Robert Brubaker holds a PhD in Anthropological Archaeology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2004) and an M.S. degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (1992). A South Asianist and a specialist in pre-modern complex societies, his dissertation research examines the interrelated phenomena of militarism, urbanism and inter-polity dynamics in the context of the historically documented 14th to 17th century South Indian Vijayanagara empire.