Reed Goodman

Assistant Professor of Environmental Social Science
Forestry and Environmental Conservation Department, Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science

Office: Room 206, Baruch Institute
Phone: 843-546-1013

Email: rcgoodm@clemson.edu
Personal Website: https://geoarches.com/

Educational Background

Ph.D. Archaeology
University of Pennsylvania 2023

M.A. Anthropology
The Pennsylvania State University

B.A. English and Classics
SUNY Buffalo

Profile

I am a geoarchaeologist and historical ecologist who studies how people have shaped, inhabited, and adapted to changing environments. My research focuses on wetlands, rivers, deltas, and coastlines, where the movement of water and sediment is closely bound to the histories of settlement, subsistence, and land management. I combine archaeological fieldwork and sediment analysis with historical records and environmental observations to investigate these relationships and their consequences for conservation and restoration.

I lead GeoArches at Clemson University’s Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science and also work with the Lagash Archaeological Project in southern Iraq. As a National Geographic Explorer, I investigate how the histories of South Carolina’s coastal landscapes can inform their future stewardship.

Research Interests

My research connects the long-term study of human–environment relationships with contemporary questions about ecological change, land management, and conservation. I am particularly interested in how environmental knowledge, institutions, and material practices shape landscapes, and how the effects of past interventions continue to influence ecological processes.

In South Carolina, I study former tidal rice fields and associated wetlands in the Winyah Bay region, including Hobcaw Barony. Sediment cores, historical maps, archaeological survey, and environmental monitoring help reconstruct changes in water management, sediment accumulation, soils, and vegetation. These records allow us to examine how cultivation, maintenance, and abandonment have shaped present conditions and the possibilities for restoration. My National Geographic-supported project, Reading Between the Tides: Hobcaw Barony and the Historical Ecology of Estuarine Futures, connects this work with community knowledge and Rights of Nature approaches to environmental governance.

In southern Iraq, I investigate the changing deltaic environments in which early Mesopotamian cities developed. At Lagash, our research examines relationships among waterways, settlement, agriculture, and urban organization. By bringing sedimentary evidence into conversation with archaeological and historical records, we ask how people lived with environmental variability and how their interventions altered the landscapes on which they depended.

I welcome inquiries from prospective graduate students interested in geoarchaeology, historical ecology, coastal and wetland environments, and related questions of conservation and environmental social science.

Lab Members

Caleb Yon — Ph.D. student, Forest Resources; entered 2026; primary advisor.
Samuel Reade Ward — M.S. student, Forest Resources; expected graduation spring 2028; co-advisor with Skip Van Bloem.

Extension and Outreach

My outreach connects archaeological and environmental research with the communities and institutions involved in coastal stewardship. Through Reading Between the Tides and related work at Hobcaw Barony, I work to bring Indigenous, descendant, and local knowledge into conversations with conservation practitioners and land managers. This work explores how environmental histories and community knowledge can inform restoration and Rights of Nature approaches to governance. I also organized the 2026 Hobcaw Symposium (Ecology, Heritage, and Coastal Futures), bringing these conversations into a shared forum.

Publications

Goodman, R. (2026). Entre fleuve et mer : les marées et les premières villes en Mésopotamie. In L’Eau primordiale : Leçons de Mésopotamie, pp. 88–89. Paris: Musée du Louvre / Lienart Éditions.
https://www.lienarteditions.com/product-page/l-eau-primordiale-le%C3%A7ons-de-m%C3%A9sopotamie

Goodman, R., Giosan, L., Shen, Z., Zimmerman, P., Lang, A., Constantinescu, S., Pizzimenti, S., Alrawi, Z., and Pittman, H. (2025). The Flooding of Lagash (Iraq): Evidence for Urban Destruction Under Lugalzagesi, the King of Uruk and Umma. Geoarchaeology 40(5), e70027.
https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.70027

Giosan, L., and Goodman, R. (2025). Morphodynamic Foundations of Sumer. PLOS ONE 20(8), e0329084.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329084

Goodman, R., and Giosan, L. (2025). The Deltaic Origins of a Mesopotamian City-State. In L. Romano (ed.), Sumer and the Sea: Deltas, Shoreline, and Urban Water Management in 3rd Millennium Mesopotamia. ARATTA 3. Turnhout: Brepols.
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.ARATTA-EB.5.142375

Goodman, R. (2024). Woolley’s flood mud: a high-resolution proxy for the ecological context of Ur’s first inhabitants. In J. N. Postgate and D. C. Thomas (eds.), Ur 1922–2022: Papers marking the centenary of Sir Leonard Woolley’s first season of excavations at Ur, pp. 19–34. London: British Institute for the Study of Iraq.
https://www.bisi.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/Ur.pdf

Further research and publications: https://geoarches.com/

Links