Christopher Thornton

Christopher Thornton is the Senior Director of US and International Programs. He joined ACLS in 2025 after seven years as Director of the Division of Research Programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities, overseeing grants and fellowships in support of academic and public scholarship. While at NEH, he created and led a number of agency-wide programs, including the Humanities Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence initiative and the Native American Boarding School initiative, and forged partnerships with international and domestic entities. Before NEH he served as acting head of the Grants Program at the National Geographic Society in support of science, education, and storytelling. He also led an organizational initiative to combat looting and site destruction as National Geographic’s Senior Director of Cultural Heritage, following four years as Lead Program Officer of grants in the earth and social sciences. Dr. Thornton sits on the scientific board of three international journals, was a member of the U.S. Commission to UNESCO, and is director emeritus of the World Heritage Site of Bat in the Sultanate of Oman. He has published numerous articles in archaeology and anthropology and has edited two volumes: Archaeometallurgy in Global Perspective (Springer, 2014) and The Bronze Age Towers at Bat, Sultanate of Oman (University of Pennsylvania, 2016). An expert in the origins of metallurgy and early complex societies in Iran and Arabia, Dr. Thornton holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.Phil. in archaeology from the University of Cambridge, and an A.B. in archaeology and archaeometry from Harvard University.