Stockholm), he leads the IHOPE-Maya initiative. He is a Senior Editor for WIREs Water Journal (Wiley-Blackwell) and a Series Editor for New Directions in Sustainability and Society (Cambridge University Press). He has published seven books—including five edited volumes (three more in press)--and over ninety book chapters and journal articles, the latter inclusive of Science, PNAS, and American Antiquity.

He is committed to engaging students in the research process and its relevance to contemporary societal challenges.

Prof. Scarborough was elected as Taft Professor in the winter of 2009, following the retirement of Barbara Ramusack, Charles Phelps Taft Professor of History and former Taft Faculty Chair (1994-1998).

For more about Dr. Scarborough, see his UC Research by clicking on this sentence, or visiting https://researchdirectory.uc.edu/p/scarbovl