New Associate Dean for the College of Sciences
Dean Michael Johnson is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Arlen Chase as Associate Dean in the College of Sciences.
Dr. Arlen Chase is currently a Professor of Anthropology, specializing in anthropological archaeology, and has served as Department Chair for the Department of Anthropology since 2007. He previously served as Interim Department Chair of Anthropology in 2006 when Anthropology & Sociology became independent departments within the newly formed COS. Dr. Chase received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983. He came to UCF initially as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology in 1984. Dr. Chase served as Assistant Dean and Research Associate at the University of Penn prior to coming to UCF. He is the recipient of many honors and awards including being named as a UCF Pegasus Professor in 2007. He has served as a member of the Florida BOG and UCF BOT and is the recipient of 2 UCF TIP and 2 RIA awards. Dr. Chase is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His long-standing research program in Belize investigating the Maya civilization there is world renown.
His research interests focus on archaeological method and theory in the Maya area with particular emphasis on contextual, settlement, and ceramic analysis and secondary interests on urbanism, ethnicity, and epigraphic interpretation. He has been at UCF since 1984 and has taught: Archaeology and the Rise of Human Culture, Mesoamerican Archaeology, Archaeological Method and Theory, The Ancient Maya, Maya Hieroglyphic Writing, and field courses in Belize. For the last two decades, he has co-directed excavations at Caracol, Belize; before that he worked on a seven year project at Santa Rita Corozal in the same country. He has authored over 100 publications as well as The Lowland Maya Postclassic (1985; edited with P.M. Rice), Investigations at the Classic Maya City of Caracol Belize: 1985-1987 (1987; with D.Z. Chase), A Postclassic Perspective: Excavations at the Maya Site of Santa Rita Corozal, Belize (1988; with D.Z. Chase), Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment (1992; with D.Z. Chase), and Studies in the Archaeology of Caracol, Belize (1994; edited with D.Z. Chase). He is currently working on a book, being co-authored with D.Z. Chase, called Maya Archaeology: Reconstructing an Ancient Civilization. With D.Z. Chase, he also serves as the Maya Studies Series Editor for the University Press of Florida.
Visit the Caracol website.
Dr. Chase will begin his new role as Associate Dean by taking on some duties focused in the Undergraduate support area as well as being the college point person for faculty qualifications review and the regional campus liaison.