Phil Trella is Associate Vice Provost and Director of the UVA Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs. His academic research interests are in the development and disintegration of complex, state-level societies, and long-term sociocultural dynamics. His archaeological work has centered on the ancient Near East and northern Mesopotamia, specifically southeastern Turkey and northern Syria where he has studied ancient food production systems, long-term environmental change, and the so-called collapse of some of the world’s first states at the end of the Early Bronze Age (ca. 2200 BCE). Phil has also conducted field research in Europe, northern Finland, and North America, and enjoys teaching a variety of courses in archaeology and anthropology. Prior to leading the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs, he engaged in postdoctoral work in digital humanities and social sciences with the Sciences Humanities and Arts Network of Technological Initiatives (SHANTI) at UVA.