Professor Susan Pfeiffer of the Department of Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts & Science has been honoured with the 2018 JJ Berry Smith Doctoral Supervision Award, which recognizes outstanding performance in the multiple roles associated with doctoral supervision.
A strong advocate for graduate students, Pfeiffer has supervised 12 PhDs and 21 Master’s students since joining the anthropology department in 1999.
In the words of her former students, “Susan has had a profound impact on her advisees by fostering a strong, collaborative and challenging academic community; setting high standards and pushing [her students] to address important questions; and demonstrating impeccable ethics in a field fraught with political implications.”
In addition to teaching, Pfeiffer also contributed to the success of graduate education at U of T by serving as the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Vice-Provost for Graduate Education from 2004 to 2009. She previously served as the Vice-Dean, Graduate Education and Research in the Faculty of Arts & Science from 2003 to 2004.
Specializing in reconstructing the conditions of past human lives from characteristics of bones and teeth, Pfeiffer has also made invaluable contributions to her field. In 2016, she became the first woman to be awarded the J. Norman Emerson Silver Medal from the Ontario Archaeological Society, recognizing her contribution to Ontario archaeology. She is an Honorary Research Associate of the Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, South Africa, and has recently been named a Research Professor in the Center for Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
Pfeiffer and Dr. Ori Rotstein of the Institute of Medical Science were presented with the JJ Berry Smith Doctoral Supervision Award at the School of Graduate Studies Awards and Fellowships Reception on May 29.