BIO

Dr. Murtha holds a joint appointment with the College of Design, Construction and Planning and the Center for Latin American Studies. He is an anthropologist, landscape archaeologist and design educator with over twenty years of research studying settlement patterns and landscape history in the lowlands of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. He is a founding faculty member of the Florida Institute of Built Environment Resilience and his research investigates the coupled natural human systems dynamics of settlement and land use, relying on advanced geospatial tools. Dr. Murtha studied at the University of Central Florida, before completing his MA and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the Pennsylvania State University. For thirteen years, Dr. Murtha taught in the Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, recently directing the Hamer Center for Community Design (2014 – 2017). Dr. Murtha has conducted sponsored interdisciplinary research in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, as well as participating in research in Northern Europe and North America.